Tag: amazon

KindleMother.com? Amazon secretly registers family member domain names

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 14, 2012

KindleChild.com, KindleFather.com, KindleMother.com, KindlePreteen.com – those are just a handful of the names that Amazon privately registered this week through the registrar Go Daddy.

All of the names were registered to Domains By Proxy, Go Daddy’s private registration service, but with a little sleuthing it was quite easy to reveal the company owner behind the domains as Amazon.

Dozens of domain names centered on “family” were registered, but the company is remaining hush-hush on its plans for them.

The names could point to new content for the Kindle devices, as they were all registered a day after Amazon’s General Counsel took control of KindlePublications.com (Whois).

Revealing Amazon as the owner was simple. By typing the domain and e-mail address “[email protected]” into Go Daddy’s online account retrieval system, you can quickly confirm Amazon as the owner, since Go Daddy shows a message stating, “An email with the requested information has been sent”, when you fill in all the fields correctly.

It’s the same technique I used to see that Amazon bought KindleFireHD.com.

In many cases, Amazon registered the Spanish and English versions of the same name, such as KindleMadre.com and KindleMother.com.

Below is a bigger list of the names privately registered by Amazon. It includes many, but not all of the names, which appear to have been registered on October 12, 2012, according to Whois records.

At the time of this story, all of the names direct users to a Go Daddy parked page.

(Image of Kindle Fire via Amazon.com)

Tags amazon, Domains by Proxy, Go Daddy, Kindle, Kindle Child, Kindle Families, Kindle Father, Kindle Fire, Kindle Infant, Kindle Mother

News Technology

Amazon acquired KindleFireHD.com domain right before announcement

Post author By J.B.
Post date September 8, 2012
4 Comments on Amazon acquired KindleFireHD.com domain right before announcement

Unknown if Amazon shelled out big bucks or threatened legal action

Domain first registered on Sept 28, ’11, same day Kindle Fire announced
Amazon revealed as owner even though name anonymously registered
Has better domain record than Apple, which still doesn’t own iPad.com

In a smart move by Amazon, shortly before announcing the new Kindle Fire HD family of products to the world on September 6, 2012, the company acquired the domain name KindleFireHD.com. According to Whois records, the name switched hands from its previous owner “Nathaniel Sawbo” to Amazon.

What is known (after some sleuthing) is that Amazon now owns the domain, but what isn’t known is if Amazon had to pay some money to the name’s original owner or whether the company threatened legal action.

On the very same day Amazon unveiled the first generation Kindle Fire in 2011, the company registered well over 500 domain names related to the Kindle Fire and Silk browser products, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. While Amazon managed to secure the rights to names like KindleFireScreen.com and KindleFireDisplay.com, it failed to obtain KindleFireHD.com.

Today, KindleFireHD.com is a blank web page and is registered anonymously through Go Daddy’s Domains By Proxy service, but it takes only a few simple steps using Go Daddy’s public account retrieval system to figure out who is behind the domain.

It’s what some might call a “slight flaw” in Go Daddy’s account retrieval system which allows you to figure out the owner of a privately registered domain as long as you know the e-mail address of the registrant.

On my first and only try, I used [email protected], and was able to quickly confirm Amazon as the owner.

First, I went to Go Daddy’s Account Assistance page.

Next, I clicked on Retrieve my Customer #, then entered kindlefirehd.com for the domain name and [email protected] for the e-mail address. After entering the security code, I clicked Submit, as shown in the screenshot below.

If everything is a successful match, and it was, a message stating, “An email with the requested information has been sent.”

Unlike Apple, one of its biggest competitors with a reputation for announcing products before owning the domains, Amazon has a much better track record.

Amazon owned KindleFire.com when it unveiled the tablet.

The company owns Kindle.com and other product names like KindleDX.com.

To this day, Apple doesn’t even own iPad.com.

Amazon may even have a shot at owning FireHD.com, which has surprisingly expired according to Whois. If you browse Amazon’s website, you’ll notice the company uses “Fire HD” (minus Kindle) quite a bit, so it may be in the company’s interest. The domain name will be available to the public on October 3, 2012, if the owner doesn’t renew the name in time.

