News
NamesCon calls for submissions for 2020 event
Submit proposals to speak at NamesCon 2020.
NamesCon is taking a new approach for its NamesCon Global 2020 event next year. Not only is it in a new location (Austin), but it is calling it The Domain Economic Forum. Its goal is to expand beyond just the domain topics we’re used to.
It’s also opening up the sessions a bit.
In an email last week, the group noted, “we’re proud of how we partner with our sponsors to create deep and actionable experiences at NamesCon Global”. This alludes to the fact that most sessions are paid sessions, not selected just because of their value to the audience.
But for 2020, it wants to augment this with other sessions. NamesCon just opened a call for session proposals. Organizers want session proposals related to three tracks:
- The economics of the domain name ecosystem – understanding the size and scope of the domain industry as a whole, especially the secondary market.
- Navigating market threats and opportunities – how alternative online presences through marketplaces and social media threaten domains.
- The buyer’s perspective – domain buyers’ stories and case studies
Proposals can be submitted online.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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HugeDomains gets reverse domain name hijacking win
Company opted to file a UDRP instead of paying just $2,695 to buy the domain.
An online crystals seller could have bought a domain for $2,695. Instead, it spent nearly that much to lose a UDRP against the domain.
Domain investment company HugeDomains.com has successfully defended one of its domain names in a cybersquatting dispute, and the company that brought it has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking.
A company that sells rocks and crystals at rockncrystals.com.au filed the dispute.
The company wanted to get RockNCrystals.com when it expired but HugeDomains beat it on the drop. It then tried to buy the domain from HugeDomains for $1,000. The list price was apparently $2,695.
At this point, the Complainant filed a trademark application in the United States and filed the UDRP.
It told the World Intellectual Property Organization that not getting the domain would force it “to effectively kill our company and start a new one.”
The panel was not amused by this silly claim. It pointed out that the Complainant already has a domain it has been using for its site.
I also wonder why the company chose to file a poorly-argued UDRP for $1,500 (it actually paid more because HugeDomains chose a three-personal panel) when it could have bought the domain for only a bit more.
The panel found that the filing was insufficient on all three elements of UDRP and that it filed the case in abuse of the policy.
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Matt Overman on new TLDs – DNW Podcast #253
Why Donuts is repricing many of its premium domains.
This week I talk with Matt Overman, the SVP of sales at Donuts, the company that offers 242 domains in new extensions such as .money and .expert. Matt explains why the company is reducing the price on over 1 million new top level domains that are marked as premium, including moving most of them to non-premium status. He also responds to some of Michael Berkens’ comments about new TLDs and gives examples of how some people are successfully using the domains.
Also: Slofies, Scratch.org settlement scratched, .Music fight, No more .Chrysler, and good news about a website held for ransom.
This week’s sponsor: NameSilo. Use coupon code DNWPod to save $1 on your next domain.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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This WIPO panelist forgot something
Vodacom filed dead-on-arrival case and domain owner said it was an abuse of the policy, but…
A World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panelist has correctly found in favor of the registrant of VideoPlay.com, but he forgot something: to find the Complainant guilty of reverse domain name hijacking.
Vodacom (Pty) Ltd and Vodafone Group PLC filed the dispute against the owner of the domain who registered it in 2001. The earliest Vodafone can show any use of the term Video Play is 2014, according to the decision.
The Complainants tried to make a bad faith argument based on a single link on the site in 2003 pointing to what it says was an illegal download site. That’s a stretch…especially since the Complainant’s Video Play service didn’t exist until a decade later!
The domain registrant alleged that the Complainant “is misusing the UDRP system in an attempt to misappropriate the disputed domain name.”
For some reason, panelist Frederick Abbott did not formally decide on the issue of reverse domain name hijacking despite finding that the case was a bad one:
The Panel understands that Complainant thinks it would be a good idea to own the disputed domain name since it presumably has a commercial value to Complainant. But the Policy is not designed to accord rights to parties that think they have better uses for domain names than existing domain name registrants. Before an enterprise launches a commercial venture, it would be wise to investigate whether a domain name is available, or how much it might cost to purchase from a prior registrant.
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Tina Dam sues over .Music, reveals investment
Dam, who worked on new TLD applications, claims she has been cut out of equity ownership of .Music top level domain.
Former ICANN staffer Tina Dam, who left the non-profit to work with Constantine Roussos on new top level domains, is now suing Roussos and related companies.
