Eureka is the county seat and principal city in Humboldt County, California, United States.
It’s been reported that their Police Department has allowed their domain name to expire.
The new owner of eurekapd.org in Russia has allegedly kept some of the content.
Police Chief Garr Nielsen told the Eureka Reporter that he wasn’t aware of the domain name being taken over and made it clear he didn’t want the Web site online anymore, but the city of Eureka has not yet decided if it is a “problem” or not.
Well… my guess is that it will be - especially when Jack Bauer comes looking for an answer!
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A couple of hours ago I won another NameJet auction - nothing new there. However, the domain was registered at Network Solutions. Alongside the NameJet auction email was another one from Network Solutions telling me that I’d won the name and that it was renewed and transferred to my account - good.
Like a kid in a candy store, I quickly visit the Network Solutions website to check that everything is ok - but I can’t - their web site isn’t accessible. Grrr… Unfortuantely I can’t make any DNS changes to park the domain name. But then again, should I even have to? If you use Snapnames, you can go into your settings and nominate default DNS servers. Not in this case - I won using NameJet! Network Solutions has my beautiful domain name, parked with their ads! Noooooooo!
Lets look at their cashflow model:
Sally buys name at Network Solutions = $$$
Sally doesn’t renew her name
Network Solutions provides NameJet with the ability to auction the domain name = $$$ ?
John wins the auction and pays NameJet = $$$
The domain name is parked at Network Solutions until the owner changes the DNS = parking $$$
The domain name is renewed by the new owner = $$$
How the role of a domain name registrar has changed!
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It seems that Snapnames is still working on the problems. When you search for domains using the advanced search or search box, you get warning about a certificate expiring:
This is really quite strange as Overture belongs to Yahoo. When you visit the link you get:
To VIP Status: OK
Server Status: OK
The title tag changes to “Hello from Apache :-)”
and then it diverts to the Overture Small Business website. Perhaps Snapnames has included some Yahoo code somewhere?
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Snapnames sent me the email (below) a few hours ago. I have highlighted in bold the interesting bits.
—
Dear SnapNames Customers:
As you are likely aware, the SnapNames service was unavailable between last Thursday evening U.S. Pacific time and today. We are pleased to tell you functionality has now been restored and that important data, including transaction history, has been fully retained.
Please note that auctions scheduled to close between July 4-7 will now close at (time EDT) on Tuesday, July 8. Please monitor any auctions accordingly.
We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced during this time. Should you have furtherquestions, you can reach us here:
Technical Support: support@snapnames.com Telephone: (800) 385-4075 (toll-free in the U.S.) + 1 503 241-8547 (outside the U.S.)
Sincerely, The SnapNames Team
—
Their website reads:
Thank you for your patience during the recent outage to our service. The SnapNames system is again fully functional and ready to accept your orders and bids.
Please note, auctions scheduled to close between July 4-7 will now close on Tuesday, July 8 or later. Please monitor any auctions accordingly. If you have questions, please contact us at support@snapnames.com.
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One of the 3 major backordering companies is currently down. I put a call into the SnapNames support phone number, nobody answered and it went to voicemail - so I left a message.
Not only is this very unprofessional, but it gives their competitors such as NameJet and Pool a clear advantage.
There has been some discussion on DNF and a thread on NamePros regarding this issue, but nobody from Snapnames has posted. If you know what the situation is, please contact me.
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Just over an hour ago I received notice from Pool:
“We have received notice from Verisign that today’s drop has been cancelled due to technical difficulties on their end. We have been told by Verisign that the domains from today’s drop will be included in tomorrow’s drop. As we receive further information from the registry, we will be sure to keep you advised.”
Like me, you are probably asking, how exactly does a domain name drop get canceled? Hopefully I will have some answers on this soon. Stay tuned!
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Pool.com recently notified its customers that their catch and release system will no longer attempt to register domains from customer request queues.I have personally used Pool’s Catch & Release service and was quite puzzled by this move. C&R provided a really easy way to taste names, with minimal risk. It was also a lot cheaper than other companies that provide domain tasting / refunds.
Why Did Pool Dropped C&R?
It all begins with ICANN. In October 2007, the ICANN GNSO Council launched a policy development process (PDP) on domain tasting. They produced an Initial Report for public comment that outlined the possible actions to be taken, and the arguments for and against such actions. Public comments were incorporated into a draft Final Report (posted 8 February) for GNSO Council review and action.
The GNSO Council approved a motion which effectively changes the AGP - where domains can be returned within five days without cost. The motion, which is pending for Board action, would prohibit any gTLD operator that has implemented an “add grace period” (AGP) from offering a refund to a registrar for any domain name deleted during the AGP that exceeds 10% of its net new registrations during that month, or fifty domain names, whichever is greater.
What Does Pool.com Think About This?
In an exclusive interview with DomainerIncome.com, Richard Schreier, CEO of Pool.com said the “decision to allow the $0.25 fee is a prudent business decision” and that “domain tasting will be far more selective and the economics of doing tasting
will change.”
So - what’s my take on this?
On the GNSO Council report; like anything masked under the guise of “security” these days, nobody is prepared to stand up and question it.
It’s obvious to me that ICANN has too many want-to-be, jet setting politicians and anti-business Internet purists who can’t stand “their Internet” being used to make money. That is, unless its for big American companies like Verisign.
Unfortunately, the Domain Name Industry is too fragmented and doesn’t have the funds in one single entity to hire a fleet of lobbyists and PR consultants to educate the market about such changes.
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Its 4:45am and I’ve just completed purchasing a good name at TDNAM. I have to be quick with this post because I have a Snapnames auction thats about to end in 20 minutes.
Using Coupons At TDNAM
When you buy an expired domain name at TDNAM, you can use coupons to reduce the price you pay. The saving is on the 1 year renewal cost, so here is a list of coupons that I ran through a few minutes ago:
Coupon code: “gdbb776” made the 1 year renewal decrease from $9.99 to $7.50, while “cjcbentld” reduced it to $7.64 and “gdbb776” reduced it to $7.50. So take your pick.
Its important to note that these coupons didn’t work for me on a domain name that was listed by a 3rd party. But don’t let that worry you.
Advantages Of Not Buying An Expired Domain Name
One MAJOR ADVANTAGE of buying a name from a 3rd party is that you get to keep the entire history of the domain name. This is something to give serious thought to when bidding.
For the beginners reading this, I’ll explain what I mean. When you backorder an expired / expiring domain name from a backordering company, the domain actually expires and renews as a part of the drop process. As such, search engines tend not to keep their directory listings, cached web pages etc.. BUT when you buy a domain from a 3rd party, it’s not a part of the drop process. If the expiry date comes up, then you just renew it, like you would any other domain name.
The search engines keep all that valuable history, your happy - everyones happy. Now, time to monetize that new domain!
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A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a group of domainers, when someone asked the group if anyone owned a “dictionary word” domain. Everyone looked at each other and paused. I kind of got the feeling that nobody wanted to say anything. So, I did - yes of course! But then someone else jumped in and started complaining about how people like me grabbed them all up in the “good old days” and that there were “no good domains left”. Of course, I disagreed and gave some examples of domains that I purchased that very week.
Unfortunately, there are those amongst us that can’t complain enough about parking revenue, backordering fees, adsense blah, blah, blah - and I’m tired of it! I don’t want to be around negative people, however I do want to set the record straight.
Here are a few dictionary words that will expire over the next few days:
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying that you will make a million dollars out of these names, but dictionary words are still around and yes, you can backorder them! Best of luck in the auction.
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It’s been reported that their Police Department has allowed their domain name to expire.
They produced an