Last night, my Mom received an offer on a domain she owns. Here is the history behind the offer. Years ago, when I introduced different family members and friends to domaining, I pulled up a simple GoDaddy registration page and told them that for fun they should type in words to see what was available. [...]

One of Sedo’s top 10 sales this week was the IDN sale of 카지노.com (“Casino” in Korean) for $10,000. Congratulations to buyer and seller. For those who are interested in the brandable value of 카지노.com, I suggest that you do a quick Google images search for “카지노”.

In a recent email for DomainFest Prague I was pleasantly surprised to see that the first bulletpoint of expert topics on the agenda had an IDN focus: * European ccTLD and IDN Opportunities * Alternative Ways to Monetize Domain Traffic * Selecting Keywords That Produce Traffic through SEO/SEM and Affiliate Efforts * European Legal Issues [...]

In corresponding with Twitter Japan, unfortunately IDN usernames are not forthcoming in the near future due to both technical and other limitations. See the message from Twitter that I received below: This [delay in IDN username availability] is due to several technical challenges including, but not limited to, the following: 1) By only allowing A-Z [...]

Inspired by new and old propaganda, we at IDNTools have a bit of a teaser for you. Something big is coming soon. The solution lies on the web of course. And your clue is below. Enjoy.

You only know English, but you are aware that there are opportunities in other non-English speaking countries. If you want to buy IDNs or other foreign domains for investment or development purposes, you absolutely need to verify the translation of your purchase. The seller isn’t necessarily going to be knowledgable. While purists correctly stress that [...]

DomainFest New York this week was a big hit. Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky started off with a talk focused on dispelling domaining myths. Among Jeff’s key points was that the rise of apps and mobile devices may reduce the use of domains as navigational tools, but the brandable value of domains will remain a constant. [...]

As a recap of this week’s “Domain Masters” show on Webmaster Radio, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to discuss IDNs with Chef Patrick and the audio is available here. 1. How to Measure an Investment Opportunity I am aware of new extensions that are likely to eclipse the total number of IDNs registered [...]

Chef Patrick asked me if I would join him tonight on the Domain Masters radio show to discuss IDNs. Given the recent high-profile IDN sales such РФ.com, and the continued progress towards internationalized .COM names, there should be a lot to talk about. You can tune in live online at webmasterradio.fm. Also, we will be [...]

Symantec officially completed its acquisition of VeriSign’s web authentication business yesterday. Symantec is home to the famous Norton anti-virus product line, but the company doesn’t plan on getting into the domain business anytime soon. Instead, VeriSign is now free to squarely focus on its role in managing the .COM and .ORG .NET registries. Investors have [...]