Several days ago, I reported that the S.CO domain name was acquired by MarkMonitor on behalf of a client. Because the Whois registrant information listed MarkMonitor's privacy proxy service (DNStination Inc.) as the registrant, it was unknown who was behind the brand protection company's acquisition.

This morning, a reader named Davis noticed that the S.CO domain name was activated, revealing that Snapchat appears to be the buyer of S.CO. If you visit S.CO right now, you will be redirected to Snapchat's homepage.

I did some Twitter searching, and I do not see any mentions of the S.CO domain name by Snapchat or any other Twitter user. This isn't surprising because the company likely hasn't announced how the domain name will be used. I would not be surprised to see (more…) → Read More

It looks like the S.CO domain name changed hands at the end of last week or over the weekend. According to Whois records at DomainTools, S.CO is now registered to DNStination Inc., the proxy provider for MarkMonitor, a brand protection and domain registration company. As of right now, S.CO resolves to a generic GoDaddy landing page.

I believe S.CO was sold by GoDaddy / NameFind, although the purchase price for the domain name will not be revealed per GoDaddy's policy. Earlier this year, Jamie Zoch reported that GoDaddy "acquired the premium domains held by the .co registry (likely ALL of the remaining ones they held)" via its NameFind business. There were quite a few single letter .CO domain names in that portfolio, including S.CO.

Back in 2012, S.CO had been used by Startup America, an organization that was co-founded by America Online founder Steve Case. At the time, it was announced that the organization would rebrand its url from StartupAmericaPartnership.org to the shorter S.CO domain name. It looks like the organization → Read More

A UDRP has been filed against the generic-sounding domain name, TheToolShed.com. The UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), and it is case #1737883. The UDRP was first spotted by UDRPSearch.com.

TheToolshed.com was created in 2003, and the domain name is registered to NameFind, a company that is owned and operated by GoDaddy. A Historical Whois search at DomainTools shows that this domain name was previously owned by Worldwide Media, Inc., the company founded by Michael Berkens. Michael sold the vast majority of his domain name portfolio to GoDaddy at the end of 2015. The Whois History Tool shows that Worldwide Media owned this domain name dating back to 2003.

The domain name is parked with pay per click advertising related to tools. I do not see a price for this domain name at NameFind or Afternic. The PGA recently filed a UDRP against ThePlayers.com, and that UDRP was terminated. The PGA now owns the domain name, so I suspect they were able to reach a deal prior to the decision being rendered. The → Read More

I noticed a new Afternic "domain for sale" landing page I thought I would share with readers. As you can see below, the landing page does not have any pay per click advertising (PPC) on it, and the lander makes it very clear that the domain name is for sale. You can visit Stallions.com to have a look at the landing page in action.



On the top of the landing page, you can see the call to action with a phone number to call an Afternic sales associate. Afternic likes to encourage people to call rather than submit their contact information via form. Their sales team is likely very strong on the phone, and getting someone to call is a good way for the company to sell its domain names.

If a visitor clicks on the "Inquire Today!" (more…) → Read More

A UDRP has been filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) against the Fabricator.com domain name. The UDRP filing can be found on UDRPSearch.com, and it is case #1728625.

The current Whois record for Fabricator.com shows the owner is NameFind, a company that is owned by GoDaddy. Based on a historical Whois record from DomainTools, I believe this domain name was acquired in the major Marchex domain name portfolio acquisition. I am not sure when Marchex acquired this dictionary .com domain name.

At the time of publication, the Fabricator.com landing page has a generic search box with some popular keywords showing. I am not familiar with this type of PPC landing page, as it looks different than others I have seen in the NameFind portfolio. From my perspective, there shouldn't be anything wrong with the business model of generating revenue from pay per click advertising on a keyword domain name. Fabricator.com is listed for sale on Afternic with a minimum opening offer of $32,500.



Because the UDRP was filed at → Read More

The PGA Tour has filed a UDRP at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for  ThePlayers.com domain name. The UDRP is WIPO Case D2017-0746.

ThePlayers.com is a domain name that has a creation date of January 22, 2003. It appears that the domain name was registered prior to that, but it was dropped and acquired by another party.  This domain name is now owned by NameFind, a company that is owned and operated by GoDaddy. Based on the Whois History (via DomainTools), I believe the domain name was acquired in the large Marchex domain name acquisition made in 2015.

If you visit ThePlayers.com, you can see that the domain name is parked with a  "for sale" message at the top. When I did a Whois search at DomainTools, I saw that the domain name appears to have a $45,000 asking price on Afternic. There are currently golf-related PPC links showing on the automatically generated landing page.



I am not much of a golf fan, but when I did a Google search for "The Players" and "PGA Tour," I learned that the PGA has an → Read More