Dam claims that she owned half the shares of MYTLD, a company formed with Roussos, which in turn was due to own a portion of DotMusic Ltd through an agreement between the companies.
The lawsuit alleges that Roussos later tried to renegotiate the deal but Dam didn’t sign the updated agreement.
Roussos later claimed that he considered MYTLD inactive and dissolved.
DotMusic ultimately prevailed in the heavyweight battle to get .Music, defeating companies including Amazon and Google.
Dam believes she has been cut out of ownership of some of the DotMusic equity. Her lawsuit (pdf), filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles in July, states 15 causes of action.
The lawsuit also discloses how DotMusic might have managed to stay in the hunt against big companies for so long and ultimately prevail. It includes a signed investment agreement between one of Roussos’ companies and Tudor T & Credit Union Societe. Under the terms of the agreement, Tudor T would invest $5 million in DotMusic for a 10% share in the company, valuing it at $50 million. [Update: Lawyers representing Roussos and the related companies told Domain Name Wire that no investmetns were ever made and the agreement was not fully executed.]
Tudor T also bought a majority interest in DotSong and DotOnline for a combined $5 million, according to the agreement. Other companies won those contention sets.
The DotMusic valuation was based on lofty expectations that many new top level domain applicants had at the time. Roussos forecasted $62 million in revenue from the first year of .Music including over $35 million of sunrise revenue.
Lawyers for Roussons and related entities released the following statement to Domain Name Wire:
Mr. Roussos intends to vigorously defend against the allegations set forth in the complaint. These claims have no merit and we are confident the case will be resolved in our favor.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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11 end user domain name sales at Uniregistry
Here are 11 domains that end users bought through Uniregistry recently.
The creators of the Veggie app for Vegans bought Veggie.com.
Uniregistry is providing its top 20 public sales each week. I reviewed the lists from the past two weeks to find the end user domain sales. I’m sure there are more, but many of the domains have obscured Whois records and don’t resolve to a website yet.
Veggie.com $25,000 – Skanerka sp. z o. o. is a Polish company that offers the Veggie app for vegans. The .com forwards to its website at Veggie.pl.
Paperflow.com $11,000 – Bilagscan is a document scanning technology company. I suspect it is either rebranding or this will be the name of a new product.
GoldenMaple.com $7,000 – The Dubai buyer identifies itself as Golden Maple. The site resolves to a GoDaddy holding page.
Laylo.com $7,000 – The Whois record shows only that the registrant is in California. I’m betting it’s the guy who applied for the Laylo trademark for two (oddly different) classes of service. He owns Laylo.co and Laylo.fm.
ReddingInsurance.com $6,000 – A Boise, Idaho insurance company named after its owner, LeRoy Redding. It forwards to his website EZInsurance.com.
Ondina.com $5,300 – The buyer is technology consulting company Consul S.r.l.. I’m not sure what the domain means to it.
ArmyAnts.com $5,000 – Wooyang Co, Ltd sells petrochemical, power, and fine chemical plant equipment. I’m not sure why it wants this domain.
Accorn.com $5,000 – Accorn is a venture capital group within a company called Spirit Invest.
TheCaribou.com $5,000 – TI Media owns a number of publications. The Caribou might be the next.
FabricByTheYard.com $4,800 – Missouri Quilt Company is forwarding this domain to its website.
WireBasket.com $4,000 – This is an exact match product name for the owners of RackAndShelf.com, a site that sells exactly what its domain suggests.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Chrysler crashes its dot-brand domain names
Company pulls all but one of its dot-brands; other companies join the withdrawing party.
Fiat Chrysler pulls all but one of its dot-brand domain names.
Fiat Chrysler is among the companies dropping many of its dot-brand domain names.
ICANN published 13 more termination notices for top level domain names that match the brands of their owners.
The companies voluntarily decided to terminate their .brand domains. The domains include:
- .Uconnect, .SRT, .Mopar, .Dodge, .Chrysler (Fiat Chrysler)
- .Liasion (Liaison Technologies)
- .Lancome (L’Oreal)
- .Telefonica and .Movistar (Telefonica S.A.)
- .Piaget, .Cartier (Richemont)
- .Warman (Weir Group)
- .Ladbrokes (Ladbrokes International PLC)
Fiat Chrysler still has .jeep, but the only .jeep domain in Google is the obligatory nic.jeep.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Scratch.org settlement breaks down
$20,000 agreement falls through.
A settlement to resolve a dispute over the domain name Scratch.org has fallen apart.
