« May 2006 | Main | July 2006 »

Would You Pay $29K for CondoleezaRice.com?

The Hill has an excellent analysis of domain names tied to the 2008 presidential campaign, which have been targeted by speculators. "Many of the political domain names have been bought as investments with the intention of being sold to the potential presidential campaigns," notes The Hill's Kelly McCormack. "Other buyers acquired the Web addresses to post endorsements or bash the presidential hopefuls. Either way, the cyberbrigade has hit almost all the presidential hopefuls."

A bunch of 2008-related names are being for sale through a Blogger site titled Political Domain World, which touts names including condoleezzarice08.com and johnmccain08.net.

Read More

  Posted by RichM June 21, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 14, 2006

What's a domain worth? It's difficult to sort out the value of a particular name, and appraisals are often not much help (more on this another time). But a new site called DN Sale Price (link via Domain Editorial) is useful in identifying comparable sales. The site is aggregated from a database of domain sales that have been listed on exchanges or published by sources like Domain Name Journal. You can research sales by keyword and top-level domain.

So what's a blog-related domain worth? Plenty, in some cases. A search on "blog" finds the $400,000 sale of myblog.com, but also a handful of five-digit sales and a bunch of four-digit sales. Sales exceeding $10,000 included VideoBlog.com ($21,000), WebBlog.com ($14,055) and MobileBlog.com ($10,120). Another 17 sales are listed where a blog-related domain sold for between $2,000 and $10,000, including BlogSport.com ($8,946), WirelessBlog ($3,500) and Blogwatch ($3,150).

Read More

  Posted by RichM June 14, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 12, 2006

Hurricane domain names receive lots of traffic and attention if the storm turns out to be powerful, damaging or deadly. As a result, speculators buy up prime hurricane-related domain names almost as soon as the annual list of names is announced by the National Hurricane Center.

HurricaneAlberto.com was registered through Go Daddy's Domains by Proxy service, which keeps the owner's identity out of the WHOIS database. The domain resolves to the USA Hurricanes web site, which appears to have captured most of the .com domains for this season's storm names. HurricaneAlberto.org is owned by the non-profit disaster relief group Friendships Unlimited. The .net domain was registered by "Shadow Inc." and appears to be for sale.

Read More

  Posted by RichM June 12, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 7, 2006

Why did Angelina Jolie and her lawyers move so quickly to register shilohjoliepitt.com? Maybe because of services like LoveTheName.com, which issued a press release today to tout the value of registering domain names associated with celebrity babies:

To accommodate this new trend, LoveTheName.com has added a new 'Fame Capitalization' section that includes domains like ChildrenofJoliePitt.com for those who want to earn a fast buck or for fans who want fair market value or wish to protect Brangelina from greedy cybersquatters.

The folks at LoveThe Name.com are so conflicted! Earn a fast buck? Or protect Brangelina from greedy cybersquatters? It sounds like their conscience is wrestling with their business plan. And losing, as it turns out.

"Famous celebrities and the Wealthy have the means to buy domains from people smart enough to own them," the press release continues. "The people smart enough to own these domain names are experiencing a sudden financial impact unlike any other investment. The wealthy are motivated in owning control over what is published and exposed worldwide at those domain sites, therefore, creating dialog for win-win agreements."

  Posted by RichM June 7, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 2, 2006

The huge brokerage Morgan Stanley has prevailed in a domain name dispute with a cat. Yes, a defendant in a cybersquatting case claimed that the registrant of record for the domain mymorganstanleyplatinum.com was actually "Meow ("Respondent"), Baroness Penelope Cat of Nash DCB, Ashbed Barn, Boraston Track, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire WR15 8LQ, GB." It was a novel strategy, but the domain panel wasn't buying, and responded in the spirit of the defense:

Respondent maintains that it is a cat, that is, a well-known carnivorous quadruped which has long been domesticated. However, it is equally well-known that the common cat, whose scientific name is Felis domesticus, cannot speak or read or write. Thus, a common cat could not have submitted the Response (or even have registered the disputed domain name). Therefore, either Respondent is a different species of cat, such as the one that stars in the motion picture �Cat From Outer Space,� or Respondent�s assertion regarding its being a cat is incorrect.

The full ruling is available online.

  Posted by RichM June 2, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 1, 2006

Angelina Jolie doesn't waste any time when it comes to the business end of the celebrity baby game. Within hours of the birth of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie Pitt, the actress' reps had registered the domain name ShilohJoliePitt.com, heading off a name grab by domain speculators. The name was registered Saturday at 8:27 pm, with Angelina Jolie listed as the owner of record. For someone who just gave birth, the actress was pretty efficient, grabbing shilohnouveljoliepitt.com as well, along with the .net, .org, and .info extensions for both names.

It seems the quick action was warranted, as the .biz and .us extensions - which were left unprotected - were snapped up within hours. The quick action appears to have been the actual handiwork of Jolie's lawyer, Evan Spiegel of Lavely & Singer.

Brad Pitt's not listed anywhere. So if Angelina and Brad ever break up, Angelina gets custody of the domains.

  Posted by RichM June 1, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter