Archive for: February, 2008

The reason CNN paid $750,000 for a domain name

Just a few weeks back we wrote about the sale of the domain name ireport.com to CNN which netted an impressive $750,000US for domainer Rick Schwartz. This week we have the reason why CNN was willing to pay big money for the name – they plan to launch iReport.com shortly as an online destination for user-generated news.

It speaks to the value of the brandable domain name — a domain that will stick in the heads of users and doesn’t necessarily reflect the purpose of the site it anchors. Think Flickr.com, Gizmodo.com and BoingBoing.net as opposed to onlinephotos.com, gadgets.com and quirkystories.net. iReport probably had little value in terms of direct navigation, but as a brand, it’s a clear winner for CNN.

MediaWeek reports that CNN uses only about ten percent of the user-generated iReport content it receives. Those reports include everything from test, to photos and video of breaking news as it happens. iReport.com will provide a home for all that content (and, presumably, ads to go along with it).

There’s no word yet on just when iReport.com will launch and the site currently shows a simple “under construction” notice.

On the Ground in New Delhi

Editors note: Adam Eisner, Product Manager, Domains made it safe and sound to India and he’s already checked in with some early thoughts as ICANN’s 31st Meeting gets underway.

I’m in New Delhi this week, attending the 31st Public Meeting of ICANN. As James mentioned in his previous post, we are an active participant in ICANN meetings and events, as the policies set forth by ICANN have a big impact on both Tucows and on you and your customers.

As Product Manager for our domain name business, ICANN events are an extraordinary opportunity to meet with important vendors, registries, policy decision makers and counterparts from other registrars all in one place. Over the next several days, I will meet many of our registries and suppliers, learn about new domain name opportunities, gather important market data, and attend ICANN-led sessions on policy development. I will also participate in a meeting of the ICANN Registrars Constituency, of which Tucows is a member. The Constituency will discuss a wide range of issues important to policy, including the Add Grace Period (AGP), which has been a hot topic of late in light of recent developments around domain tasting.

In short, much of the data gathered from meetings and sessions at an ICANN conference are applied in ways that have a direct impact. It also allows us to relay thoughts and opinions back to registries and ICANN, which play an important part in the decisions they make. Stay tuned for updates as the conference takes shape.

Tucows Heads to India for ICANN

The 31st International Public Meeting of ICANN gets underway in two days. Both Elliot Noss, our President and CEO, and Adam Eisner our Product Manager for Domains are making the long trip to New Dehli this weekend for the meeting.

Tucows continues to actively participate in ICANN as we have since 1998 when ICANN was formed. That participation gives our Resellers a voice in policy discussions and represents just one way in which Tucows works to help people unlock the power of the Internet.

In a release, ICANN said that it is fitting that the meeting is held in India as both India, and the Asian continent are at what Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN Board Chairman, describes as, “the heart of the Internet’s future.” Dengate Thrush points to the huge population of India and notes that Internet penetration the the country is only about five percent, but growing fast. That potential growth is illustrated by the fact that a single percentage point increase represents 11 million people.

We’ll provide as much coverage as we can of the ICANN Meeting right here on the Tucows Blog. If the stars and planets align just right, we hope to do some audio reports from India as well.

Full details, including links to live video and audio webcasts, session schedules, and more can be found at the ICANN website.

Beware of Fake Domain Name Renewal Notices

Domain name renewal schemes are nothing new – we’ve been dealing with them for years – but we figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring them to your attention once again. A quick Google search brings up thousands of examples.

The usual tactic, known as domain slamming, is fairly basic – unethical companies mine WHOIS records for Registrant information and domain expiry dates. Then, months in advance, they contact the Registrant either by mail or email with a very official looking and sounding document or message that tells them to protect their valuable name by renewing early. A Google Images search brings up a couple of scanned examples.