Scratch Foundation, a non-profit created at MIT, filed a cybersquatting lawsuit against the domain name Scratch.org in January.
It was an in rem case against the domain, but Ravi Lahoti responded to the dispute saying that he was the owner of the domain. He also said that he was the original registrant of the domain dating to 1998. (Historical Whois records seem to bear out.)
This was before Scratch Foundation existed, but the group continued with its case. It even issued a subpoena to a domain registrar asking for information on more of Lahoti’s domains. Scratch Foundation is trying to paint a picture of Lahoti as a serial cybersquatter and wants information about his other domains and revenue generated from them.
The catch, as I see it, is that it would be impossible for Scratch Foundation to show that Scratch.org was registered in bad faith since Lahoti registered it well before the non-profit existed. Even if Lahoti has registered other domains in bad faith, it seems a stretch to say that about Scratch.org.
The two parties entered into settlement negotiations in which Lahoti would transfer the domain to Scratch Foundation for $20,000. As part of this, Scratch Foundation dropped discovery related to Lahoti’s other domains.
Now it gets to a he said, she said after the settlement apparently broke down.
Scratch Foundation says the settlement was agreed to and Lahoti broke it. Lahoti says that it was agreed to in principle, but he wasn’t happy with some of the final language and provisions in the agreement.
Following the breakdown, Scratch Foundation is moving forward with its demand for the data about Lahoti’s other domains.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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12 end user domain name sales this week
A German telecom company, scientific staffing company and a group that creates museum exhibits bought domain names.
Sedo’s top public sale this past week was FreeEnglish.com. It also had a .mobi sale. Yes, a .mobi: BTC.mobi sold for $4,995. But neither of these are easily identifiable as end user sales yet, so they don’t make the chart.
As for the end user purchases I could undover, here’s the list. You can view previous lists like this here.
Cuboid.com €10,115 – DPG Deutsche Parken GmbH is a real estate firm in Germany. Maybe Cuboid is a modular housing brand?
Portable.tv $9,999 – This domain name might have been purchased by the Russian propaganda arm RT America. It forwards to the group’s YouTube page.
Bomia.com$9,995 – Bo & Mia is a German telecommunications service provider that uses the domain bo-mia.com. The hyphenless domain forwards to the hyphenated one.
AdvancedInstruments.com $7,995 – Advanced Instruments makes biotech equipment. It uses the domain AIcompanies.com.
Dentinet.com $7,700 – Dental website company Denti.net bought the domain and forwards it to its domain hack .net domain.
Versorgt.de €5,007 – This term translates to “provided” and the domain currently forwards to Priority.de – a German startup consulting firm, Priority AG.
Biofond.com $4,900 – MouseHouse is an advertising firm in the Czech Repubic. This could be for a client.
Scientists.org $4,000 – AmeriCareers guides people through their post-graduate education and then to jobs in science.
BoxFort.com $3,000 – 5 Wits Productions changed its name to Box Fort. It designs cool intallations for museums and amusement parks.
Genom.de €2,350 – This bio-related term is now forwarding to Bundesgesundheitsministerium.de, the Germany Ministry of Health.
Autocartel.com €2,272 – Autocartel is a car photography business based in Texas.
Kumhwa.com $2,000 – Kumhwa.co., Ltd is a construction materials company.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Mailchimp increases price 15%-20% for longtime customers
Even though you’re grandfathered, you’ll still pay more.
Mailchimp changed its pricing model earlier this year. Instead of charging based on how many active subscribers an account has, it included unsubscribed users, too.
Existing customers were grandfathered on legacy plans based on active subscriber counts. But now those prices are going up, too.
Customers received a notice today informing them of the price increase. The increase seems to be about 15%-20%.
My $49.99 per month package increased to $59.99. My $150 package jumped to $174.
Depending on how many unsubscribed users you have, this means the legacy plans could cost more than the new ones. For example, my $174 per month account has 15,000 active subscribers. Accounts with the new audience definition pay $159.00 per month for 15,000 audience members.
In other words, even though these accounts are grandfathered in, they are effectively being charged somewhat for unsubscribed users.
Customers can still get a 10% discount for enabling two-factor authentication on their account.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Notable Web.com aftermarket domain sales from August
A previously-used .org domain leads the way.
Web.com has reported its public aftermarket sales of $2,000 or more for August. Between NameJet and SnapNames, the company sold 76 domains for $2,000 or more, totalling just over $400,000.
The top sale of the month was GrowingPower.org at a whopping $45,999. The price was obviously based on the site’s prior use rather than the domain itself.
