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?

“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!

Some of the domain names include: lasvegastowers.com, lasvegastower.com, share-holder.com, comision.com, vegasi.com, and reporttv.com.

Escovar explains “In the game Monopoly, the person with the most properties usually wins. In this virtual age, whoever owns a list of highly valued and trafficked domain names owns the internet”.

The auction will go live on eBay on June 3, 2008 with a portion of proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

• Dictionary.com (estimated 22.1m visitors in March)
• Thesaurus.com
• Reference.com

Unfortunately the terms of the deal, aren’t being disclosed. Associated Press is reporting that Jim Safka (who runs Ask for for IAC / InterActiveCorp) said that “more than 30 percent of the search requests entered on Ask are seeking reference material.”

What’s my take on this? Well, how do you compete when your fifth place, and have somewhere between 2% - 4% of the market? Go and buy a heap of key premium domain names, develop them and then link them all up!

So how far will Ask go? Should Wikipedia be concerned? Didn’t this type of strategy fail for AOL back in the early 90’s? Hey kids, lets go make our own Internets - go get those tubes over there….

Here is a selection that I particularly like:

pay.com, action.com, anger.com, athlete.com, gasprices.com, idol.com, jackpot.com, daycare.org, refinancing.net and ringtone.mobi

I’m dying to see how much pay.com will sell for. It’s going to have to be a record breaker.

Dupre is seeking damages for, among other things, unjust enrichment based on videos and DVD’s sold via domain names which, its been alleged, have been registered in bad faith. For the lawyers reading this, the domain name component is brought under the Anti-Cyber-squatting Consumer Protect Act - Section 43(d) of the Lanham Act. Documents filed in the Southern District of Florida reveal that the domain names involved are:

www.ashleydupre.net
www.girlsgonewildashleydupre.com
www.ashleyduprecallgirl.com
www.onelivecall.com/ashleydupre

In my mind, there are a HEAP of questions coming out of this, starting with:

1. Were the domain names registered in bad faith, and how do you prove it?
2. What is reasonable compensation for this?
3. What damage has she actually suffered?
4. If you have the view that your name is a trademark, then who has the right to your name?
5. Was the trademark registered in the first instance?
6. What about all the other Ashley Dupre’s in the world?

This is going to be a very interesting case. While the documents filed in the District Court mention profit from the sales of DVDs and videos, what about all the affiliate comissions and PPC advertising on the sites? As I write this post, the domain ashleyduprecallgirl.com is still online, complete with match making ads and a picture of the girl in question.

Personally, I think this is going to be tough case to prove. However, it might surprise you that I’m on the side of the call girl. Why? Because people who go out of their way to register dodgy domain names should have the book thrown at them (or in this case the DVD’s they are allegedly selling).

Its cases like this that the media latch onto and then make “broad brush” statements about cybersquatters being evil (which they are), but unfortunately domainers often get lumped in with those guys. Lets hope the media has matured enough to recognize the issue, this time around.