Of course, when the Registrant sends the cheque or pays by credit card, thinking they are doing the right thing, what actually happens is that a Registrar transfer is initiated. The Registrant will then blindly go through the steps to complete the transfer, again thinking they are doing the right thing to protect their valuable domain name.

Combatting this is really fairly simple. I spoke with Paul Karkas, our Compliance Manager, who has been dealing with this kind of thing for years and has a few recommendations for resellers:

WHOIS Privacy. This is the absolute best protection. It stops the practice dead in its tracks as there is no way for to contact the Registrant directly. Encourage your customers to take advantage of WHOIS Privacy and the protection it offers. Tucows includes WHOIS Privacy for free as part of our domains package.
Domain locking. A locked domain can’t be transferred, again, preventing the domain slam. The transfer attempt may generate a support call by the Registrant to remove the lock, in which case you have the perfect opportunity to make sure the transfer is legitimate.
Communication. Let your customers know about this practice and ensure that your customers know who you are and who their Registrar is. Clearly spell out your communication policies surrounding renewals (i.e. “We never send mail invoices reminding you to renew.”) before the scammers have a chance to spread their mis-information.

The Registrant is only one of the victims in domain slamming. When your customers get taken by fake notices like these, you lose their domain business. But if you take the time to educate your customers, you reap the benefits of a better relationship in which the customer knows that you are on their side, looking out for their interests.

Superbowl Means SuperURL to Some

Bill Sweetman, General Manager, Domains Portfolio, lives and breathes domain names. In fact, while most people were sitting down to watch either a football game, or the ads between plays this past weekend, Bill pulled out his version of a playbook and made notes on every domain name mentioned in the ads he saw.

For those south of the border (or elsewhere in the world, for that matter). I’ll give you a little insight into how the Canadian television system works: Canadian cable companies are required to substitute the feed from the Canadian network showing the Superbowl (in this case, CTV) over top of the usual cable-delivered American network feed (FOX). The net result is pretty much the exact same coverage as you would see in the U.S., but with different ads. It also means that across the country, Canadians pull out old fashioned rabbit ears in an attempt to pull in the over-the-air broadcast feed from across the border so they can see the “real” Superbowl ads.

Bill opted for the Canadian feed and provided this extensive rundown of the good, the bad and the ugly of Superbowl URLs, with some comments:

The Good:

The Bad:

www.nflcanada.com – What, they couldn’t get NFL.ca? Sheesh!
www.siriuscanada.ca – Doesn’t the .ca make “canada” redundant? sirius.ca would have been so much better…
www.manulifeincomeplus.com – Man that’s a lot to have to type!
www.creditunionsofbc.com – Ditto!
www.cdic.ca – Well, it’s not so much that this one is bad as much as it’s boring.
www.10000bcmovie.com – This one’s just begging to be mistyped! And the studio forgot to register the typo variations like 1000bcmovie.com. Typical.

The Ugly:

www.rogers.com/tellyourstory – Now that’s awkward! Is that “tell yours, Tory” as in John Tory? (he’s a local political candidate, and well-known as a former Rogers executive)
www.rogers.com/windowsmobile – That’s a lot to type…
www.truehd.ca – Great domain name, but inconsistent with this company’s URL strategy (see above)
www.disney.com/narnia – If you already own narnia.com, why use the slash version instead?
www.bcaa.com/tv – Hmmm, do you think they’re measuring their TV spend?
www.ikea.ca/mattress – Yawn…

The MVP:

www.educate.com – Sweet! Guess who owns this killer domain name?

The Sore Loser:

www.nestle-bowlblitz.ca – Not only does this feature “the dash of death” but someone forgot to register the version of the domain without the dash. (Please tell me this wasn’t the work of the agency I used to work at!)

Touchdown!

Archive for: February, 2008

The reason CNN paid $750,000 for a domain name

On the Ground in New Delhi

Tucows Heads to India for ICANN

Beware of Fake Domain Name Renewal Notices

Superbowl Means SuperURL to Some

Become a Reseller

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