Other notable sales include:
Volunteer.org $15,000 – A powerful .org domain but a high price for an investment.
Apatments.com $7,500 – I wonder how much traffic this typo of Apartments gets.
BlueSteel.com $6,750 – A key term from the best modern comedy ever made.
StartAPodcast.com $3,895 – There are a lot of services/courses out there to help people start a podcast.
Here’s the full list:
Domain NameSale PricePlatform growingpower.org45999SnapNames jru.com23100NameJet dr.net21100NameJet fup.com20455NameJet megi.com20000SnapNames volunteer.org15000NameJet betcity.com13907NameJet electrode.com12000NameJet bopo.com10100NameJet scroller.com8766NameJet apatments.com7500NameJet theisozone.com7500NameJet roce.com7250NameJet loansmart.com7150SnapNames techacademy.com6755NameJet bluesteel.com6750SnapNames ztex.com5410NameJet bisous.com5112NameJet inshore.com5020NameJet mercenaries.com4999SnapNames clairmont.com4850NameJet elephant.net4505NameJet thelinks.com4288NameJet musicpublishing.com4129NameJet collegecampus.com4005SnapNames duats.com4000NameJet nextcart.com3933SnapNames startapodcast.com3895SnapNames move.uk3679SnapNames swimnetwork.com3500NameJet italianfoods.com3468NameJet courriel.com3280NameJet webrealty.com3228NameJet appco.com3178NameJet tays.com3150NameJet archerysupplies.com3020NameJet visionworld.com3000NameJet wonderstate.com2895SnapNames 37066.com2822SnapNames prodeathpenalty.com2800NameJet commonsensesolar.com2795SnapNames aleader.com2701NameJet interbev.com2700NameJet onlinerecharge.com2601NameJet worldaffairsjournal.org2600NameJet entelos.com2600NameJet vinhomesreal.com2595SnapNames netscore.com2501NameJet 4media.com2500NameJet neighborhoodkid.com2495SnapNames kgex.com2455SnapNames fashionlabs.com2455NameJet cilio.com2400NameJet 15857.com2300NameJet carsmagazine.com2300NameJet idla.com2260NameJet datametrix.com2222NameJet shenhe.com2210NameJet 82939.com2200NameJet 19975.com2200NameJet babycatalog.com2200NameJet bridgecom.com2109NameJet islandireland.com2100NameJet mermicorn.com2095SnapNames itpays.com2088NameJet betgroup.com2052SnapNames vipeo.com2051NameJet aquasplash.com2050SnapNames xn--p3t50i.com2050SnapNames supergrow.com2016NameJet 17339.com2000NameJet 65337.com2000NameJet 79225.com2000NameJet 69337.com2000NameJet 83229.com2000NameJet 79985.com2000NameJet© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Slofie domains quickly snapped up after iPhone announcement
Slofie.com and Slofies.com registered after Apple coins the term with iPhone 11 launch.
Apple coined the term slofie yesterday and people snapped up the corresponding domains. Photo courtesy Apple.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) introduced the iPhone 11 yesterday, and with it a new term: Slofie.
It’s what the company calls slow-motion selfies. iPhone 11 technology enables you to take these part video, part still shots and you can rest assured that Chris Sheridan will take advantage of it.
Slofie.com and Slofies.com were both available for registration when Apple announced the feature. But not anymore.
People registered Slofie.com through Google Domains and Slofies.com through 1API (Hexonet/CentralNic) yesterday.
Both have protected or obscured Whois records so it’s unclear who registered them. Neither domain resolves to a website at the time of writing.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Sedo adds more options to For Sale Landers
Sedo introduces new backgrounds with options for displaying domain information.
One of Sedo’s new For Sale landers
Sedo (finally) announced sales-only domain landers last month. These landing pages only promote that the domain is for sale rather than showing ads.
Some domainers took issue with the quality of the landers and Sedo has responded.
Today, it announced 12 new variations of its for-sale landers. It’s really three new background colors/images with the ability to customize what information is shown.
For each background, sellers can choose to display:
- Just the sales message
- Information about the seller including location and how long they’ve been active on Sedo
- Information about the domain including the number of offers and traffic
- Both the seller and domain information
Sedo clients can select the landing page option from their parking control panel.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Auto parts company’s domain stolen and held for ransom
Thief stole Florida company’s domain and asked for 10 bitcoin ransom.
A thief stole a domain name from an online auto parts company and demanded 10 bitcoin to get the domain name back.
