Having worked in print, radio, TV and now the Internet, I've had an ongoing fascination with the race for supremacy among the competing media platforms - a race that has seen the Internet quickly closing on and, in most cases, passing the competition. 

There are actually multiple races going on including advertising revenue share, time spent with each medium, etc.  An especially important race to win is the one for most influence on purchasing decisions. That is where most advertisers are going to want to 

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spend their money because, as Rick Schwartz is fond of saying (it is even printed in the masthead on his blog), "Nothing happens until a sale is made." 

The Center for Media Research broke down the numbers from The Media Comparisons Study that the TVB (Television Bureau of Advertising) commissioned research firm Knowledge Networks to do. Of course, with the TV ad association involved the thought of a "stacked deck"

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immediately crossed my mind - especially when I saw that TV did indeed come out on top and by a big margin. 

However, Knowledge Networks is a reputable research firm and, even if you are still not buying it, you can completely ignore the TV entries in the study and still get some interesting insight into where the Internet currently stands in the influence race and what the unmistakable trend for the future is. 

The biggest surprise to me is that while the general perception of newspapers is that they are going the way of the dinosaur, newspapers still ranked 2nd in purchasing influence, cited by 10.6% of the respondents. The Internet came in 3rd with 5.6% (followed by Magazines at 4.4%, Radio at 1.8% and all of the others with less than 1% each).

However, here is where the future trend is clear. The influence of newspapers drops sharply with each step down the generational ladder. While 12.3% of those aged 35-64 named newspapers as being most influential in their purchase decisions, only 3.2% of those 18-34 said the same (a number 

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that is really bad news for papers). 7.4% of the 18-34 year-olds said online ads influence them the most. Among the older 35-64 group online ads influenced only 2.9% of them most. 

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Sedo's announcement said "The Domain Value Indicators show potential buyers the value of a domain by displaying statistics and facts that help them make an informed decision about their purchase. The feature also helps sellers set domain prices, by placing the most important determinants of domain value at their fingertips. The new feature also includes a comparison of the domain’s value with that of other names listed at Sedo, an addition that helps put this value into context for both sellers and buyers."

Sedo added that the Domain Value Indicators feature will act as a 

complement to Sedo’s Price Suggestion and Appraisal offerings. Those services are based on Sedo’s historical transaction data, and make use of both automated pricing tools and the expertise of their international brokerage team to help assess domain name values.  

Two other well-known companies in the domain aftermarket space - Key Drive S.A.'s Moniker and SnapNames units - have announced new partnerships with two Chinese companies that will give them much more exposure to buyers in China. One of those is NameRich.cn, a leading Chinese domain name aftermarket service provider, and the other is Dnbiz, a leading Chinese domain name buying and selling marketplace. 

Through Dnbiz and its Yumi.com distribution network, they provide access to more than five million domains to tens of thousands of Chinese clients every day. The company said the partnership was formed in response to the increasing domain name demand by businesses and domain investors in the region. Those deals also come on the heels of partnerships that aftermarket giants Sedo and the AfternicDLS announced with other Chinese companies last week. 

Diener and Smiles have been working on the business since the fall of 2011, growing their network of writers at their own colleges, as well as other schools, including Columbia, Yale, NYU and Vanderbilt.

Diener, a varsity athlete at Emory, has been nationally recognized for his online entrepreneurial successes by Go Daddy, as well as the National Federation of Small Businesses. Smiles also has an impressive resume having posted a perfect score on his SAT and being Valedictorian of his senior class at Boca Raton’s St. Andrew’s High School. Smiles enrolled in computer science classes during his freshman year at Harvard for the express purpose of building CollegeCopywriters.com.  

“We bought the domain name CollegeCopywriters.com in the Summer of 2011,” Diener noted. “Our initial test was so successful that we stopped accepting new writers until the site was live.” In addition to building a profitable business, the two hope that their service will help writers utilize relationships with publishers to build their professional resumes, which could lead to job placements as they enter the workforce after college.

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Three domain monetization companies are in the news today. Domain owners always wonder if their names would do better parked somewhere other than where they are now.  

