NEW YORK – This past week, another new gTLD domain name bit-the-dust when Richemont, the company behind Cartier jewelry and Mont Blanc pens, terminated its fifth dot-brand gTLD. Reading over some backscatter comments on the issue I was enlightened with the below video, from Esther Dyson, former Chairman of the ICANN Board and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who held back very little while she reminded people that she is clearly on record with her negative thoughts and … [Read more...]
World Not Ready to Lose Access to ‘WhoIs’
NEW YORK, NY – There has been so much back and forth about the loss of ‘Who Is’ data that its been difficult to fully keep up on it. The ordinary availability of this critical industry information is expected to cease next month on May 25, 2018 when the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) becomes fully enforceable (it already went into effect this year but there is no recourse till May 25). However, today I received a meaningful update from the Internet Commerce … [Read more...]
The Birth of ICANN: “The Green Paper”
NEW YORK - In 1997, the United States government under then President Clinton began processes to remove its control over the Domain Name System by creating research and dialog on how control of domain names and IP addresses should be handled in the future - by a non-profit organization in the private sector. This resulted in a document which has become known as "The Green Paper" originally named "A Proposal to Improve the Technical Management of Internet Names and … [Read more...]
New gTLD Domain Operator Find.cars Search Service Granted Federal Trademark
PRESS RELEASE: WHY SEARCH WHEN YOU CAN FIND?® trademark encapsulates attitude, effectiveness of the internet’s premiere used car searching service. (COMMACK, NY) Cars Digital Inc., through parent company, Long Island Media, Inc. has announced the successful registration of a federal trademark WHY SEARCH WHEN YOU CAN FIND?® with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its Find.Cars service, establishing the phrase as a catch-all motto that encompasses the spirit … [Read more...]
Behind The Scenes: Sometimes Good Stuff Is Happening That You Should Know About
NEW YORK, NY - Imagine if you had your super premium domain name stolen from you, legally, and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it - and nothing you could have done to prevent it, because you never actually did anything wrong in the first place? Holy Smokes; Sounds Terrible Right? Here is the Scenario. You register a domain name for a unique word or phrase which is not currently in use. There are no current sites using the word, no trademarks on the term, and … [Read more...]
A Look at the Top Performing “Alternative” Top Level Domain; What’s Up with .XYZ?
NEW YORK, NY - It’s now been near two years from when Google’s new parent company Alphabet Inc. decided to launch their new corporate website on the .xyz domain, naming it abc.xyz. It’s also been near two years from when .xyz founder Daniel Negari forecasted that Google’s surprising move would effectively end .Com dominance worldwide. Not much has happened. Aside from the 5.2 million .xyz domain names registered, according to NameStat, it has done nothing but decline since … [Read more...]
Making Their Mark: “Big Brands” Invest Hundreds of Millions on .Dot Alternatives
NEW YORK, NY - Regardless of what your position is on new gTLD domains "Big Brands" are buying in hook, line and sinker while ICANN is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars on new gTLD fees. Each new application cost its applicant $185,000.00 and with it, an annual maintenance fee of $24,000.00 (yearly recurring). This doesn't include potentially hundreds of generic domains that were applied for and went to auction (I didn't count each one [Full statistics here] … [Read more...]
New Google Search Tactic, Search “Box” Optimization, Making The Rounds
Someone introduced me to a new Internet marketing process yesterday which sounded too good to be true; sort of like Search Engine Optimization, nowadays; not realistic unless your budget is very strong. While looking into it some, I found out that it does make sense and people are in-fact using this process called SBO (Search Box Optimization) and it probably works, but it is considered a "Black-hat" tactic intended to "trick" Google into thinking a particular search term is … [Read more...]
Verisign Still Pushing Hard on .Net Domains; Sales Remain Active; New IDN for Korea
NEW YORK, NY - While at NamesCon, I noticed a television commercial for the .net domain extension pushing it as a leading “trusted extension” and touting its long standing history in the domain space; the .net domain name was created on the same day as the .com in January 1985. (I’m pretty sure the video was part of Verisign’s “Uncommonly Timeless” collection of .net marketing pieces - it looked like one of these on YouTube [one is below].) According to Verisign, the … [Read more...]
There’s Pork In That Bill; DNA’s HDI Overreaching with Registry Handling of Copyright Infringement
NEW YORK, NY - The Domain Name Association (DNA), a new non-profit association “supposedly” (I just learned about them) representing the interests of the domain name industry, is suggesting in its “Healthy Domain Initiative” (HDI) four objectives for registry and registrars to participate in voluntary actions which are intended to protect and advance the evolution of the domain name system. Again, I use the word “supposedly” only because I just recently heard of this … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurial Thinkers: Registering Your Own Trademark; Without Hiring a Lawyer
Many business owners and entrepreneurial thinkers would probably like to register a trademark but they think it’s too expensive or that you have to hire a few lawyers to get it done. Not so. Registering your own trademark is fairly easy to do provided you know a little about, well, what you want the trademark to be – That’s it. The process is easier than you might think. Now the office for Trademarks is the same office where you would file a patent, a much more complicated … [Read more...]
Top 15 National Yellow Pages Websites Worth Your Business; Listed by Traffic
The "Yellow Pages" are still very much alive and well, they’re just not big, heavy tree-killing, paper-wasting books anymore. In 1886 when the very first official Yellow Pages Directory was created, the name "Yellow Pages" was actually unintentional; it came into use when a printer ran-out of white paper and yellow paper was used instead. Fast forward 130 years later, the term Yellow Pages was and is still so successful, there seems to be a thousand different “Yellow Pages”. … [Read more...]