iEstates.com

TechCrunch.com just covered the site Live Bookings which TechCrunch referred to as the Opentable.com of Europe.

The company just picked up $24 Million more in funding bringing it total capital raised by the company to $62 Million dollars.

The London based company, in a Press Release clearly laid out its plans to use the domain name FreeBookings.com in the US for its online reservation system or the equivalent of its Live Bookings site in the Europe

Live Bookings bought the domain name FreeBookings.com for just $3,900 in November 2011.

The seller is a domainer.

The company started with the domain name LiveBookings.net and that is still the official site listed by CrunchBase.

However

We write these stories from time to time not to embarrass or to make the sellers of the domain feel badly for missing out on a big payday but to educate.

The bottom line is you don’t know who might be interested in buying your domain and any chance you have to figure it completely disappears when the domain is listed with a Buy It Now (BIN) option, as this domain was.

There are even those who feel we have sold domains way too cheap.

A blogger wrote last week about our meet.me sale for 450,000 who felt we could have gotten seven figures or more for the domain and quite possible we could have.

At the end of the day its virtually impossible to fetch the maximum price a buyer is willing to spent.

We are not privy to their budget or plans for the domain.

As a domain owner need to put yourself in the best position to know who your buyer could be.

Its one thing to walk away with mid-six figures for a domain that may have fetched 7 figures and quite another to walk away with just a few thousand.

So here is another cautionary tale of putting domains up for sale with a small BIN price only to find out months later that the buyer has tens of millions in the bank.

Ouch…

The domain name registry that operates the .CA ccTLD, Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), announced today that the .CA domain is turning 25 years old. The very first .CA domain name was registered to the University of Prince Edward Island in 1988. Currently there are 1,925,775 domains registered under .CA.

It was on this day back in 1987 that the .CA domain extension was officially delegated by Jon Postel, operator of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), to John Demco at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Demco and a group of volunteers ran the .CA domain registry for 13 years. From 1987 to 2000, those volunteers at UBC registered almost 60,000 domain names. Since 2000, the registry for .CA domain names has been run by the Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Registration Authority. CIRA’s President and CEO Byron Holland said:

“We owe a debt to the visionaries who set up .CA in the 1980s. While many people today may take the Internet for granted, the fact is, without the foresight of people like John Demco, the Internet might not have developed as we now know it… The growth in both the size of the registry and in the role .CA plays in Canadians’ lives bodes well for the next 25 years of .CA. As we move more and more of our lives online, .CA is becoming the ‘flag on the virtual backpack’ for hundreds of thousands of Canadians.”

Back in 1987 when the .CA ccTLD was introduced the world wide web was a very different place. Very few Canadians were online, and until 1990 only governments and the academic community were able to register .CA domains. Today, .CA is an integral part of the Canadian economic and social landscape. Now with more than 1.9 million domain names registered, .CA is the world’s 14th-largest domain registry, and it has the fourth-highest growth rate over the past five years.

On April 15, 2008, CIRA registered it’s one millionth .CA domain name. The next big celebration is right around the corner it seems. In another few weeks give or take, they will be celebrating the two millionth .CA domain registration which will be another huge milestone for the Canadian ccTLD.

The registry has also just opened their nominations for their 2012 Board Elections.

Related posts:

• CIRA Honors .CA Pioneer
• .EE Matches the Amount of Registrations for Two Months in Two Days
• .CA Launches CIRA Factbook
• Recap of CIRA Annual General Meeting and Symposium
• .CA Registry Goes EPP

A UDRP has been filed for another three letter .com domain name

The UDRP was filed by Albir Hills Resort, S.A. against the domain SHA.com

SHA.com is owned by Telepathy, Inc.

The complainant does own a federal US Trademark on the term SHA with a filing date of July 27, 2007 and a registration date of August 26, 2008

According to DomainTools.com, Telepathy has owned the domain name since October 22, 2001 which is the oldest record they have on file for the domain.

Although the domain name is parked there are no suggest terms on the page.

The Albir Hills Resort is located in Spain and seems to own and operate the SHA Wellness Spa which has its own site at shawellnessclinic.com

Here is some information from the site:

“”SHA is a wellness clinic dedicated to improving the health and welfare of people through the fusion of ancient oriental disciplines and revolutionary western techniques. The main areas of SHA: SHA method, which is based on a highly cleansing diet based on macrobiotic principles adapted to modern times, balanced to the needs of each person, combined with natural therapies, anti-aging medicine unit ( healthy-aging), capable of slowing the aging process and prevent disease by applying the most advanced techniques and aesthetic medicine unit, which will allow you to achieve excellent results both facial and body at the way less invasive as possible. All designed and supervised by world renowned experts including Michio Kushi-known figure, a world leader in modern macrobiotics.”"

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The CEO of Yahoo Scott Thompson resigned tonight according to a  report in the Wall Steet Journal.  He told the company  that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Ross Levinsohn was named as interim Chief Executive Officer.

