Month: April 2011

News

Living Social registers dozens of typo and anti-company domain names like livingsocialblows.com

Post author By J.B.
Post date April 6, 2011
1 Comment on Living Social registers dozens of typo and anti-company domain names like livingsocialblows.com

As reported by a number of news sites and blogs, the daily deals service Living Social has raised $400 million in a new round of funding, raising the company’s value to a staggering $3 billion.

As the company continues to grow, so to does its ever-growing list of domain names, many of which are focused on typos of its livingsocial.com web address, as well anti-company names.

This week, the list of anti-company domain names registered by Living Social in an effort to protect its online reputation include:

http://whois.domaintools.com/fucklivingsocial.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/livingsocialblows.com

While Living Social has been able to get many anti-company domains, one common variation ending with the word “sucks” (livingsocialsucks.com) is owned by CityDeals.com, another group buying site that registered the domain back in September 2010 according to Whois records.

Living Social registers web addresses regularly, not all of which are typos of anti-company domains. Among the list of domain names, include livingsocialflashdeals.com and livingsocialdailycoupons.com.

This week the company targeted more typos.

Created on…………..: 2011-04-04.
Expires on…………..: 2012-04-03.
Record last updated on..: 2011-04-04.

http://whois.domaintools.com/livingsocicl.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/livingsocinal.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/livingsocinl.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/livingsoclal.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/livingsociail.com

Groupon, a major competitor of Living Social, doesn’t appear to have been as lucky with getting anti-company domain names. Names like f***groupon.com, grouponsucks.com, and grouponblows.com appear to have been registered by individuals instead of the company itself.

Tags anti-company domains, groupon, living social, living social domain names, typo domains

Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Zynga wins dispute for domain name (zygnagiftcards.com turned over to game network)

Post author By J.B.
Post date April 4, 2011

Zynga, the gaming company that purchased the Cityville.com domain for $38,225 in June 2010 and turned it into a record-breaking game on Facebook, has been successful in getting the domain name zyngagiftcards.com.

In early February, Zynga filed a domain name dispute with WIPO, as reported here on Fusible. On March 31, the Whois records switched from Joanna Hewett to Zynga Game Network Inc. It appears the name was transferred before a decision was even reached by a WIPO panelist.

The company also filed a dispute over zyngaworld.com, a case that has yet to be decided.

Zynga to unveil plans for zyngagiftcards.com?

As I mentioned in my previous coverage, in March 2010 TechCrunch reported Zynga rolled out gift cards at a number of major retailers in the U.S.

Zynga refers to their “gift cards” as “game cards“, but the company doesn’t own the domain and hasn’t filed a dispute with WIPO.

Zynga gift cards could be even bigger business as the company has its targets set on the world.

In March, the company announced it set up a studio in India. In the same story, it was reported Zynga Game Cards would be launching in more than 500,000 outlets in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand

Tags Domain Dispute, zynga, Zynga Game Cards, Zynga Gift Cards, zyngagiftcards.com

News

Slots.net redirects to Slots.com, Did Calvin Ayre’s Bodog Brand buy it?

Post author By J.B.
Post date April 4, 2011
1 Comment on Slots.net redirects to Slots.com, Did Calvin Ayre’s Bodog Brand buy it?

2010 was an expensive year for Calvin Ayre when it came to buying domain names.

In June 2010, Calvin Ayre’s Bodog Brand purchased the domain name slots.com for a reported $5.5 million, which grabbed headlines for weeks. A month later in July, Bodog Brand acquired the Canadian top level country code domain, slots.ca, for $206,906 at Moniker.

It now looks like Calvin Ayre has continued his buying spree for more “slots” domains.

If you hadn’t noticed, the web address slots.net now re-directs to the slots.com website. Re-directing the name, was the same technique used for the slots.ca domain after its purchase.

It’s not confirmed yet whether Bodog Brand was the actual buyer of slots.net, but if I were a gambling man, I’d put my money on Calvin Ayre as the new owner. At the time of this story, the sale has gone unreported.

If a deal was cut, one can only guess that the price may have been in the seven figures. Last year, Poker.org sold for $1,000,000.

Tags bodog, bodog brand, calvin ayre, slots, slots.ca, slots.com, slots.net

News

March a busy month for the MLB as it registers several new domain names; A look at what they bought

Post author By J.B.
Post date April 2, 2011

March was a busy month online for the people behind Major League Baseball Advanced Media, LP (also known as MLBAM).

With Opening Day getting underway on Thursday, March 31, MLB Advanced Media (the internet branch of the league) bought up nearly two dozen domain names that were not registered and available for anyone to purchase.

You may be surprised to learn that many of the domain names that were registered, weren’t simply web addresses that contained the keyword “MLB”, but in fact, were generic. URLs like top50prospects.com and aroundtheminors.com.

Domains created in March 2011

Is there anything in store for these newly registered domain names?

Little is known, but MLB Advanced Media is known for its affinity for web addresses, and not just domains that it can pick up on the cheap. MLB Advanced Media owns close to 3,000 domain names, including the generic version of many of MLB’s team names like Indians.com and Yankees.com.

In August 2010, it purchased the domain Angels.com for $200,000 via Sedo, an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of domain names.

You might also be wondering, why did the MLB register so many hometown domain names in March? Something appears to be in the works, as MLBAM registered the URLs mlbhometown.com and myhometownbaseball.com the month before.

Tags Major League Baseball, MLB, MLB Advanced Media, MLB.com, MLBAM