WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has issued a demand to several of the top American internet domain registrars to clamp down on the abuse of their services by Russian disinformation actors who he alleged are attempting to interfere with and influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Warner sent a letter earlier in October to several well-known companies in the web domain registering and hosting … [Read more...]
New Service to Assist with WHOIS Lookups Launched by ICANN for Authorized Users
LOS ANGELES, CA - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the nonprofit organization that oversees the domain industry – has launched a new centralized online service to assist researchers, law enforcement, and others to request personal data from all public domain registration records. This new service comes after ICANN had instructed all registrars in May 2018 to redact personal data – such as a customer’s name, address, phone number … [Read more...]
Website Company Squarespace Enters Agreement to Purchase Google Domains
NEW YORK, NY - New York City-based website building and hosting company Squarespace announced this week that they will be entering into an agreement to purchase Google Domains – a domain name registrar operated by Google that offers domain registration, DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, domain forwarding, and email forwarding – in a deal that includes all of the company's assets, which includes approximately 10 million domains that are owned by millions of … [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...]
Domain Name Registrar Epik Feels It’s Being Deplatformed After PayPal Cuts Ties
SAMMAMISH, WA - After online payments system PayPal stopped offering services to Epik, the domain name registrar company says it’s being targeted on political grounds and not what Paypal has said to be a financial basis. A number of open letters have been posted by Epik responding to the issue, and the company cited that 'service risk' was the reason PayPal gave over the withdrawal of Epik’s support. While PayPal says it regrets the decision and the inconvenience caused … [Read more...]
SEDO: Largest European Registrar to Implement New SedoMLS Brokerage
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Sedo, the world's leading domain marketplace is announcing a newly released feature for registrars they say will “further strengthen the bonds between the primary and secondary markets.” Registrar customers can now get the domains they really want while domain sellers gain increased access to even more buyers. All registrars who are part of the SedoMLS network can now easily expand their integration to include the newly available SedoMLS Brokerage. … [Read more...]
ICANN, PIR, Ethos Capital “Circus” Continues with Yet Another Letter from California AG
PALM BEACH, FL – The trio making a mockery of the definition of “public good” are probably hoping for another worldwide catastrophe to deflect the unwanted attention off their sour deal of transferring the .org registry from a non-profit (PIR) “Public Interest Registry” to a for-profit entity called “Ethos Capital” because the current one just isn’t enough. In a letter dated April 15, 2020, the attorney general of California, Xavier Becerra, has written yet another … [Read more...]
CVS Pharmacy Files WIPO Against “CVS.inc” Domain; Reg Fees Headed Towards Earth
PALM BEACH, FL – It looks like CVS Pharmacy, Inc. isn’t too thrilled with the recent registration of the nGTLD domain name “CVS.inc” which looks to have been registered in May, 2019. The pharmacy company has filed a WIPO dispute (WIPO D2019-2615) which will likely result in a TRANSFER as the majority of their complaints follow that trend. The “CVS.inc” domain name is listed on the get.inc website under “Who's Buying” in the ”recent registrations section” for companies … [Read more...]
Wild West Domains Must Still Be on List of Registrars Which Facilitate Email Spam
PALM BEACH, FL – Way, way, way back in 2009, Brian Krebs from Krebs on Security, a popular security website came up with a list of the top ten domain registrars (highlighted in a Washington Post article) which facilitate the majority of spam via email, and Wild West Domains, owned by GoDaddy held a spot on that list. Out of roughly 900 accredited domain name registrars at the time, spammers registered Web sites advertised in junk e-mail mostly through the following top … [Read more...]
Investor Land Grab Opportunity Arises from Donuts Registry with Reduced Price gTLDs
PALM BEACH, FL –An interesting opportunity has arisen from new domain name registry company Donuts Inc., which operates roughly 240 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Although I am less than a huge fan of new gTLDs, there are industry veterans who do in fact use them in certain scenarios of ‘super premiums’, and you’ll have an opportunity to filter through a list of over 1.1 million names (previously on hold) now being released in a price-drop by the … [Read more...]
LGBT Domain Registration Service, PrideLife LLC, Announces Relationship With Afilias
PALM BEACH, FL - A new domain name registration service is hoping its partnership with Afilias and its "LGBT" theme will help spotlight its business, which caters to the LGBT community and offers domain name registrations such as the new ".lgbt" domain name. The service, PrideLife LLC (getpridelife.lgbt), also suggests other alternative Afilias sponsored gTLDs such as ".red", ".pink", ".black" and others. The .lgbt TLD was delegated by ICANN in 2014 and shows just under … [Read more...]
Epik Domain Name Registrar and Hosting Company Creates “Domain Marketplace”
PALM BEACH, FL - Epik Inc., an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company with its headquarters in Washington, has created what appears to be another reason for domain enthusiasts to register and manage their domain name portfolio with them; a “domain name marketplace”. Currently, domain name investors and enthusiasts have plenty of places to buy and sell domains (too many really) such as large forums, SEDO, Flippa, NameJet, just to name a few. … [Read more...]
Increasing The Cost of Doing Business by $2k/yr Starts Today With .INC Domains
PALM BEACH – Get ready for a whole new batch of opportunity to boost your entrepreneurial spirits as you’re not going to be able to contain your excitement – or keep your wallet in your pocket when I tell you about this new exciting development just announced today by the .INC domain registry. Businesses across the Globe can now increase the cost of doing business by a whopping $2,000 per year simply by registering a new .INC domain name for their business. That’s right, … [Read more...]
Seven Days Remain to State Your Case on Price Cap Removal for Legacy Domains
PALM BEACH – ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and PIR, Public Interest Registry, are considering the removal of current ‘price caps’ on legacy domain extensions such as “.org”, “.biz”, and “.info”; if you have an opinion on them doing so, you have limited time to make your comments and opinions heard as the window for public comment proceedings will close in seven days on April 29, 2019. The current Registry Agreements expire soon and they … [Read more...]
Domain Name Biz Uniregistry Scores on Domain Name “DomainNames.com”
NEW YORK - A few weeks ago at NamesCon Global 2019 one of the industry’s best domain names, in my opinion, was acquired by Uniregistry, the brainchild of founder Frank Schilling, who operates the company from its Cayman Islands headquarters. As many in the domain industry were, Schilling was in attendance and won the highest bid on DomainNames.com for $370,000, one of the largest sales in the live auction. The remainder of domains which were not sold at the live event, … [Read more...]