Florida company XPort Auto Parts, Inc. woke up in the middle of last month to find that its domain name XPortAutoParts.com had been stolen and transferred from GoDaddy to Reg.ru. It received a ransom email stating:
Your domains were taken by me and your empty GoDaddy account was closed. As a result, your business stopped working. Your shop is nothing if you don’t have your trusted domain name.
While you’re reading this EMail, you’re losing orders and AdWords money, cuz I turned off your ECommerce platform on your website as you can see.
You made 400k$ Gross for the past 6 months, so my price of this and all other domains is 10BTC. It’s not a big deal for you, because you [expletive] up and [expletive] up hard…
Ten bitcoin is about $100,000 USD. When XPort Auto Parts got its GoDaddy account back (but not the domain), the thief raised the price to 20 bitcoin.
XPort Auto Parts sued (pdf) in Florida court, and a judge there issued a temporary restraining order (pdf) that requires Reg.ru to transfer the domain back to the victim’s GoDaddy account. If Reg.ru does not compy within 24 hours, .com registry Verisign is ordered to comply.
While the auto parts company will still have to litigate the matter, the legal strategy asking for a temporary restraining order and getting the domain back this quickly is something I haven’t seen in a while. Assuming Verisign views this as a valid court order, this was a shrewd move.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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How Woven.com got its domain name
How Woven acquired Woven.com—and why CEO Tim Campos thought it was so important.
Woven was able to acquire Woven.com to launch is calendar technology.
When it came time to name his new company, former Facebook CIO Tim Campos knew he had to pick the right name. He knew the company needed a name that would help it scale through word-of-mouth, so his preference for the company name was an English word.
He settled on Woven but, of course, Woven.com was taken. The company decided to launch as Woven.app still wanted to acquire the .com. It set up an alert that would let it know if Woven.com was ever listed for sale. As luck would have it, that alert was triggered.
After receiving the alert, Campos considered negotiating directly to acquire the domain name. After all, this wasn’t his first rodeo. He was the CIO of Facebook when the company acquired FB.com for millions of dollars.
Campos knew that hiring a broker could help acquire the domain at a fair price.
“For us to go in and say ‘Hey, the former CIO of Facebook, backed by Battery Ventures, is interested in buying your domain,’ you’re going to get a much different outcome,” he said.
He also knew that a good broker walk the company through the process of securely paying for and getting control of the domain.
Campos talked to Woven’s law firm, Wilson Sonsini, which recommended Woven hire domain broker Marksmen.
When Campos met with Marksmen for the first time, he was impressed with the homework Marksmen did before the meeting. He hired them to go after the domain and they successfully procured the domain for a lot less than the asking price.
Campos justified the domain purchase in a couple of ways. One is that he knew that the domain had value merely as an asset.
“I really had to start thinking about this as an asset,” Campos said. “It’s like I’m buying a house or I’m buying real estate. I’m buying something that will have residual value. In my business, I may create additional value for it. There may be brand recognition and other things that I’m going to put into it. But that’s just like putting improvements on your home.”
A soon as he got in this mindset, it allowed Campos to think differently about the domain’s cost and how to finance it. He ended up paying cash, but he realized he could even take out a loan for the domain because it has value on its own. It would also be easy to justified the cost to his investors.
Woven was able to go to market with Woven.com as its domain rather than Woven.app or an alternative. Campos said this is critical to the company’s success as it grows its userbase organically.
“We grow through word-of-mouth, through people tweeting about us and talking about us, so the address matters,” he explained.
When people hear about the product from someone else, they ask for the product name and go check it out.
“As soon as you start to introduce a trick for the user, like, ‘Oh, it’s getwoven not just woven,’ or its woven.app, or its woven.io, you’re going to lose a percentage of those [prospective users]”, Campos said.
“.Com is where people default,” he added.
Campos believes that if the company were to have used Woven. app, its conversion rates would have be affected.
“But more importantly, traffic would be affected,” he said. “People are much less likely to find us.”
Listen to the complete story on DNW Podcast #252.
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Be careful making bids in the new GoDaddy Investor app
You might inadvertantly place a very high bid.
GoDaddy dropped its new iOS domain Investor app a couple of weeks ago. There aren’t a lot of new features yet, but it was completely rewritten under the hood for some new features coming soon.
There is a cautionary thing to note about the UI.
When you go to a domain name’s bidding screen, you’ll see the current bid price for the domain in the text entry box. You can tap “bid now” to bid that amount. The problem arrises when you want to make a proxy bid.