DomainHoldings.com just staked a claim to improved performance via their DomainPower platform in a new research paper they released today. An Inside Look at the Technology Driving DomainPower’s Performance (.pdf file) explains how (and 

why) their Monetization Decision Engine works. The paper's final page will be of particular interest as it takes four different portfolios and details how each performed on DomainPower vs. their previous parking provider.

ParkLogic Founder Michael Gilmour

Speaking of monetization transparency, I don't know that there has ever been a louder voice on that topic that ParkLogic.com founder Michael Gilmour (whom we profiled in a November 2008 Cover Story). In addition to being one of the industry's undisputed "good guys," Michael has an interesting personal story that he recounts in an interesting video interview conducted by an up and coming young domainer - his son Tim - that has been posted on the company's website as well as YouTube. 

During the 13-minute discussion Michael details how he got started in domaining, the birth of ParkLogic and what opportunities he sees in the future for domain owners. The company plans to follow up with more video interviews, possibly as often as one a week, aimed at helping you get the most from your domain business.

Elsewhere Debra Domeyer, the CEO of one of the world's biggest domain  monetization companies in Oversee.net (parent company of DomainSponsor.com), was featured on a big stage today. Debra (a former Chief Technology Officer at Oversee with more than 25 years of technology experience) delivered the final presentation at ComputerWorld’s The Power of Big Data Symposium at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. 

In a talk entitled From Push to Pull - Using Big Data to Get To Know Your Customer Debra shared the story of how Oversee is using advanced technologies to meet real-time decision-making needs via a strong mix of data and analytics. Oversee's performance marketing network handles over 250 million unique visitors per month (equating to 1.5 trillion bytes of data), so Big Data is obviously an essential component of the company's business strategy.

Debra Domeyer
CEO, Oversee.net

Debra explained how user behavior is analyzed using business intelligence and predictive modeling tools. The goal is to uncover both structured and unstructured data that can be used to optimize the user experience and maximize results for advertisers and publishers on its network. To improve user behavior predictability even further, she said Oversee is transitioning from pushing to pulling data from its users.

Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors said, "Fadi has an amazing track record of success and the obvious leadership qualities to help carry ICANN into the next stage of its evolution. His international background and multi-linguistic skills will help to make ICANN an ever more globally oriented organization. It’s hard to imagine how we could have found anyone better suited for the top position."

Chehadé said, "I have spent most of my professional career building consensus among various stakeholders from around the world. I am naturally humbled to now be able to lead an 

organization that defines itself by an international multi-stakeholder model and one that is the very core of the security and stability of the Internet."

If you list your domains for sale with two popular aftermarket venues, The AfternicDLS and/or Sedo.com, new partnerships those companies have forged with registrars in China will put your names in front of a huge new pool of potential buyers.  Today the AfternicDLS announced a deal with China's largest registrar, HiChina, that will place millions of AfternicDLS listings on the giant registrar's website at www.Net.cn where they will be available for instant transfer.

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AfternicDLS COO Jason Miner said, “We are excited to bring our premium listings to the Chinese marketplace, and especially thrilled to be doing so through a partnership with renowned registrar HiChina. As we continue to strengthen our global

presence through key partnerships with the world’s top registrars, we bring buyers and sellers from across the globe together through our unified aftermarket.” The AfternicDLS is a unit of NameMedia who claims more than 50 million visitors to its network of websites with domain sales to customers in more than 100 countries.

The AfternicDLS-HiChina announcement comes on the heels of a new agreement that Sedo announced Monday (June 18) with their first Chinese registrar partner, EJEE, who becomes one of  more than 60 registrars offering their customers access to the SedoMLS inventory of over 16 million domains. EJEE General Manager XuJian 

Ye said,  “We are honored to be working with Sedo and are looking forward to finding common ground for developing a better future for the domain industry. Becoming the first Chinese registrar to join the SedoMLS network is a privilege, and we anticipate a strong partnership over the coming years.”

ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin

One other note today - in case you missed them, two excellent articles were published this week that cover topics of importance to every domain investor and developer. 

