Verisign aggressively markets .com in India

Verisign, the custodian of the .com domain extension, is aggressively marketing its .com extension in India by emphasizing that bigger profits are possible with a .com website.

The company has launched a new initiative called Be A Leader With .Com in India and has several case studies to show how a .com web site has helped businesses thrive on the internet.

Verisign is aiming to showcase to its audience the following benefits of a .com website:

• Competitiveness: A .com domain name is one of the most popular across many geographies and industries.
• Reputation: Many of the biggest and best corporations around the world use and promote their Web sites with a .com extension.
• Customer traffic: A .com domain name is by far the most likely extension to be tried out by visitors from type-in traffic.
• Creates a positive perception: A .com domain name suggests that you are serious about doing business and lends credibility.
• Establishes longevity: .com is one of the oldest extensions and suggests a well-established presence on the Internet.
• Improved visibility: A .com domain name gives you the right advantage in a populated online landscape. Today’s search engines are geared to recognise .com. For example if you type mydomain into a search bar without worrying about the ‘www’ or the .com, you will end up at http://www.mydomain.com.

Free .mp domains as Chi.mp goes LIVE!

Chi.mp has opened up registration and is giving away free .mp domains, which are otherwise available for $20 per year at get.mp.

.mp is an interesting domain extension and could produce a number of domain hacks. I, myself tried the names of a few cities in Madhya Pradesh (MP), one of the largest states in India and wasn’t able to find a single one unregistered! Found out that all of these redirect to the Chi.mp home page! So, the guys had already thought of that and want to keep it personalized and not commercialized! Well, in that case at least these should be available as paid domains.

Would have been great to get some of those if I could but looks like it ain’t gonna be. Never mind!

Anyway, Chi.mp not only allows users to select a personalized .mp domain name, but also link it  to their online social networking profiles and RSS feeds etc. Would create some interesting kinda’ sites.

Hope this wouldn’t turn out to be a fibber as the .tel domain extension seems to be. So much for storing your contact details IN a domain name! Bah!

President Obama means business for domainers

The citizens of America made a historic decision by electing the country’s first African-American president, Barack Obama. Many newspaper traders are said to be asking for up to US$300 for a copy of The New York Times announcing Obama’s triumph on November 5.

Obama’s historic win also has given rise to hundreds of hopeful domainers and cybersquatters rushed to register domain names with Obama as a keyword. Many of these domain names are being pitched as premium domains and are being offered for sale on eBay, Sedo and many other domain name forums across in internet.

Even Obama’s popular speech termed ‘Yes We Can‘ has inspired people to write songs, record them and upload to Youtube and garner thousands of daily hits. It also seems to have inspired a pornographer who has put his domain www.sexwecan.com for sale for $10,000.

Then there are Obama playing cards, Obama pin badges, Obama plaques, Obama posters and Obama paper dolls and many other Obama items on sale on eBay and elsewhere.

Hope this euphoria augurs well for the new President of the USA and all that we would like to say is that -

Mr. President, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and hope that you will be able to play Santa Claus to the economy of the United States, which would mean some smaller gifts to other fledgling economies worldwide! May you have a terrific time at the White House and be able to pull off a coup of sorts by sorting out the economic mess all around! Amen!

.TEL Domain Names coming shortly!

What is .TEL domain name extension?

A .TEL domain name can be used to store, update and publish all your contact information, web links and keywords directly on the internet under your own unique .tel domain. Simple, fast and accessible from any device, .tel aims to provides a new internet standard for users to take full control over how and where people reach you.

The .tel enables:

• integration of any and all means of communication (i.e. Phone numbers, IM, VOIP, email, social media)
• real-time publishing of your contact information on the internet
• full ownership of your published data
• protection of your private data, only viewable by people you authorize
• simple structured navigation to easily reach the most relevant information
• high speed global access optimized for mobile devices
• multi-language, search engine-friendly structured information and keywords

.Tel Sunrise Period
Duration: December 3, 2008 at 15:00 GMT through February 2, 2009 23:59 GMT
Terms: Registrations open only to trademark holders and owners. Sunrise rules will follow a first-come first-served basis. There will be no premium list placed on reserve for later auction.
Price: $359 for a mandatory three-term registration term. Fully refundable only if another application was submitted before yours and passed Validation.

