We all know the old saying: ‘Tis better to have owned a major technological giant’s domain name briefly and lost it, than to have never owned a major technological giant’s domain name at all. A guy who successfully purchased Google.com and held onto it for a few minutes was rewarded for his efforts by way of a “bug bounty” from Google. [More]
domain names
Google Bestows “Bug Bounty” On Guy Who Successfully Bought And Owned Google.com (For A Few Minutes)
By 10.12.15
BMW Beat Google To The “Alphabet” Name And Website
By 8.11.15
Yesterday, Google announced a massive reorganization that will put the Internet giant and all its other side businesses under the umbrella of a new company called Alphabet. But don’t expect to visit Alphabet.com anytime soon, unless you want to buy a bunch of BMWs. [More]
You Can Soon Buy “.Sucks” URLs, But At Prices That .Suck
By 3.16.15
If you’ve ever dreamed of using the recently approved .sucks top-level domain suffix to make fun of companies that annoy you, your chance is coming up when registration opens later this month. However, a .sucks domain won’t exactly come cheap, so be prepared to be outbid by the company you’d love to skewer. [More]
Report: Google Error Leaks Hidden Data For 280,000 Domains
By 3.13.15
Usually when we hear that a company has had a bunch of data leaked to the world, hackers are responsible. But in the case of a Google leak involving hidden data for 280,000 domain names, a bug in Google’s system is apparently to blame. [More]
The Organization That Coordinates All The Internet Domain Names In The World Got Hacked
By 12.19.14
If the Internet was the Death Star, then the weak point hackers might be trying to aim at would be the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN (though I’d like to think the non-profit organization that administers and coordinates all the world’s Internet domain names wouldn’t be on the dark side [althouuugh the company logo does kind of look like a Death Star…]). As it turns out, ICANN says it was hacked — though there will be no space explosions because of it. [More]
Here’s What Happens When Guy Fieri Doesn’t Register The Domain For His Restaurant’s Name
By 2.20.13
We all had a good chuckle back when frost-tipped, backward sunglasses-wearing celebuchef Guy Fieri opened his Times Square Restaurant, Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen & Bar. He had “donkey sauce” on the menu! Tee hee! Etc. But despite the maelstrom of media surrounding that restaurant’s opening, it seems Fieri or someone on his team forgot to do a very important thing — purchase the domain name of the restaurant. [More]
Company Prepared To Fight For The Right To Own Racy Domain Name Suffixes
By 6.11.12
Nothing says “adult-themed” quite like “sex.” Or, on the world wide webbernets, “.sex.” And don’t forget .porn and .adult, as well as the already existent .xxx. The company that successfully launched .xxx is now going after the golden geese of Web domain name suffixes, and it’s ready to duke it out with any other contenders. [More]
Internet Overlords Vote To Allow .YourNameHere Domains
By 6.20.11
Instead of just the regular .com and org addresses, the guys who run the internet have voted to allow the creation of .AnythingYouWantHere domain names. Just about any word in the English language, or any brand name, will be allowed to be turned into a top-level domain name under the program known as ” gTLD” or “Generic Top Level Domain.” [More]
Revolt Over GoDaddy CEO's Elephant Kill Video Makes 20,433 Domains Flee, Rival Claims
By 4.8.11
Rival domain name registrar Namecheap says they’ve raised over $20,000 for an elephant charity and poached thousands of customers who switched 20,433 domain names from GoDaddy following an uproar over a video their CEO posted of himself killing a pachyderm. Bob Parsons is unapologetic, saying he did it to feed the hungry villagers and save their crops. But that’s just a moral fig leaf. In another video, Bob hunts and kills a leopard. I don’t think it ended up as steaks for hungry villagers. [More]
![Lots Of "[BofAExec Name] Sucks" Sites Getting Bought Up](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/boabuilding1.jpg?w=240&h=161&crop=1)
Lots Of "[BofAExec Name] Sucks" Sites Getting Bought Up
By 12.23.10
Over at Domain Name Wire they noticed that starting on December 17th, someone has been going around buying up all the various permutations of BankofAmericaExecNameHereSucks.com sites. So sorry folks, you won’t be able to start your new BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com, or BrianTMoynihanBlows.com blog. You were going to use it host your lookbook of clever Lawrence, KS fashions, right? [More]
Sex.com Can Be Yours If You're A Millionaire
By 3.10.10
If you ever wanted to buy sex.com and have more than a million dollars sitting around, now is your chance. Head over to Maltz Auctions, submit your bid Thursday and watch the page views roll in. [More]
ICANN Votes To Squash Domain Tasting And Allow New Top Level Domains
By 6.26.08
So what does today’s vote from ICANN mean to the regular person? Well, if Network Solutions honors its promise, it means the next time you search for an available domain through Network Solutions, they won’t immediately snatch it up and force you to register it through them at an increased fee. In theory, it may also mean that a lot of domains that were held in eternal limbo by domain tasters and front runners may soon be available, although we can’t be sure of this until it actually happens. And on a more idealistic note, that Saturday Night Live commercial—the one where the bank has the domain name www.clownpenis.fart—is now in the realm of the possible. Hooray!
Is Domain Name Front Running About To Come To An End?
By 6.24.08
This Thursday, ICANN will vote on next fiscal year’s budget, and included in that is a provision to charge 20 cents per registration for domain names that are deleted during the grace period. There will still be a refundable grace period, but if the “level of deletions exceeds 10 percent of a registrar’s net new registrations in that month,” the fee kicks in—in effect, making front running uneconomical. Network Solutions is urging ICANN to approve it, and has said that it will stop pre-registering domains if the provision is approved.
Network Solutions Sued For Front-Running Domain Names
By 2.28.08
Earlier this year we noted that Network Solutions is “front running” domain names—that is, automatically purchasing domain names that customers search for and holding them for four days before releasing them again. During that period, the only way customers can buy the domain names is through Network Solutions for 3 to 5 times more than what you can pay elsewhere. Now “search engine expert” Chris McElroy has filed suit against them, named ICANN as a defendant, and is seeking class action status.
Beware New Domain Name Scam
By 1.9.08
There’s a new internet domain name scam going around and its perpetrators tried to target our sister site Jezebel. Basically how it works is that a website operator will get a very official looking email saying they’re an internet registration company and that someone applied to use your domain name except with a different suffix, instead of .com, .cn, in this instance. Then, says, Kevin Tjaden, Client Services Manager at MarkMonitor, If you respond to the e-mail they will register the domain and offer to “recover” it for you for a large fee. It has been a pretty successful so you will see more of them in the future. It is best to treat them like spam and do not reply.”
GoDaddy's Customer Service Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction
By 3.2.07
Godaddy really tipped the dildo cart over on this one.