I’ve reached out to Nathaniel Sawbo, KindleFireHD.com’s original owner for more information on the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

(Image of Kindle Fire HD via Amazon.com)

Tags amazon, Amazon Domains, Domains by Proxy, Fire HD, FireHD.com, Go Daddy, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, KindleFireHD.com, MarkMonitor, WHOIS privacy

News

Amazon drops more hints of B2B marketplace with AmazonB2B domains

Post author By J.B.
Post date March 31, 2012

Andrew Alleman reported yesterday on his blog Domain Name Wire (DNW) that Amazon had registered a slew of domains like SuppliesAmazon.com on March 28 that suggested a manufacturing or B2B play.

While big tech companies like Amazon typically don’t comment on rumor or speculation, Amazon continues to specifically hint at the launch of a B2B marketplace with over a dozen new “AmazonB2B” domain registrations that were made on March 29, like AmazonB2B.net (Whois) and AmazonB2B.org (Whois).

Amazon has already owned the web address AmazonB2B.com since 2006, but the domain has sat unused for years.

So, could Amazon be planning to compete with the likes of Alibaba.com, the world’s largest online business-to-business trading platform for small businesses?

Well, according to the company’s newest registrations it looks very promising.

On March 29, a day before the DNW news story was published, Amazon not only registered AmazonB2B dot-net and dot-org, it also registered several more domains that DNW had never spotted, so no mention was made in the story.

Here’s a look at the AmazonB2B domains that were registered, that further strengthen the idea of an AmazonB2B marketplace.

amazonb2b.asia
amazonb2b.biz
amazonb2b.ch
amazonb2b.dk
amazonb2b.fr
amazonb2b.in
amazonb2b.info
amazonb2b.it
amazonb2b.jp
amazonb2b.mobi
amazonb2b.mx
amazonb2b.net
amazonb2b.org

At the time of this story, AmazonB2B.com does not resolve to a website. But with the new “AmazonB2B” domain registrations and the earlier names spotted by DNW, it does look like Amazon is getting ready to launch its own B2B marketplace.

For now, it’ll just remain speculation.

[Updated April 1, 2012 11:01am EST:. I’ve found more AmazonB2B domain names that were registered including AmazonB2B.co (Whois) and AmazonB2B.co.za (Whois).]

Tags Alibaba, Alibaba.com, amazon, Amazon B2B, Amazon B2B marketplace, AmazonB2B, B2B, Business to Business

News

Amazon hints at Web Services Partner Network with domain registrations

Post author By J.B.
Post date March 14, 2012

With competition heating up between companies offering cloud computing services, it appears Amazon Web Services (AWS) may be launching its own partner network some time in the near future, according to a slew of domain registrations that include names like awspartnernetwork.com and amazonawspartnernetwork.com.

Amazon Web Services does have a Solution Providers Program but the Partner Network sounds like an entirely new opportunity for AWS partners.

In total, Amazon’s legal department registered nearly two dozen new domain names on March 12, that hint at the service.

Here’s a look at the full list of domains.

amazon-partner-network.com
amazonaws-partner-network.com
amazonawsadvancedtechnologypartner.com
amazonawsapn.com
amazonawsconsultingpartner.com
amazonawsmsp.com
amazonawspartner.com
amazonawspartnernetwork.com
amazonmsp.com
amazonpartnernetwork.com
aws-advancedtechnology-partner.com
aws-consulting-partner.com
aws-managed-service-provider.com
aws-partner-network.com
aws-partner.com
awsadvancedtechnologypartner.com
awsapn.com
awsconsultingpartner.com
awsmanagedserviceprovider.com
awsmsp.com
awspartner.com
awspartnernetwork.com

As of today, no official word yet by Amazon on its AWS Partner Network.

Tags amazon, Amazon Partner Network, Amazon Web services, Amazon Web Services Partner Network, AWS, AWS Partner Network

News

Unknown if Amazon shelled out big bucks or threatened legal action

Domain first registered on Sept 28, ’11, same day Kindle Fire announced

Amazon revealed as owner even though name anonymously registered

Has better domain record than Apple, which still doesn’t own iPad.com