.Tel Landrush Period
Duration: February 3, 2009 at 15:00 GMT through March 23, 2009 23:59 GMT
Terms: You can register any name, even if it’s not your own or your own company’s name. the golden time for cybersquatters to register premium domain names, which would later result in domain disputes and hefty settlements running into millions!
Price: $299 for a mandatory three-term registration term. Fully refundable if application is not successful.

.Tel Open Registrations
Date: March 24, 2009 15:00 GMT
Terms: Register any name you may want.
Price: $18/year with one year minimum term. Fully refundable if application is not successful.

Sunrise orders being accepted since October 15

Iraq.com up for sale at Sedo!

What would you be willing to shell out for a one keyword domain that has 9,140,000 monthly searches in Google alone?

IRAQ.COM is available for sale and has that many impressive searches per month. The domain name without content is available for sale by its owner through Sedo’s Domain Marketplace.

Domain Statistics
Visitors to the Sedo offer page for the domain: 2,227 (previous 31 days)
Visitors to the domain’s website: 8,087 (previous 31 days)

Domain Popularity
PageRank: 3/10
Alexa Rank:1,666,385

Link Popularity
Incoming Google Links: 4
Incoming Yahoo! Links: 234

Going by the popularity of Iraq due to the atrocities of its infamous dictator, Saddam Hussein, and the ongoing reconstruction of the country, there are immense opportunities attached with the domain and anyone who has a vision and is able to capitalize upon the inherent potential of the domain will be a rich… rich man!

My guess is that the domain name will fetch anything between $5 million to $8million! Any takers for a bet?

Earlier this year, premium domain names have been sold for top dollars. These domain names include like Israel.com ($5.88 Million) and America.com (unverified amount). Other generic domain names related to Date Recovery, Fund and Pizza sold for $17 million, $10 million and $2.6 million respectively.

In my humble opinion, out of these domain names, Pizza.com deserved a better price than it got.

What do you say, people?

.PRO domain names registrations pick up

EnCirca has announced that there has been a 100 percent surge in .pro domain registrations since RegistryPro relaunched the domain one month ago. This enormous surge in registrations demonstrates there is an unmet market demand for professional service firms who wish to develop their online brand.

Despite a very competitive market and assertions that the .com domain is the most desirable for small-business owners and professionals, the interest in the .pro domain signals that businesses and professionals are still investing in protecting their brands in niche markets. Customers that have registered their preferred .pro domain since relaunch include numerous trademark owners and professional service firms.

Dot-pro domain names work just like dot-com domains, with the ability to create fully featured websites and email addresses. The extension is already universally recognized on the Internet as the premium space for licensed professionals.

The .Pro domain is a restricted domain name, available to professionals who self-certify that they meet the eligibility requirements of their profession. There are no restrictions on the types of names a business or professional may register: including trademarks, industry keywords, search engine terms, company names, or marketing slogans. There is no limit to how many dot-pro domain names an individual or company can register.

Licensed professionals from anywhere in the world are eligible to register dot-pro domain names on a first-come, first-served basis for just $24.99 for the first year. Subsequent years will be priced at $49/year. Renewals are priced at $59.99/year.

Types of businesses and professions now eligible for dot-pro include: Lawyers, Accountants, Engineers, Doctors, Architects, Dentists, Educators, Chiropractors, Veterinarians, Surveyors, Plumbers, Inspectors, Investment Advisors, Real Estate Brokers, Insurance Brokers, Nurses, Opticians, Optometrists, Podiatrists, Psychologists, Therapists, Social Workers, Building Contractors, Electricians, Patent and Trademark Examiners, Court Reporters, Police and Fire Safety Officers and any other profession where an official credential is required for a business or individual to offer services.

“Trademark owners and professionals that are serious about protecting and building their brands have made themselves clear. They see .pro as a valuable tool in reaching their target market,” says Thomas Barrett, President of EnCirca. “We urge licensed professionals everywhere that have not secured their .pro domains to move quickly to ensure they safeguard their brands.”