One is by Internet Commerce Association Legal Counsel Phil Corwin titled New gTLDs: Competition or Concentration? Innovation or Domination? that was posted at DomainNameNews.com Wednesday. Corwin, who is based in Washington, D.C. covers growing concerns in the nation's capital that the 1,400 plus new gTLDs that ICANN is  now considering will be concentrated in the hands of too few holders "with potentially profound consequences for the future of e-commerce." This could be the next big battleground area in ICANN's plans to roll out an unlimited number of new TLDs in the years ahead.

Another article of special relevance is one that respected industry veteran Nat Cohen wrote Monday for DomainArts.com titled Why Reverse Domain Name Hijacking needs to be a Real Penalty and the Most Comprehensive List of RDNH (Reverse Domain Name Hijacking) Cases. 

Attempted domain name hijacking cases involving over-reaching trademark interests (or parties with no interest at all other than stealing a valuable domain name through the UDRP system) have been widely publicized in recent weeks. The problem is that there is no penalty for those found guilty of a reverse domain hijacking attempt. Cohen makes a well-detailed, persuasive case for why that needs to change.  

Nat Cohen

Less than a week after Rick Schwartz scored an important UDRP win against a Brazilian company that tried to hijack one of his domains, comes word from Ari Goldberger's law fim, ESQwire.com, of a double-pronged victory for one of their clients, Didier Madiba of Wilmington, Delaware based Fenicius LLC, over Mediaset S.P.A., a company owned by Italian media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. 

This fight over the domain MediaSet.com had more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel. Mediaset S.P.A. was a previous owner of the domain after successfully taking it away from the prior owner through an earlier UDRP action. However, MediaSet, in a stranger than fiction oversight, lost the domain when they failed to renew it and let it expire!

Ari Goldberger, ESQWire.com

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MediaSet S.P.A. did not let the matter drop there - instead they moved the ball to their home court - filing a lawsuit against Madiba at the Court of Rome in Italy. ESQwire.com worked with an Italian IP Counsel, Nicoletta Colombo,  to defend Madiba and today they announced another victory. While the  Italian judges understandably ruled that Mediaset S.P.A.’s Italian trademark entitled them to protection in Italy it did not give them the right to Madiba's domain. They ruled that he could keep MediaSet.com and is free to use the domain outside of Italy. 

Speaking for ESQWire.com, Jason Schaeffer said, "Naturally, we are quite pleased by this decision and believe this is a great victory for domain owners. The Italian Court’s 

recognition of the domain owner’s rights is encouraging and provides further support for the UDRP and a balanced approach to Trademark law."  After years of seeing domain owner's rights repeatedly trampled on, recent decisions have been a most welcome turn of events - a trend we hope will continue in the future.

Here is the Top 10 list that Lindenthal came up with, in order of his study's take on their overall value:

Lindenthal said, “Many factors make domains unique and difficult to compare side by side, but analyzing hundreds of thousands of domain transactions on Sedo’s marketplace – and applying real estate pricing methodologies – has

Thies Lindenthal
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provided significant insight into the factors that determine domain value. New gTLDs are actually not that new, they’re really just traditional domain names on steroids. We should evaluate their fundamental strengths in a similar way to how we traditionally price domain names.”

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Sedo noted, "Exploratory research helped derive weights for each of the five factors by means of a regression analysis. Technically, the number of applicants per domain is explained by the TLDs’ scores along the other four dimensions. Using these weights, each new gTLD was ranked according to its fundamental strength. Using these estimates and the data collected in each category, a ranking of the intrinsic quality of each new extension is created. "

For an additional breakdown explaining how the ranking was derived, including a Top 10 list for each of the five criteria used, visit http://bit.ly/M0FpGy

As I told you in March, a little-known Brazilian company that does business from SaveMe.com.br, represented by Márcio Mello Chaves, made a blatant attempt to use the UDRP system to steal the generic domain SaveMe.com that happened to be owned by legendary domain investor (and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference co-founder) Rick Schwartz. Even though  the Brazilian business only got started in 2010, they wanted the panel to force Schwartz to give them, at no cost, a domain that he had registered in 1996, 14 years before the gang that couldn't shoot straight even existed!

