Brandsight, the corporate domain name management company that was acquired by GoDaddy in a deal announced earlier this month, will be hosting a free webinar, 2019 Domain Name Year in Review. The webinar is probably not geared towards domain investors, but it would likely be of interest to people who manage large domain name portfolios.
The topics that will be covered by Matt Serlin and Elisa Cooper include the ten biggest domain name stories from last year, including:
Verisign submitted a letter (pdf) to ICANN in response to the comments regarding the proposed amendment #3 of the .com registry contract. I want to highlight one aspect of the letter I found notable. In providing an example of domain name speculator activity, Verisign wrote:
“As a recent example, moments before the World Health Organization announced the official name of the coronavirus, Namecheap registered the name (covid-19.com) to a domain name speculator, presumably unassociated with the public health mission of the WHO.”
Nabil Elderkin is a photographer who is particularly well-known for working with Kanye West. In a Vice Canada video, Nabil shared how he connected with Kanye West to begin working with him, and it all came about because he registered the KanyeWest.com domain name. Shortly after doing so, Kanye’s record label (Roc-A-Fella Records) reached out to Nabil, and they were able to work out a non-cash deal that turned into a job for Nabil.
The Golf Channel posted a video this afternoon with some golf and domain name humor. I am sure it is funny and meaningful to golf fans.
Hey @PhilMickelson, did you lock this domain name down already? 🤔
David has some fun with PXG and Go Daddy founder @DrBobParsons on #Feherty Live presented by @WeAreFarmers. pic.twitter.com/a6Zj9nT8CC
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) January 23, 2020
A news report caught my attention this afternoon. Rupert Murdoch launched a US version of his UK news publication, The Sun. Unfortunately for Mr. Murdoch, the publication was forced to use a hyphen in the domain name, The-Sun.com. The reason? TheSun.com has long been owned by another entity.
Rupert Murdoch launches US version of the tabloid The Sun https://t.co/uVpBcztZ4M pic.twitter.com/MTsZAEf2jd
— The Hill (@thehill) January 13, 2020
Typographical error domain names can still generate parking revenue for the registrant. Typically, the more valuable typo domain names are misspellings of popular websites that generate traffic. For instance, Googole.com is a typo domain name of Google.com (which happens to be registered to the search giant). Most frequently, typo domain names are simply mistyped by the user rather than errors caused by the corresponding brand.