EnCirca is offering a special promotional price for .pro domain names of just $24.99 for the first year. All applicants will be required to submit license credentials to demonstrate eligibility. All international businesses and individuals holding professional licenses can take advantage of this domain.

Fly.com, brews.com, Planet.com up for sale

Sedo, the ultimate marketplace for buying and selling domain names, has unveiled a new list of premium domain names that will be up for sale in one of its upcoming auctions. These domain names include: Fly.com, planet.com, brews.com, bicycle.com and address.net

Sedo’s top-selling names for its regularly held GreatDomains auction include villas.com for $478,000; invest.com for $1,015,000 and tees.com for $252,500.

Am sure that Fly.com will sell for at least a cool million dollars and it sure will be one hell of an investment! Any airline might pick this one up! What do you say, guys?

Faulty Domain Name System threats the Internet

According to LA TImes, Dan Kaminsky, a leading technology security researcher has uncovered a serious hole in the foundation of the Internet that can allow unscrupulous hackers to attack corporate systems as well as individual computer users. The problem is currently being fixed, but many corporate systems remain vulnerable and the extent of any damage is unknown.

Dan Kaminsky, who is assisting major companies to patch the hole has admitted that the flaw was the most severe one discovered in the last decade and could provide a freeway for criminal identity-theft gangs to exploit.

Security holes, more typically found in Internet browsers, e-mail programs and other applications, enable thieves to operate from overseas and coordinate stolen information through underground online businesses.

Only this week, 11 members of one such gang were charged in the heist of information covering more than 40 million credit cards and debit cards that had been used for purchases at TJ Maxx, Barnes & Noble and other major retailers.

Israel.com sells for $5.88 million!

Another geo domain, Israel.com has been sold for $5.88 million to an unidentified buyer by its previous owner, Joel Noel Friedman, a 46-year-old Jewish American who bought the domain name originally in the year 1994.

The domain auction was managed by one of the leading domain name registrars, Moniker.com.

The new domain name owner has apparently parked the domain with SmartName.com hoping for some quick ROI (return on investment) through click monetization considering the interest the domain is currently generating in the cyber world owing to the publicity of its high profile sale.

This domain name sale is yet another example of how the business of domaining is on a roll with the booming virtual real estate market. A few prominent sales reported earlier this year include the $10 million sale of Fund.com, $2.6 million for Pizza.com and $1.7 million for DataRecovery.com

Also, another premium domain name America.com is up for sale and is expected to fetch record price.

America.com up for sale!

An ultimate geo domain,  America.com is on auction at Sedo.com and the domaining arena is abuzz with speculations that it could easily fetch one of the highest prices ever paid for a domain name.

There has to be a very strong interest among prospective buyers for such a premium domain and it remains to be seen if the final sale price exceeds the estimated $12 million paid for Sex.com a few years ago and considered to be the highest price paid for any domain name.

Geo domains, that contain the names of cities, states, or countries, have emerged as one of the strongest interest area for serious domainers and Sedo brokered Chinese.com for $1.1 million last year. The sale of America.com could turn out the largest sale ever for Sedo, which managed the auction of Vodka.com, its largest sale till date, for $3 million by a Russian vodka company planning to enter North America.

The potential of this domain name seems to be virtually unlimited as the buyer will be able to conduct almost any business from the domain, from hotel rooms to vacation packages and air tickets to real estate! You can be sure that the final buyer’s multi-million investment will be recovered within the first few years itself if he implements a sound business strategy.

In fact, I believe he could be making more money off this compared to any other business he could think of! Just imagine if he had a whole lot of subdomains like newyork.america.com, losangeles.america.com, vacations.america.com, realestate.america.com, onlinecasino.america.com, poker.america.com, sex.america.com, insurance.america.com and more… with each subdomain having its own business strategy headed by experts! The potential is indeed UNLIMITED, I say!

With a domain like that he wouldn’t even required any publicity to build his business. What do you say, guys?