50 Year Old Company Rebrands With a .Health Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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0

A company called Sound Mental Health announced (via press release) that it was undergoing a rebrand. The company will now be known simply as “Sound.” To enable this rebranding effort, the company is now using the Sound.Health new gTLD domain name for its website. The press release noted that the company has been in business for 50 years.

A Whois search shows that this company is the first registrant of the domain name. It is unclear to me if this domain name is classified as a premium domain name (ie the buyer had to work out a deal with the .Health domain registry) or if this was simply a hand-registered domain name with a normal renewal rate. It looks like .Health domain names cost $69.99/year at GoDaddy and other registrars seem to be in the same ballpark. Sound.Health is registered at MarkMonitor, a brand protection and domain name management company.

If you visit Sound.Health, you will notice the company’s logo does not reference the .Health aspect of the domain name. In addition, it does not appear that the company referenced the .Health domain name in its page title or description. It will be interesting to see how the company lets its customers and partners know it is using a .Health domain name.

If there is any confusion and people visit

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Pocahontas.com: Elizabeth Warren Wants to “Stop Trump”

Elliot Silver
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13

President Donald Trump has been referring to US Senator Elizabeth Warren (my Senator) as “Pocahontas” for quite some time. In an event honoring Navajo veterans on Monday, the President once again referred to Senator Warren as Pocahontas:

“I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump said. “Although, we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time … longer than you — they call her Pocahontas!”

Since mid-2016, Pocahontas.com has been forwarding to Senator Warren’s website, ElizabethWarren.com. The Whois information on Pocahontas.com is private, so the owner of the domain name remains publicly unknown. When I wrote about the forward last year, I was unsure whether it was being done as a prank on Senator Warren or done in support of her. I am

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Wordfence Parent Rebrands as Defiant – Bought the EMD via Sedo

Elliot Silver
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I use the Wordfence plugin for security on all of my WordPress-based websites. I think it offers an enhanced level of security, and it has both a free and a paid version. This afternoon, Wordfence announced that its corporate brand name has been changed from Feedjit Inc. to Defiant Inc. Smartly the company acquired the  matching Defiant.com domain name in advance of the rebranding.

Curious to learn more about the sale price, I searched through my email history and found the name in a Sedo sale report. Defiant.com was acquired for the very reasonable price of $45,000 in February of 2017. The sale is publicly archived on NameBio. I am not sure if the domain name was being brokered by a Sedo domain broker or if the owner put the name up for sale on the platform with a make offer listing or a buy it now price.

It looks like the Wordfence service (and plugin) will

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Startup with $19m in Funding Gets Less.com

Elliot Silver
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5

TechCrunch reported on a $19 million funding round for a startup called Less, “a ride-sharing service for commuters and other short distance rides.” The company was founded by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, who reportedly founded “one of the most successful French startups,” Criteo. Smartly, Less is using the perfect domain name for this venture: Less.com.

When I noticed the url for Less, it rung a bell. I searched through my email, and I see that it had been offered for sale via several brokers. In 2015, Less.com was offered for sale via Brannans for $325,000. In 2016, I see an email from Mark Daniel of Domain Holdings who offered the domain name for sale without a price. In December of 2016, Brannans was once again offering the domain name for sale in its newsletter with a $160,000 price. Most recently, in August of this year, Brannans had Less.com in its newsletter as a “make offer” listing.

Based on Whois records, it appears that

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Purple is Now on Purple.com

Elliot Silver
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0

Earlier this month, I reported the sale of the Purple.com domain name. When the sale was reported, all signs appeared to show that the mattress startup, Purple, had acquired the Purple.com domain name. This has been confirmed.

If you visit Purple.com today, you can see the mattress company is now using the domain name. If you visit OnPurple.com, the domain name that was previously used by the startup, you will be forwarded directly to Purple.com.

This domain name acquisition makes a ton of sense. When people hear of a company called Purple, they generally assume it can be found on Purple.com. Now, there

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Roomi Raises $11m – Guess Its Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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8

A started up called Roomi has raised $11 million in funding, according to TechCrunch. Roomi helps people find roommates, and it seems to be relatively successful since its introduction in 2015. Although the branding is cute, I don’t think the domain name is very good and it could cause problems as the startup continues to grow.

Roomi can’t be found at Roomi.com. Instead, visitors need to go to RoomiApp.com to find the company’s website.

The exact match Roomi.com domain name has been registered since 2000, and it is being used as a blog. I would imagine it could be helpful for the startup to purchase Roomi.com, although a brandable domain name like Roomi.com has quite a bit of value.

Perhaps a bigger problem for the company is a totally different domain name.

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