Here is the press release:

“”Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced that the Board of Directors has named Fred Amoroso as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Ross Levinsohn as interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. .
Mr. Amoroso replaces Roy Bostock, who has stepped down from his role as Non-Executive Chairman in order to accelerate the leadership transition for the new Board. Mr. Levinsohn replaces Scott Thompson, former Chief Executive Officer, who has left the Company.

Under the Board’s settlement agreement with Third Point, three Third Point nominees — Daniel S. Loeb, Harry J. Wilson, and Michael J. Wolf — will join the Yahoo! Board, effective May 16, 2012. Mr. Bostock, along with Patti Hart, VJ Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson, all of whom previously disclosed their intentions not to stand for re-election, as well as Mr. Thompson, have decided to step down from the Board immediately.

As a part of the settlement agreement, Third Point, which owns an aggregate of 70,545,400 shares, or 5.8% of Yahoo! common stock, has agreed to withdraw its previous Board nominations for consideration at the annual meeting and vote its shares in support of Yahoo!’s nominees. Yahoo!’s slate of director nominees for election or re-election at the 2012 annual meeting of stockholders will now include Fred Amoroso, John Hayes, Peter Liguori, Thomas McInerney, Maynard Webb, Sue James, David Kenny, Brad Smith, Daniel S. Loeb, Harry J. Wilson and Michael J. Wolf.

As interim CEO, Mr. Levinsohn will manage the Company’s day-to-day operations with assistance from Yahoo!’s existing senior leadership team.

“The Board is pleased to announce these changes and the settlement with Third Point, and is confident that they will serve the best interests of our shareholders and further accelerate the substantial advances the Company has made operationally and organizationally since last August. The Board believes in the strength of the Company’s business and assets, and in the opportunities before us, and I am honored to work closely with my fellow directors and Ross to continue to drive Yahoo! forward,” said Fred Amoroso, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board of Directors.

Mr. Amoroso continued, “On behalf of the entire Board, I would also like to thank Patti, VJ, Arthur, Gary and, in particular, Roy, for their dedicated long-term service and contributions to the Board and Yahoo!.”

Third Point Chief Executive Officer Daniel S.…

Businessweek.comjust publish an post  entitled: “When Should Domain Names Match Company Names?”

The post is actually an answer to a question posed by a reader:

“When is it necessary or advisable for a startup to have a matching dot-com domain name?”

“What should take priority, the brand name or the domain name?”

The author went out and got some answers from “branding professionals” and here are a few:

“For most companies, achieving domain name alignment is not as important as coining a powerful brand name, says Jay Jurisich, chief executive at Zinzin, a naming agency in San Francisco. “Of course, everybody always wants an exact-match domain name, preferably dot-com. Unfortunately, the matching domain names for all single words and most compound names have already been registered, and buying one that is parked may cost you five or six figures,” Jurisich says.”

“Mike Carr, managing director at NameStormers in Austin, Tex., agrees. “Brand name and trademark hurdles are always more important than dot-com ownership; dot-coms are like license plates, brand names aren’t,” he writes in an e-mail. “With a dot-com, often you can just change one letter or add a short trailer and find yourself with an available URL that you can register for $15 if your preferred dot-com spelling is already taken.”

So now for George Tierney, creative director at Quantum Method, a Los Angeles marketing and communications agency who  is quoted as saying:

“Slightly altering your brand name or adding an industry-specific modifier can create a good domain name.”

“Let’s say the company is Acme Toys.”

“You find that you can’t get acmetoys.com because someone has already purchased this domain name for the purposes of resale.  Rather than pay a cybersquatter for the premium domain, he says, find a close alternative, such as acme-toys.com, or acmetoysco.com. “These alternatives will work just fine in the early days of your business. Once you have positive growth and budgets allow, you can go back and acquire the premium domain,” Tierney says.

Mr. Tierney is another guy who apparently thinks anyone who has a domain name “acquired for purposes of resale is a cybersquatter” even if they own “premium domains”.

Here is Mr. Tierney’s Linkedin Profile.

You can read the rest of the article here.

“…

The operator of the .ORG domain extension, PIR (Public Interest Registry), is looking for nominations to the advisory council to fill seats that are opening up. They are specifically looking for individuals with significant internet leadership experience within the non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) and domain name arena’s who represent the broad and geographically diverse spectrum of the global non-commercial communities.

PIR says that the .ORG advisory council has been a valuable global resource for the Public Interest Registry (PIR) management for providing advice on policy, outreach, and new services to improve registry operations and support the noncommercial .ORG community. Currently the council consists of 15 members, with at least 2 from each of the following 6 regions: Asia, Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America. The members of the advisory council are selected by the PIR board of directors. All seats are for 3 year terms.

Advisory Council Working Groups

The advisory council has organized into “working groups” for the purpose of providing project-based analysis and input, serving as a resource to both the .ORG staff and board of directors at PIR.  Comprised of leaders from a broad spectrum of the non-commercial world, the Advisory Council Working Groups will contribute in four area’s:  IDN, Policy, DNSSEC, and Outreach & Awareness.

