Are .xyz and Network Solutions "Cooking the Books"?

[Ms Domainer]

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Very interesting article at The Domains:

http://www.thedomains.com/2014/06/03/did-networksolutions-com-give-away-free-xyz-domain-names/

According to the article, when someone regs a domain at Net Sol, he/she automatically is "given" the matching .xyz. One has to opt out by going to a separate link.

Indeed, I checked a couple of The Domains samples (both crap domains in any gTLD) in both .com and .xyz, and, yes, they are owned by the same person.

But I noticed something else that's interesting: the registrant email for .xyz is under privacy, but the .com isn't.

Check for yourself:

00938625.XYZ (privacy email)
00938625.com (regular email)

03304cjp64ubzd1.xyz (privacy email)
03304cjp64ubzd1.com (regular)​

I bet that the registrant doesn't even know that the .xyz has been awarded to him/her and that renewal notices won't even go to the registrant.

It does look fishy, I'm afraid.

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[DU]

The registration volume for new gTLDs is a kind of bragging right or marketing tool.
Regards...jmcc

So..

ceo.xyz is saying of other gTLDs:
My penis is bigger than your penis?

And you're saying:
Size doesn't matter

And Others are saying:
Look at his ruler... it doesn't look right

Or something.

 

[JB Lions]

Raymond just posted that email over on thedomains - http://www.thedomains.com/2014/06/04/network-solutions-has-no-idea-what-i-am-talking-about/

That would explain those great numbers, now we know. Looks like a bunch of people got a free domain.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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You're right, DU:

I shouldn't insult lawyers and used car salespeople by comparing them to domainers.



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[Acroplex]

Also it might need proper journalists on the story rather than bloggers.

Quick, call the Washington Post, they need a 'deep throat' about domains.

 

[equity78]

 

[jmcc]

The big question is how large that "limited number of complimentary domains" is in reality.

I ran some cross TLD comparisons on all new gTLDs against the main TLDs (com/net/org/biz/info/mobi/asia) this morning. I'll post the percentages later today (need to get some sleep first). Of the domains in .xyz, 33.67% had an equivalent in just .com, 11.3% had the keyword present in all the main TLDs only and 0.71% were unique to .xyz. This is a bit different from other new gTLDs like .guru. It makes more sense when shown as a TLD DNA chart and I should have them done later today.

Regards...jmcc

 

[enlytend]

I'll give them some credit for actually trying to market outside of the domaining industry ...

Giveways are a great marketing tool, the "thank you" builds awareness. Never mind that its too new for anyone to truthfully claim it's "hot", "memorable" or has "broad appeal." Get enough freebies out there (whether people ask for them or not), then use stats on the # registered as social proof to back claims of how popular it is and build on that.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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To go with DU's classic:

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[JB Lions]

I agree something isnt right here, that number grew quite a bit from this morning, ns now has 72% of the total registrations over 27k

Just noticed that. http://ntldstats.com/tld/xyz

I tried a random word both at Netsol and Godaddy for .xyz, just typed in blahblahblah and it was taken, haha, what the hell, who would register that. So I added a numeral to the end, just to see how much it would be:

Network Solutions - $80
GoDaddy - $14.95

regs
Network Solutions - 27,584
GoDaddy - 4,561 - unless more numbers are coming in for them, don't know how that works

It cost 5 times+ more at NetSol but they have 22,000 more regs? Not something a domainer would do, they would go for the obvious lower price. Then I read Uniregistry has it for under $10, even lower than GoDaddy and they have 778 regs.

End users? Doesn't seem possible, that kind of number in that short of time. Who knows.

 

[equity78]

Raymond just posted that email over on thedomains - http://www.thedomains.com/2014/06/04/network-solutions-has-no-idea-what-i-am-talking-about/

That would explain those great numbers, now we know. Looks like a bunch of people got a free domain.

Thanks for the mention JB yeah its been wild, get off the phone with them at 2 am my time then a friend on Twitter says I got the email too, so I updated the post as fast as possible. Been up 40 hours straight crazy couple days in this crazy, crazy business.

 

[equity78]

It would be interesting to get a comment from the .XYZ registry on this. Also it might need proper journalists on the story rather than bloggers.

Regards...jmcc

I assure you John everything on thedomains has been researched and fact checked and the post I just did on Network Solutions involved real reporting with actual phone calls to the participants.

 

[equity78]

https://www.namepros.com/threads/a-new-cause-awaits.825185/#post-4651986

I saw your poll these posts are not paid, XYZ is not an advertiser on thedomains and my post tonight has been to reveal the truth. This is what makes for news in this cottage industry, if people don't like the new gtlds and don't want to hear one word, I get it and respect it, but it is still news and does not mean its paid for. I can't speak for the whole industry but TLDINVESTORS.com and TheDomains.com do not accept paid posts or posts for later perks down the road for anyone. Mike has turned down offers for such requests that were in the five figure range.

 

[Acroplex]

NetSol and XYZ need to come clean about this. It gives the entire industry a bad name.

 

[equity78]

If the story is more than just free domains, then it would be interesting. The downside is that it would be making headlines for all the wrong reasons. At the moment it isn't 100% clear what is happening. The registry claims to have gotten paid for each registration but that's a non-denial denial.

The new gTLDs are very much a domain industry event and most people are unaware of them.

Regards...jmcc

True it is semantics, a politicians line, we got paid for each domain, that could be .50 just as a hypothetical, so typically you got paid. We know these Net Sol names not getting renewed we do know that.

 

[Kate]

...
But do the numbers hurt anyone? Are the numbers violating any laws or agreements? If they do then THAT is an issue. Inflating numbers is just that - inflating numbers. I have multiple car dealers near me insisting they are the largest volume dealer in the State! Perhaps I should check their numbers... might be buying from them under false pretenses!

