101Domain Evacuated Due to Wild Fire

Elliot Silver
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If you are trying to reach someone from 101Domain today or in the near future, you should be advised that employees have been evacuated from the company’s office due to aggressive wild fires that are in the area.

The company issued the following statement on Facebook to advise customers of the situation the company is currently facing:

“Due to extreme wild fires in the Carlsbad area we have evacuated our main office. Dependent on the winds in the area our office location should be safe. We apologize to our customers that today we are unable to answer telephone support calls and inquiry tickets. The online ordering system and DNS servers are working normally. Please keep our company and the surrounding homes in your prayers.”

The Governor of California

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Voting for Domainers Choice Awards Begins Today

Elliot Silver
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If you submitted nominations for the 2014 Domainers Choice Awards, you should have received an email this morning from Donna Mahony inviting you to vote for the award winners. Voting begins today, and ballots may be submitted from now until May 30, 2014.

The voting is being conducted by a third party voting company called VoteNet, and it is only open to people who submitted nominations. The email that was sent contains a user name and password to ensure that people vote only once.

There are 16 categories of nominations, and there are three nominees per category. The winners will be announced at a dinner celebration at the Dana Point Yacht Club in Dana Point, California on June 28, in conjunction with the annual  DBR  FunFest. Tickets for the event are currently for sale and cost $97. The awards dinner is open to the public.

I appreciate those of you who nominated me / my blog for two categories, and I wish all of the nominees good luck.

Rook Media Acquires DomainSponsor from Oversee [Updates]

Elliot Silver
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ds_logoI just received a press release announcing the Rook Media has acquired DomainSponsor from Oversee.net. The terms of the transaction were not released. Founded in 2002, DomainSponsor is one of the oldest domain name parking companies, and according to DailyChanges.com, its nameservers have nearly one million domain names resolving to them.

During the last several years, Oversee has evolved from being one of the largest domain name industry companies to perhaps moving away from the domain business, at least in terms of being a service provider. Previously, Oversee sold its Moniker domain registrar and SnapNames auction house. I think the company’s evolution is even more clear when you compare how Oversee is described in company press releases:

In 2012: “Oversee.net ® is a leader in online performance marketing.”

Today: “Oversee.net is an innovative technology company that owns and operates a portfolio of websites designed to help consumers discover, compare, and save.”

I think this deal should be seen as good news for domain investors. From my perspective, the more domain names that are parked with a monetization service, the better revenue share they should be able to command from the upstream provider. Some people may look at it from the other perspective of fewer providers means fewer options and lower payouts, but I don’t necessarily think that will be the case.

I am curious to know if

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Aaron and Shane Are Doing It Right

Elliot Silver
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I am sure you read the news about the merger of DomainShane.com and AccidentalDomainer.com. The two blogs are run by friends Shane Cultra and Aaron Wilkin, both of whom have “real” jobs. Aaron and Shane have both done a very good job of building their individual blog brands. Running a blog is challenging for a variety of reasons, and I think the merger will pay off for both of them.

Instead of starting a new blog from scratch, the pair will utilize DomainShane.com for the blog’s website. This is smart for three reasons:

  • From a traffic standpoint, DomainShane.com has
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Verisign Twitter Account Appears to be Hacked

Elliot Silver
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Screen Shot 2014-04-19 at 9.45.05 PM

I was looking at Twitter tonight, and it appears that the Verisign Twitter account  has  been hacked or somehow compromised. The most recent tweet from Verisign said, “I’m down almost 13 pounds this month, woohoo!” As you can see by the check mark next to the user name, Verisign’s Twitter account is a verified account.

I didn’t click the Bitly link, but I guess it links to a scammy, malware-laden, or other type of illegitimate website, and I would advise not clicking on that link if you happen to come across the Tweet.

It seems like there are quite a few Twitter users whose accounts may have been hacked. I did a search for the text of the tweet, and there are quite a few results with exactly the same tweet. Judging by a few other accounts I follow on Twitter, others may have also had their accounts compromised or hacked (unless these people are posting about weight loss at the same time). I think it’s pretty clear when it happens, but if come across a tweet that looks fishy, it’s better to stay away.

Hopefully this gets resolved ASAP.

Update: The Verisign tweet was removed, but there are still plenty of others:

Screen Shot 2014-04-19 at 10.03.35 PM

Lana Del Rey Releases “West Coast”

Elliot Silver
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I am sure you’ve heard of Lana Del Rey by now, and you probably also know that her dad is domain investor Rob Grant. This morning, Lana released a new single called “West Coast,” and you’re probably going to hear a lot more of it on the radio this summer. To give you an idea of her popularity, the song was released this morning, and it already has over half a million views on YouTube alone.

Lana is currently on her first US tour, and she will be singing at venues across the United States this Spring and Summer. This weekend, she closed out the Coachella Music Festival and performed her new song. I am going to check out her concert at the House of Blues in Boston next month, and hopefully I will have a chance to catch up with Rob before the show.

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