Interested individuals are encouraged to submit nominations, including self-nominations. A nomination statement of approximately 400 words should include details of the nominee’s experience with the internet, commitment to promoting the non-commercial use of the internet, understanding of the technical or policy issues facing the .ORG registry, and perspectives regarding the needs of the .ORG community. A biography and photo is also needed.

All nominations must be submitted no later than June 15th, 2012. The newly appointed advisory council members will be announced on June 30th, 2012.

Related posts:

• Associated Cities Geo Awards Nominations Open
• .ORG Registry CEO/President Alexa Raad Resigns
• ICANN | Advisory Concerning Posting of Registrar Fees for Restoring Deleted Domain Names
• The .ORG Registry, PIR, Names Brian Cute CEO
• ICANN Public Comment Period for .com Registry Agreement with Verisign ends Tomorrow

In an article published by itbusiness.ca, the CEO of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), Byron Holland said that 50 percent of all new gTLD’s will go out of business in 2-3 years.

“It’s going to dramatically impact the Canadian domain space one way or the other”

“We assume if you add 500 or 1,000 new TLDs to the Internet landscape, we will definitely be up against a more competitive environment.”

“Just like any other private business starting up, all these new TLDs will have a 50 per cent chance of going out of business in two or three years,” Holland says. “That’s going to be somewhat disquieting to people.”

The one fact that the CEO of CIRA didn’t chat about or even recognize is that as part of the process all new gTLD operators have to have 3 years of operating expenses in the bank in escrow or have a letter of credit for that amount issued to ICANN

Personally I have no doubt that there will be new gTLD’s that will fail.

I think 50% is a extremely high percentage especially since there will be a lot of .Brands which are not applying as a for profit registry and many Geographic areas where the change for failure is pretty low.

Still an interesting read

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According to a story in MediaPost.com today, Bing.com has been redesigned and new ad models are on the way

“Microsoft introduced a new version of the search engine with a three-column design combining traditional Web search and social. The product will soon roll out in the U.S.”

“The combination of search and social signals will produce a clear and clean vision of user intent. Derrick Connell, corporate VP of search program management, said the right rail paid-search ads will remain in place and should perform slightly better. ”

“In the future, Microsoft will “start to experiment with new ad formats and models.”

Search pages must evolve or become obsolete”

“While the left rail will continue to serve up search results, the middle column will give users a snapshot or relevant information and services related to the search, including maps, restaurant reservations and reviews. The aim is to provide the information before the searcher asks.”

“For now, Bing will tap into as much publicly available data as possible from Facebook — and soon Twitter and other networks.”

“The redesign should not have an influence on Yahoo search results.

The redesign of Bing  “will not have a material impact on the algorithmic search results we provide to Yahoo Search.”

A few weeks ago we told you a UDRP had been filed on the domain name Norcross.com.

Norcross is a city in Georgia

Today Marchex the domain holder represented by John Berryhill won a three member panel UDRP decision on the domain name.

At the time we didn’t know who filed the UDRP but it was the Norcross Corporation who had a Trademark on the term Norcross since 1969

The decision contains a sentence all domainers should love:

““A domain name registrant is always permitted to sell a domain name to which it has rights for a profit; that constitutes bad faith only when the domain name was acquired primarily for the bad faith purpose of selling it to the trademark owner. “

Here are the relevant findings by the Panel:

“The Complaint further alleges that, as of March 28, 2012, the domain name <norcross.com> was not being used for legitimate business purposes.  Complainants indicate that, when Respondent was contacted regarding the transfer of the domain name, Respondent replied that it “does not entertain offers for less than $30,000.”  According to the Complaint, the $30,000 price tag far exceeds any reasonable out-of-pocket costs incurred by Respondent in regards the domain name.”

“Respondent notes that the disputed domain name was originally registered by Ultimate Search in 2000, and acquired by Respondent in late 2004. ”

“Respondent further indicates that the domain name in issue corresponds to a prominent beltway municipality of the Atlanta area and that the links on the page correspond to hotels, airports, new homes, and car rentals in Atlanta, as well as to hotels in Savannah and Athens, Georgia. ”

“The Complainant here makes no allegation that the Respondent’s use of the domain name for these several years has in any way targeted, harmed, or disrupted the Complainant’s business.  Moreover, the Complainant shows clearly that the domain name is used for such advertising subjects as travel, lodging, and in particular relation to Georgia, where Norcross is located.  This is classic descriptive use of a domain name under the Policy.”

“With respect to the issue of bad faith registration and use, Respondent contends that the Policy does not proscribe the general trade in domain names on the secondary market. What the Policy does proscribe, Respondent asserts, is the registration of a domain name primarily for the purpose of extorting the owner of a mark, i.e., with an intention arising from knowledge of its value as nothing other than a trade or service mark associated with one party.…