Francois Carrillo Launches Discretion.com Private Email Service

I admire Domaining.com founder  Francois Carrillo for his determination when it comes to launching new websites with a variety of different business models. According to an email I received this morning, Francois launched a website on  Discretion.com, which is now a private emailing service.

The way it works is that a person visits  Discretion.com and clicks on the “send a message” button on the bottom of the home page. They are then taken to a page where they can fill out a form to send a message to someone, without the recipient knowing who sent the message. The sender can also choose an option to be notified when the message is opened by the recipient.

On the About us page, there is quite a bit of information about the privacy functionality of Discretion.com. The website reports that they don’t save any data except for encrypted messages for 48 hours.  I believe there are

Namecheap Announces Redesigned Website & Logo Update

NamecheapNamecheap is a domain registrar that has a considerable following with enthusiastic client supporters. As Domain Incite reported this morning, Namecheap is also “in the top 10 largest registrars in terms of domains under management, judging by data in regulatory documents filed by eNom parent Rightside.” Namecheap just announced a major website redesign along with an updated logo.

The company sent out an email to clients and press this morning announcing some of the changes, most of which appear to be focused on the design to help make it easier to find and purchase products and services. The website’s responsive design self-optimizes for the user depending on his or her browser type and size. For me, the website is loading very fast, although I can’t really compare it to the previous iteration of the Namecheap website.

According to the company, “It will be easier to purchase services from Namecheap, from domain names, to web hosting programs, to SSL certificates, and more. The process should be faster as well as code has been optimized for an expedited experience.”

I really like the logo change and color scheme. Previously, the Namecheap logo had a yellowish green icon and black logotype. The new logo is a two-toned orange, and the logotype has changed just a bit. Namecheap is now all lowercase and is in a grey font. The company didn’t add the .com to the logo before, and that has carried over to the new logo.

The full press release announcing the update is below. Congratulations to the Namecheap team on this relaunch.

Domain name registrar and web host Namecheap has launched a new redesign for 2014.
http://www.namecheap.com [Web host and domain name registrar] Namecheap.com has unveiled its newest redesign, focusing on the latest in design achievements while also sporting a friendly and intuitive interface that is responsive and thus accessible from all types of devices.

“The Internet is all about the people who comprise it. The Internet is used by people to tell stories, reach their goals, and execute their ideas,” Richard Kirkendall, CEO of Namecheap said. “Namecheap is here to help, reworking our design to best fit this purpose and to respond to the users’ goals and challenges.”

It will be easier to purchase services from Namecheap, from domain names, to web hosting programs, to SSL certificates, and more. The process should be faster as well as code has been optimized for an expedited experience.

About Namecheap
Namecheap is a Los Angeles-based ICANN-accredited domain registrar founded in 2000 by CEO Richard Kirkendall. With over 1,000,000 clients and millions of domain under management, Namecheap is one of the top domain registrars and web hosting providers in the world. Find out more by visiting us at http://www.namecheap.com.

DomainTools Rolls Out Design Change on Whois History Tool

Last month, you probably noticed that the DomainTools website was redesigned. In addition to a new logo, the navigation and other aspects of the DomainTools website was changed. Aside from sometimes getting annoyed when I roll over the top drop down menu, I think the redesign was implemented well.

While doing some domain research at NamesCon this week, I noticed that DomainTools made a layout / design change to its popular Whois History Tool. Some of the changes that I noticed include the following:

Escrow.com Hits $2 Billion in Transactions

Congratulations are in order for Escrow.com, as the company just announced that it surpassed $2 billion in total transactions. The company had announced $1.5 billion in transactions in May of last year, and they previously announced $1 billion in transactions earlier in 2013.

I am under the impression that a considerable amount of Escrow.com’s business is the facilitation of domain name sales, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the company’s growth is a testament to the strength of the secondary market. It’s also clearly a testament to Escrow.com’s exceptional reputation.

Congratulations to Brandon Abbey and his team at Escrow.com on this achievement. The full release is below:

Demand Media Takes Another Step in Spinning off Rightside

Rightside GroupDemand Media reported some positive news related to its planned spin off of the company’s domain name entities into a company called Rightside, which was officially announced last November. According to a release in the Wall Street Journal, Demand Media (stock symbol DMD) filed a  Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is a part of the process in spinning it off into another public company.

This morning’s press release emphasizes the importance of the new gTLDs to Rightside:

Two New Domain Name Escrow Companies Launch

For a number of years, Escrow.com has been the biggest and best (in my opinion) escrow service for domain names. The company has a stellar reputation and is recommended by Ebay and Cars.com for escrow services. Last year, Escrow.com announced that it surpassed $1.5 billion in transactions, and much of the total comes from domain name sales facilitated on its platform.

This week, two new domain name escrow companies opened for business in advance of the NamesCon conference. Both companies were launched by individuals who are well known in the domain space –