Of course, right away those who know the pugnacious Schwartz knew Chaves and company had made a remarkably stupid miscalculation. Since they had no case, they were apparently counting on a cowed respondent to roll over and play dead - oops wrong number Márcio! Schwartz immediately went after Chaves in a very public manner. At the same time he had his long time partner Howard Neu, a premier domain industry attorney, craft a detailed response to Chaves's UDRP filing. 

The decision from the three-judge panel just came down and it was a slam dunk for Schwartz and Neu. Not only did the panel rule in their favor they took it a rare step further and declared the Brazilians guilty of a reverse domain name hijacking attempt. Though there are, unfortunately, no financial or criminal penalties for that, it is a stigma they will carry from now on and it will make it much more difficult for them to ever wrest a domain away from anyone else. Most importantly it serves as a major warning sign to other unscrupulous or over reaching "trademark" interests who may be tempted to try stealing domains they have no right to own. 

Naturally, Schwartz was euphoric when he announced the news (Neu posted his take on the decision as well). Both men are being heartily congratulated by appreciative commentators on their blogs, as they certainly 

Rick Schwartz
SaveMe.com owner

Attorney Howard Neu

should be. Thanks to Howard's UDRP experience and legal expertise and Rick's willingness to  foot the bill (in both money and aggravation that no one should be subjected to) they met fire with brimstone and won a decision that benefits the entire industry. Instead of riding into the sunset with someone else's domain, the Brazilian company recedes back into obscurity with nothing but a  severely tarnished reputation to show for their misguided efforts. Just as it should be when justice is served. 

ICANN's "Big Reveal" was held this morning (U.S. time) in London where the domain name system's oversight body released the names of those who have applied to run new TLDs as well as the extensions they want to run (you can see every single one of those 1,930 applications here, including where the applicant is from and what their contact email address is). Of course a lot of applicants want to run the same TLD, so 751 of those applications were for 230 extensions that at least one other party is also 

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going after. That means the highest number of new TLDs that could eventually be approved from this round is 1,409.

ICANN hopes that the multiple parties who applied for a single extension will get together on their own to produce a single entity to claim the TLD. If that does not work rights to run the extension will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, likely driving the price into the millions (it cost $185,000 each just to apply to run a new TLD).

Now that we know who the players are and what they are playing for we moved on to the next phase, which could be called the Big Wait. It is going to take a long time for ICANN to review 

the applications (none have been approved at this point) and for the issues surrounding the contested ones to be worked out. Expect it to be 2013 or possibly even 2014 before you see the first new TLDs live on the Internet. 

Despite the critical role they play on the Internet, domain names rarely get this much publicity in the outside world - a fact that is often lamented by domain investors. Ironically, now that domains are in what may be their brightest spotlight ever, the least interested spectators of all are domain investors! On his popular industry blog Elliot Silver ran a poll Monday asking readers if they even cared about new gTLDs. As of this writing 60% have replied no.  

Unlike in the past when domain investors were the first to scoop up the most attractive domains in the newly introduced extensions most swear they are going to sit out the impending tsunami of new extensions. Many saw their investments in previous new TLDs evaporate from lack on interest in those  

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extensions and they believe that having the market flooded with hundreds of new extensions at once will make the new arrivals even less attractive for those who only want to buy and sell individual names. 

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Wherever you fall in the spectrum, one thing is for sure - an unprecedented amount of money is flowing into the domain space. Love them or hate them new gTLDs may make money for you whether you actively get in the game or not. There is a large school of thought that the sudden onslaught of so many new extensions will only sow confusion, further driving up the value of the gold standard - .com and some of the better-known legacy TLDs like .net, .org and the major country code domains preferred 

by individual investors. If that happens the new gTLDs may become your best friends even if you don't want to take any of them on a date.

Frank's Schilling's place in domain industry history was secured years ago when he was universally recognized as one of the (if not the) most successful domain investors of all time (one example of that was the Cover Story profile we published about him in 2007). While Schilling continues to wear the domain world's version of the heavyweight championship belt, over the past year he has been steadily spreading his wings to cover even more territory and, with his latest venture, he is emerging as one the industry's top service providers as well.

