Domain Registrations Can Tip Hands

Elliot Silver
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7

Yesterday morning, Richard Branson announced “Virgin Group’s investment in Hyperloop One.” The amount invested was not revealed, but it was a large enough amount that the company’s name is changing to Virgin Hyperloop One.

Although it is not yet resolving or forwarding to a website, VirginHyperloopOne.com was unsurprisingly registered. The domain name is registered under privacy proxy, so it is not clear who owns the domain name or who registered it. What is a bit surprising is when this domain name was registered. Usually companies wait until the final moments to register a domain name, but this wasn’t the case for VirginHyperloopOne.com.

Had outsiders been paying attention to Hyperloop-related domain name registrations, the registration of VirginHyperloopOne.com may have tipped people off to this news several months ago. According to Whois records, VirginHyperloopOne.com was registered back in April.

DomainTools has a great tool called

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Don’t Tweet Your Account Details

Elliot Silver
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3

This should go without saying, but if you seek customer support from a domain name company’s Twitter account, you should not share your account details publicly. Tweeting account numbers, domain name details, passwords, call-in pin codes, or any other information that could be used by a bad actor is unwise and potentially harmful. I recently saw someone do this, and it could a big time security issue.

Twitter can be a great way to get support when other methods have either failed or are taking too much time. Many of the medium and large domain industry companies have Twitter accounts that are either staffed by support team members or are used by people who can connect customers to the support team. These Twitter accounts want to resolve customer issues and probably want to keep issues private, while showing that the company offers top tier support. With that in mind, customers regularly reach out to companies via Twitter, and some may not think about the repercussions of sharing private account details.

From what I have seen, the best bet to getting quick customer support via Twitter may be to tweet to the company to let them know an issue needs to be resolved. Instead of sharing personal or account identifying details publicly, it makes more sense to

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Whois Email is Not Always Accurate

Elliot Silver
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9

I thought I would share a tip to help people acquire domain names in private. Sometimes the Whois email address is not accurate and an offer or inquiry email will not be received by the intended recipient.

It can be frustrating to email a very good offer to a domain registrant and not even receive a response to the email. I understand that what seems like a very good (reasonable and/or fair value) offer to me may be low to the domain owner. I also understand that some people have no interest in selling a particular domain name regardless of how good the offer is. I think it is courteous to reply, so not receiving a response can be frustrating.

One thing that could prevent a reply from being made is if the domain registrant did not receive the email. Many domain registrants have a credit card on file at their registrar so their domain names are renewed without having to be reminded via email. They may never receive emails about their domain names, but since the domain names automatically renew, this isn’t something they even notice.

Yesterday morning I was doing some email follow-ups when I received

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How Many Brands Use a Specific Keyword?

Elliot Silver
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7

There are a number of ways to gauge how many brands use a certain keyword in their branding. This intel is particularly important when considering the acquisition of a domain name.

When looking at a particular domain name to buy, it is nice to know that there are many companies and brands using the keyword in the event my plans for the domain name change and I want to sell. It is also a good way to ensure the keyword is used widely to avoid buying a name that could be considered infringing on one particular brand.

Sometimes a standard Google search will give me an idea of how many companies have a particular keyword in their branding. Oftentimes, I find that this isn’t the case, as Google results return many results with definition and Wiki-like sites to tell me what the keyword means. Not very helpful in this regard.

There is another Google search I use that I find particularly helpful in seeing how widely used a keyword is by different brands: I use a Google Image search. In the search bar, I will type in my keyword + the word “logo” to see how many images are returned with my particular search keyword in the logo. When there are dozens of logos with the keyword in it, I can see that the keyword is widely used.

Here’s an example of the search results using Embrace + logo since I own and operate Embrace.com:

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Do Not Pay for a Domain Appraisal Before Selling

Elliot Silver
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5

I saw a thread on NamePros from someone asking about a potential scam. Apparently, the person received an offer to buy a domain name but the person said a (paid) domain appraisal would be necessary before doing a deal. This doesn’t seem legitimate to me.

From the NamePros thread:

“I just received an offer to buy my domain from a supposedly domain broker and the email seems to come from a large internet company in Japan.

However, the agent says that due to regulations in Japan, the buyer needs to have a proper certification to do a bank transfer due to the price being more than 10k.

The broker then sent me a link to get my domain certified for USD199. “

I can not think of a real reason why an appraisal would be necessary to complete a deal. I can not imagine a legitimate domain buyer or domain broker would require one. From my perspective, it seems like the prospective buyer is trying to induce the domain owner to pay nearly $200 (yes, $200!!!!) for a domain appraisal and will then disappear once the payment is made. I can’t think of anyone who has paid for a domain appraisal in order to justify or “certify” a domain name sale.

Domain names are a dynamic market. The prices and values can

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Is Mark Zuckerberg a GoDaddy Customer?

Elliot Silver
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1

Yesterday afternoon, TechCrunch reported that Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg had a baby girl named August Zuckerberg. I was curious to know if the couple purchased the matching AugustZuckerberg.com domain name in advance of their baby’s birthday. The domain name was registered in June of this year at GoDaddy.

Because AugustZuckerberg.com is registered using GoDaddy’s Whois privacy proxy service (Domains By Proxy, LLC), it is not known whether Mark Zuckerberg or his wife registered the domain name. Because of the unique name, I would imagine the domain name was registered by one of them (or a close associate of the family). If you visit AugustZuckerberg.com, you can see a default GoDaddy landing page that does not offer any information about who owns the domain name or how it will be used.

Mark and Priscilla have another daughter

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