Registries doing "zone stuffing" is not a new phenomenon at all. Illegal ? Probably not. Ethical ? Debatable. But I wonder, what would be the legal qualification when somebody registers domain names in your name, that you didn't ask for ? Impersonation ? Identity theft ?
It's an issue of trust here.

You know, corporate swindles also rely on inflating the figures. For instance, there have been some famous stories about companies building up huge lists of customers, that don't really exist, or not as active buyers anyway - they are just records in a database.
The whole trick was to increase their credit lines with the banks, based on projections of growth and claims of revenue that were falsified. What happens next:
money is siphoned away
or:
the company pursues a growth strategy on steroids, that is unsustainable, and then it goes bust.

I have spoken to people who now feel embarrassed to have regged just 1 .xyz name because the extension looks like a joke.

How ".xyz" could look different than a joke ? I couldn't ever take it seriously.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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Now for a serious note.

Ron Jackson weighed in on this situation and recognizes the seriousness of the situation as it pertains to ICANN rules:

http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2014/dailyposts/20140605.htm
​

He would like to give Daniel the benefit of the doubt, and that might be nice if Daniel recognized what his company and Net Sol have done, come clean on his blog, apologize to his customers, and then build his numbers the right way.

As long as he remains silent or tries to spin the situation with his "I'm educating the public" BS, benefit of the doubt will be a tough sell.

So how about it?

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[ecalc]

Rubber necking at the netsol xyz pile up is fun but domain investors might learn more watching registration trends at corporate domain managers MarkMonitor & CSC. Their clients are corporate whales, end users with a capital E, who pay an arm and a leg for domains and prefer dot com. That’s all you need to know but if you walk on the wild side you can drill down to see that the top 3 new gtlds held at MarkMonitor & CSC combined are dot clothing (539), dot reviews (378) and dot technology (343). Big rag leads by a nose.

 

[JB Lions]

Latest stats, #1 - http://ntldstats.com/tld/xyz

69,156 total
56,049 at Netsol - 81%

So picked up about another 30,000 last couple of days.

Wondering how many more freebies are left? Another 2 days like that, it would be around 100,000

This would make quite a drop next year wouldn't it? If most of those Netsol regs don't get renewed, plus others, 80% drop or so won't be a good look.

Domain Incite blog on it -
.xyz is now the biggest new gTLD (kinda)

Rick Schwartz interview with Danial - http://www.ricksblog.com/2014/06/in...sing-inflated-xyz-registrations/#.U5IOyiiaZRo

 

[jmcc]

From this morning's DNA run:
xyz/com 28732 | 37.313%
xyz /com/net 8229 | 10.687%

From yesterday's:
xyz/com 24790 | 36.724%
xyz/com/net 7210 | 10.681%

The Top 20 xyz hosters by nameservers:

| REGISTER.COM  |  64649 |
| WORLDNIC.COM  |  63462 |
| DOMAINCONTROL.COM  |  4421 |
| INTERNETTRAFFIC.COM  |  1118 |
| SEDOPARKING.COM  |  784 |
| UNIREGISTRY-DNS.COM  |  726 |
| UNIREGISTRY-DNS.NET  |  726 |
| NAME.COM  |  711 |
| ONAMAE.COM  |  509 |
| 101DOMAIN.COM  |  393 |
| REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM |  381 |
| UDAGDNS.NET  |  318 |
| UDAGDNS.DE  |  318 |
| ISPAPI.NET  |  282 |
| NAME-SERVICES.COM  |  225 |
| HOSTGATOR.COM  |  223 |
| 1AND1-DNS.COM  |  151 |
| 1AND1-DNS.ORG  |  151 |
| ONLYDOMAINS.COM  |  131 |
| 1AND1-DNS.DE  |  115 |

Those NetSol figures are really skewing the data.

Regards...jmcc

 

[JB Lions]

As Phantom .XYZ Registrations Continue to Pile Up at NetworkSolutions Stats Reporting Service Plans to Subtract Artificially Inflated Numbers

Nice article, better ones written about this yet -

http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2014/dailyposts/20140610.htm

The 3 I have bookmarked

http://www.namestat.org/ - the one the article is talking about. Just went to site and the default data is set to Adjusted, so .xyz won't be in the top ten, you have to change it to raw (inflated)

registrarstats.com - don't even see them listed

http://ntldstats.com/tld/xyz - Netsol percentage keeps going up. It was 82 something, now 84.06%.

 

[jmcc]

Unfortunately .XYZ is becoming memorable for all the wrong reasons. Over 85% of .XYZ websites are parked on PPC in the Virgin Islands.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Acroplex]

For example, the fans of .tel defend this dead dodo of a TLD to this date, even though it was clear from the start that it was a TLD with no potential, due to its inability to use your own DNS. Defending something passionately doesn't make it good.

 

[Jasonn]

"Biz" is a word that you expect a small time, uneducated person to think is clever. I would be embarrassed to build a site with it. I prefer .horse.

my point was despite over 2 million biz being registered, they have no aftermarket and professionals don't use them. someone is registering and renewing them but i wouldn't know who.

 

[JB Lions]

i wonder where the 7,000 + registrations per day for .xyz are coming from?
Do you guys think he has that many registrars helping him cook the books?
I'm not saying either way, but just curious? I like the idea of .xyz to be honest, call me insane but i have about 55 of them haha. all mint key words though, Dubstep.xyz , healthproducts.xyz , oliveoil , teenporn etc haha i dont mind though whats a weeks work for a small shot at something new i say,
If I do alright with the ones that i build (Noob) I will post links if any body cares to have a look haha

The answer is right in post #1 of the thread. 256,000 names regged, 222,000 at Netsol who have been giving them away for free.