WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Wednesday, the United States Justice Department announced it has seized 17 website domains utilized by North Korean information technology (IT) workers to purportedly evade government sanctions, conduct cyberattacks and defraud U.S. businesses, with the millions of dollars in illicit proceeds generated from such activities being used to fund North Korea's weapon development program. The Justice Department confirmed in a statement that the … [Read more...]
Domain History As Google Ranking Factor Highlighted Again in Search Engine Journal
BOCA RATON, FL - The history of domain name can have a decisively significant factor in terms of its Google ranking. If a user owns a domain that is new and has never been used before then they essentially have a clean slate, but if the domain name was previously owned and has changed hands – perhaps even more than once – how it was utilized by its previous owner and/or owners could absolutely have an impact on your ranking going forward. Most people don't pay much … [Read more...]
Early Access to Google’s New Domain Will Require Overwhelm “.ing” Investment
Later this month, Google will be launching a new top level domain name that is sure to attract attention. Known as a “domain hack,” the new “.ing” domain name can be used to spell out clever takes of common phrases to create memorable website names; examples include “Fish.ing,” “Out.ing,” “Engineer.ing,” and “Breed.ing,” among countless others. As with many new gTLDs, there will be A) a sunrise period for trademark holders and then B) an auction-style initial … [Read more...]
Google Ceases Selling New Domains as Transition to Squarespace Continues
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Back in July of this year, Google abruptly announced that it would be ending its Google Domains service after nearly 10 years and would be selling the business and all of its assets to Squarespace, a New York-based website building and hosting company. This month, as the transition from one company to another continues, the soon-to-be-shuttered Google Domains quietly revealed that it has ceased the sale of any new domains going … [Read more...]
Seven Years Later, New gTLD “.Cars” Still Driving Long & Winding Road to Nowhere
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – I recently wanted to see what was going on with the “. Cars” domain name, so I tried visiting a site I thought would probably be one of the best names; “used.cars”…. Not much is going on there; the page just fails to load. Same thing with “used.car”, “new.car” and “new.cars”. A “.cars” domain name costs $2,499 per year to register, renew, or transfer at Dynadot, one of the largest domain name registrars in the world. Same thing with ".Car" which was … [Read more...]
VeriSign Says “.COM” Registrations Up, “NGTLDS” Up, Legacy “.NET” Down
RESTON, VA - VeriSign Inc., a global provider of domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, announced that their total number of Top-Level Domain (TLD) registrations worldwide have reached 356.6 million as of the end of the second quarter of 2023, as per the company’s latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB). Verisign, based out of Reston, Virginia, operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen … [Read more...]
GEO Domain Names, Newspaper & Media Companies, Sales Prices, and Usage
PALM BEACH, FL - The purchase of big city, state and/or regional domain names have always been a strategic move for media companies to control their presence and brand in a particular market. For example, The Boston Globe acquired the domain name “Boston.com” in 1995, The Philadelphia Inquirer acquired the domain name “Philly.com” in 2004, and the McClatchy newspaper chain acquired the domain name "Miami.com" in 2005. Additionally, the Tallahassee Democrat, the only … [Read more...]
Domain Registrar Namecheap Gives Away Half a Million Free .me Domains to Students
PHOENIX, AZ - Namecheap, the Phoenix, Arizona-based domain name registrar and web hosting company originally founded in 2000, recently announced that they have given away a total of 500,000 free .me domain names to students in conjunction with their Namecheap for Education program. The company originally started the program in 2014, which provides students, teachers, and others involved in academia who are located in North America, the United Kingdom, and … [Read more...]
WordPress Offering 100-Year Domain Registration, Hosting Plan for $38,000
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – WordPress – which recently made headlines when they offered up to one million Google Domains customers free transfers to their service after the company's assets were acquired by Squarespace – announced this week a new plan where they will be selling domains with a registration length of 100 years for a one-time payment of $38,000. Known primarily for its content management system that allows users to create simple and easy-to-use … [Read more...]
44,000 Domains Have Taken Up WordPress’ Free Transfer Offer from Google Domains
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - After previously announcing on August 1st that they would be offering free domain transfers for current Google Domains clients following the sale of the company's assets to Squarespace for $180 million, WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg announced that 44,000 customers have taken him up on his offer so far, with many more expected to cross over as well in the near future. Customers of Google Domains – which sold off its assets in June, including … [Read more...]
WordPress Offering 1 Million Google Users Opportunity to Transfer Domains Free
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - One month after Squarespace entered into a deal to purchase Google Domains – which encompasses all of it’s assets, including approximately 10 million domains that are owned by millions of customers – web content management company WordPress has announced they would be offering former Google users free domain transfers for the first million domains that choose to move to their platform for a limited time. Currently, Google Domains customers … [Read more...]
Threat Intelligence Firm Recommends Blocking All .ZIP Domains Due to Phishing
SUNNYVALE, CA - FortiGuard Labs reports that they have discovered many .ZIP domains are responsible for phishing attacks on users by automatically downloading a malicious executable titled “file.exe” to their computers. Phishing attacks have been a thorn in the side of computer users for years due to the fact that they often are able to camouflage themselves as innocuous programs or prompts that seemingly pose no threat, but in reality can cause a great deal of … [Read more...]
Interest Continues In Alternative Domain Name, “.io” By Internet, Tech Firms
PALM BEACH, FL - When it comes to building a successful company, two of the most vital components to first establishing your digital presence – the main way that your customers are most likely to discover you – is to create a website and to choose an appropriate domain name. While the.com extension is by far the most commonly used by companies – and the one most consumers seek – there are a plethora of other extensions available out there to choose from. For the … [Read more...]
Twitter Competitor Bluesky to Start Selling Custom Domains to Remain Ad-Free
SEATTLE, WA - In the shadow of the impending launch of Meta’s new Twitter competitor, Threads, another rival of the microblogging social media platform – Bluesky – announced on Wednesday that it has acquired $8 million in new funding in addition to implementing a new change to their business model- selling custom domains in a bid to keep the service ad-free for its user base. In a blog post, Bluesky noted that they had raised additional seed funding following its … [Read more...]
Expert: Blindly Authorizing Doman Listings Can Cause You to Lose Your Domains
TEMPE, AZ - Recently DomainInvesting.com’s Elliot Silver related a tale of an automated e-mail he received from internet domain registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy, listing several domain names that he owned that are listed for sale on a website called Squadhelp, a website where you can buy and sell domains. Silver had previously listed them on Afternic, but had deleted them in favor of Squadhelp. Side note: I had never heard of Squadhelp before, I'll have to check … [Read more...]