Most of my readers will be aware of the Overture inventory query tool that allows you to see how many searches Overture recorded for a certain search term. There is a new Tool that makes it easier to query for domains, suggestions, several terms, across different markets and to allows you to compare different query terms: OVTKeywords.com.

As Domain Name Wire noted, GoDaddy appears to have discontinued their TDNAM Premium Auctions, which were only available for bidding to members paying the highest Cash Parking Rate (Cash Parking is GoDaddy’s domain parking program where your pay decides the amount of revenue share you receive). DomainEditorial has received a copy of an email from TDNAM support confirming Domain Name Wire’s observation.
Also Bulk Register (which was purchased by eNom a month ago) announced via email that they are discontinuing their DropGuild service, which showed traffic stats for expiring domains and allowed users to bid on those names.

The following statistics are from the latest Verisign Domain Industry Brief.
Renewals
Renewal rates for .com and .net averaged 76 percent for the second quarter of 2006.
The renewal rate of domain names previously renewed was 85 percent compared to
a renewal rate of 65 percent for domain names going through their first renewal cycle.
The renewal rate improvement comes from increasing renewal rates for previously
renewed domain names.

Active Websites

26% of .COM and .NET domains are parked, 60% have live web sites and 14% do not have a website.

[via Verisign Domain Industry Brief]

ICANN gives you until 5pm PDT on Monday to add your comments to the discussion about the new BIZ, INFO and ORG contracts. Critics noted that the new contracts allow tiered prices as well as prices increases on the registry/registrar level. Comments close 5:00pm PDT on the coming Monday, August 28th, 2006.

• Proposed Contracts
• How to submit public comments

[via George Kirikos/CircleID]

DomainSponsor is sponsoring a domainer gathering in L.A. September 20-22. Unlike most domain conferences, this event will focus less on panels and sessions and more on networking and deals.

Event Website: Domain Fest in LA from September 20th to September 22nd, 2006.

[via DomainNameWire/DomainFestLA]

• Melbourne IT will auction off the domain names of clients who allow their registrations to lapse as it looks for new ways to broaden its revenue base in the wake of its successful bid for Queensland internet company WebCentral. [AustralianIT]
• .AX Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Becomes Operational. .AX stands for the Aland Islands, an autonomous province of Finland, representing a cluster of 6,500 islands located in the Baltic sea between the mainlands of Sweden and Finland. [ICANN]

• Enom increases minimum Clup Drop bid to $60 [Email]
• Thousands of .FI names to expire in September [via GlobeDomains]
• Chinese domain auction yields more $160,000 [thanks Sal, CNN]
• Bypassing the Search Engine: Using Direct Navigation to Your Advantage [MarketingProfs.com]
• ICANN awarded net administration until 2011 [TheRegister]

[...] As alleged in lawsuits announced by the company, “cybersquatters” and “typosquatters” have registered these domain names containing trademarked terms or misspelled words – and hundreds of other domain names like them – with the goal of illegally profiting from them via online ad networks. Thousands of such domains targeting Microsoft are being registered each day.

First, Microsoft has filed two civil lawsuits against a total of four named defendants who allegedly are profiting from domain names that infringe on Microsoft trademarks. These two lawsuits include federal law claims under ACPA and the Lanham Act as well as state law claims for statutory unfair competition and common law unfair competition and conversion. The defendants named in these actions are:

Jason Cox, of Albuquerque, N.M.; with Daniel Goggins, of Provo, Utah, and John Jonas, of Springville, Utah, and d/b/a/ Jonas and Goggins Studios LLC and Newtonarch LLC. Microsoft alleges these three individuals are working together to target marks owned by Microsoft and have registered 324 domain names targeting Microsoft. This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, Cause No. 2:06cv00692 TS.

Dan Brown, of Long Beach, Calif., d/b/a Partner IV Holdings. Microsoft alleges that Mr. Brown registered 85 domain names that directly target Microsoft. This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Cause No. 06 cv 5247 R.

Second, Microsoft also is taking action to unmask defendants who have used privacy protection services to conceal their identities. This can be challenging, Kornblum says, because some domain registrars have created services that protect the registrants’ personal information at a minimal cost. To unmask those identities, Microsoft is filing a ‘John Doe’ lawsuit aimed at identifying cybersquatters and typosquatters who have used privacy protection services to conceal their identities, and naming as defendants:

John Doe defendants 1-217. Microsoft soon plans to issue subpoenas to multiple registrars of domain names infringing on Microsoft’s intellectual property. This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Cause No. C06-1192 RSM.

Lastly, Microsoft is working to aggressively halt online auctions of infringing domain names. With increasing frequency, people purchase a domain name and, if it generates a compelling amount of traffic, resell the domain name for a profit. To address the problem of domain auctioneering, Microsoft will expand its systematic searches of such auctions and seek to have them removed from the auction Web site.

[Press Release]

According to their press release, Adam Dicker of DNForum has joined iREIT’s Executive Team. Also iREIT will assist DNForum with delivering increased functionality and features to members.

“The DNForum partnership is immensely valuable for iREIT,” said Bob Martin, chief executive officer of iREIT. “iREIT is actively acquiring high-quality domains and looking to build our relationships with domainers, and DNForum will enable us to reach these users while providing much-needed liquidity to the market.”

iREIT also announced that DNForum’s Adam Dicker has joined iREIT as executive vice president and a member of the Board of Advisors. Dicker will help drive iREIT’s acquisitions, marketing, analytics, content development, and domain optimization and monetization functions.

Dicker brings extensive experience and domaining expertise to iREIT. A well-known figure in the industry, Dicker founded High Impact Sites, Inc., a company that owns thousands of high-profile domains and operates a number of active websites, including Penpals.com, Planets.com, Witchcraft.com, FirePrevention.com, Avatars.com and Download.net. Prior to his work in the domain industry, Dicker was the Network Services Manager for Quantitude, a Cendant-owned company.

[Press Release]

• search.travel launches beta travel search engine [press release]
• AOL search data leaked (it’s all been traffic tested already) [slate]
• USA Today article on Google & iREIT [USA Today]
• A $4,200 domain purchase brings in $900,000 annually: UniCycle.com [Thanks Sal/UncommonBusiness]
• .VN opens to the world [via WebHosting.info]
• Jothan Frakes joines DomainSponsor [via DomainerMeeting.eu]
• Sedo launches new parking features [via TheWHIR]
• CNET added a *.com.com DNS wildcard, possibly inspired by the .CM wildcard, resolving to “search.com”, doubles traffic