Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall shared a preview of something his company currently has under development. It is called Thunderbolt, and you can visit Spaceship.com/thunderbolt to see what the company intends to bring to the market with Thunderbolt.
Richard shared a high-level vision for Thunderbolt, with the idea being the possibility of not needing an ISP or phone service:
A few months ago, I sold a domain name via Squadhelp. Based on how the sale was made, I was pretty sure the domain name was not acquired by an existing brand. When I went to check to see if the domain name was being used using Safari, I was forwarded to another website. I was surprised to see that it forwarded me to an existing website.
A Whois search did not reveal any additional information, so I explored further. I visited the domain name on a Chrome browser, and I was taken to a default GoDaddy landing page. This perplexed me. A bit of additional researched showed me what happened.
The other day, Adam Strong shared a similar story about being redirected on Safari:
This morning, Escrow.com released its quarterly Domain Investment Index for the Third Quarter of 2023. This report offers a broad overview of the domain name aftermarket with data from transactions closed via Escrow.com. The entire (free) report can be accessed via this Google Drive link shared with me by Escrow.com.
A few of the datapoints highlighted in the report that I found interesting were:
Something I find quite frustrating in a negotiation is when I learn the buyer is not ready to purchase the domain name. It is incredibly annoying to spend time exchanging emails, texts, or WhatsApps to come to terms on a deal, and learn there is someone else or another group that has to approve the purchase.
One question I need to start asking at the beginning of a domain name discussion is “where are you in the decision making process?” Getting this information can mean the difference between offering a nice price to get a deal closed right away vs. sticking to the asking price regardless of current conditions.
The Internet Commerce Association shared its list of nominees for the 2024 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award. I was nominated (by Francois), and I appreciate him for thinking of me. I also nominated someone for the award, and I thought I would share who I nominated and why.
Many years ago, I shared the story about how I met Lonnie Borck. In short, I met Lonnie as we were both exiting the restroom at the 2007 TRAFFIC conference in New York City. Since that chance meeting, my friendship with Lonnie grew. From that point on and for many years, we spoke on the phone and exchanged emails many times a week, and we occasionally got together until his untimely passing in 2016. That still hurts.