Schilling made his first move in that direction last year when he launched InternetTraffic.com, a domain monetization service that reshaped the parking sector overnight as many top portfolio holders moved their domains to his new company. That was a testament to the trust and affection Schilling has earned over the years, feelings that were reinforced when his new clients reported significant revenue increases in his system. 

Frank Schilling
Uniregistry. com

With two big wins under his belt, Schilling just announced yet another foray into the services field - this time in the rapidly emerging new gTLD space with the launch of Uniregistry Corp. Uniregistry is  a new registry services company that has applied to run an undisclosed number of the new top-level domains that ICANN will begin rolling out within the next year. On Wednesday (June 13, 2012) the extensions that Uniregistry and others have applied for will be revealed with the total number of TLD applications expected to be in the 2,000 range. 

The web has just landed another stunning blow against another giant - this one an even bigger Goliath than traditional media - that is shopping.  As reported by ComputerWorld, according to a new survey from NielsenWire, a solid majority of U.S. consumers (59%) said that online was now their overall favorite way to shop. 

For the web that is a bigger win than any upset in sports history. If I beat Usain Bolt in the 100-yard dash and did it running backwards - it still wouldn't be as shocking to me as the web's latest conquest (though I'm sure Usain would be scratching his head for quite awhile).  

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The survey also included mobile shopping (by smartphones or other portable devices) in its research but mobile finished well behind online and traditional shopping in most categories. Only 13% cited mobile as their favorite way to shop. 38% said mobile was most convenient (30 points behind online) and 27% picked mobile as easier (over 40 points behind online). 

While winning the the mind share race among shoppers is a huge victory for the web I shouldn't be that surprised. Over the past 2-3 years, aside from groceries and clothing, I have done the majority of my shopping online. It is a rare day that the UPS truck doesn't stop at my house with another box from Amazon (I get more than my money's worth from Amazon's $79 a year Prime membership that provides free two-day shipping on my orders). 

Now that ICANN finally closed its bug-riddled TLD Application System (TAS) Wednesday night (May 30, about six week later than originally planned) the domain name system's oversight body has set Wednesday, June 13 as the date for its Big Reveal. That's the day the names of people seeking to run over 2,000 new domain extensions, as well the TLDs they applied for, will officially be released. Some of the bigger companies that plan to operate dozens of new TLDs just couldn't wait though and they have already come forward and released the extensions they are going after.

While many of those companies have been very public about their new TLD plans all along, one that has been operating in stealth mode popped up to reveal 31 extensions they have applied 

to run. That is Radix Registry, a new division of internet giant Directi who is one of the world's top ten domain registrars. Bhavin Turakhia, the  founder and CEO of Directi Group, said the company has already committed $30 million to their effort to get the TLDs they 

are targeting. Others will be going after some of the same strings, which will likely result in auctions that will drive the final costs to levels people can only guess at now. 

Directi Founder & CEO Bhavin Turkakhia

The extensions Radix applied for include: .web, .shop, .bank, .law, .music, .news, .blog, .movie, .baby, .store, .doctor, .hotel, .play, .home .site, .website, .click, .online, .one, .ping, .space, .world, .press, .chat, .city, .deals, .insurance .loans, .app, .host, and .hosting (a brief description of their plans and policies for these new extensions can be found on their website.

Explaining his company's interest in the new TLD space, Turakhia said "Today's internet addresses are uncategorized and say nothing about the website. In addition, it is near impossible to find available names that are short and memorable. Our research shows that over 65% of users are unable to find a name of their choice. We welcome the opportunity to usher in an era where internet addresses distinguish a plumber from a lawyer and domain names with hyphens are a thing of the past." 

Adrian Kinderis, the CEO of ARI Registry Services, said “When applications opened in January, our target was to secure around 100 TLDs, so to reach 161 has far exceeded our expectations. Our numbers are pleasing, but 

they will become even more significant when the global brands and high profile entrepreneurs we are supporting are made public in a couple of weeks.”