When you tap your finger in the text entry box, it doesn’t remove the number in the box. Instead, it appends whatever you type to the end of the minimum bid amount. In the example below, the minimum bid amount is $155. I tapped the box to enter $300, but as I typed it made it $155,300:
After I typed the number and tapped outside the box, this is what I saw:
I’ve caught myself several times before hitting the bid button, and I suspect someone (maybe even me) will accidentally submit a much higher bid than planned.
Although I no longer have the old app, I believe it removed the bid amount when you tapped in the text box. This is standard behavior for a number entry field like this.
I let GoDaddy know about this but think it’s worth a warning while it makes a change to its app.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Upgrading GoDaddy two-factor authentication to a physical key
It’s a lot faster to log in with a physical key.
A physical security key, like this one from Yubi, is more secure and also faster to use.
At NamesCon in January, GoDaddy promoted the ability to use physical security keys that use the FIDO U2F standard for two-factor authentication.
I already use a key for Google, so this was interesting to me. Not only is this more secure, but it’s much faster to use than an app-based two-factor code.
Before switching to a physical key with GoDaddy, here’s what my login process looked like:
1. Access GoDaddy
2. Damn, I’ve timed out. Need to log in again
3. Locate my phone (I left it upstairs again!) and open authenticator app
4. Type code from app into my laptop browser window
Using a physical key is much easier. After entering my login credentials, all I have to do is touch the blue Yubi key inserted in my laptop (see picture above) rather than find my phone, opening the app, and typing the six-digit code. (You can also use Bluetooth keys.)
Until GoDaddy released its new iOS Investor app, you couldn’t use a physical security key to log in on GoDaddy.com and then use app-based login on the app. The new app fixes this problem. Just set up app-based as your backup two-factor login.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Buying Woven.com with Tim Campos – DNW Podcast #252
How this startup acquired its ideal domain name.
Woven CEO Tim Campos comes on the show this week to talk about his company acquiring the domain name Woven.com. Campos is the former CIO of Facebook and is internet savvy, but he still found immense value in hiring a broker to acquire the domain. He discusses the importance of getting a good .com domain name for his business and why he thought it was worth the money.
Also: A big legal bill, Destruction.com, and Google connects with Domain Connect.
This week’s sponsor: NameSilo. Use coupon code DNWPod to save $1 on your next domain.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
August’s top news and podcasts
Here are the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month, ranked by views:
1. Turmoil in the SSL market – After propping them up, browser makers are dealing a big blow to SSL certificate sellers.
2. Epik CEO Rob Monster statement on 8chan – Rob Monster and Epik were in the spotlight again last month after 8chan moved its domain to the registrar. It will allow the domain to stay, but not use its other services after its upstream provider cut it off.
3. This is a dirty way to use an expired domain – A double amputee’s domain expired. Someone bought it and turned it into a gambling site with a new logo matching the guy’s name.
4. Scott Wagner leaving GoDaddy for health reasons, new CEO from Expedia named – It’s the end of an era at GoDaddy. Aman Bhutani will take over as CEO.
5. Huh. Guy wants to trademark “Premium Domain” – This trademark application isn’t going anywhere.
Here are the four podcasts from the month:
#250 – I speak with Mitch Stoltz about EFF’s concerns about the new .org contract. Listen
#249 – Jeffrey Black’s attorney, Mike Rodenbaugh, discusses the expensive battle to defend IMI.com. Listen
#248 – I chat with Radix CEO Sandeep Ramchandani about the state of new TLDs and his company. Listen
#247 – New Sedo CEO Matthias Conrad explains what his company does well and how it can improve, plus his early impressions of the domain aftermarket. Listen
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
It cost $480,843 to defend IMI.com
Costs of defending domain name in jury trial add up.
Jeffrey Black successfully defended his domain name IMI.com in court, but it cost a lot of money.
A filing by Black’s attorney reveals that the total billings to date are $480,843.
Black is asking the court (pdf) to force Irving Materials, the company that filed a UDRP against the domain, to pay the costs.
His attorney, Mike Rodenbaugh, outlined the saga in DNW Podcast #249. I’ve been following the case since a UDRP panelist awarded the domain to Irving Materials.
Black wasn’t aware of the UDRP case and was forced to turn to the courts to defend his domain name from the transfer. He won a jury trial, but at great monetary cost.
In addition to the legal costs, Black says he lost a venture funding deal because of the lawsuit.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
