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Amazon Becomes Domain Name Registrar
prostoalex writes "Internet's largest retailer is setting up a domain name registration business. Wall Street Journal recently found out that in December Amazon.com got approved as domain name registrar. According to people from ICANN, the registration included rights for .com, .net,. org, .biz and .info TLDs."
what DON'T they sell????
Time for Bezos to patent the method of registering a domain.
Now Jeff Bezos can patent one-click domain squatting.
So, what kind of patent BS will they milk out of this one?
.. then buy it someplace else with a few clicks [note: more than one click, don't sue me]!
One great thing about boycotting internet retailers like Amazon.com : you can shop there, read reviews, compare models, pick out what you want
Monthly Report (Oct 2002) for all ICANN registrars. Weird this /. article just made it because I was just reading this report. Shows a LOT of information about registrars, their SLAs, and even their registration statistics. Of course, Netsol, Tucows, Enom, Bulkregister, and MelbourneIT are stompin', but it will be interesting to track Amazon's progress since they're starting from scratch.
Amazon patents the process of using human-readable names to alias network addresses of computers on the internet.
Of course they get you when you search to see if your domain is availible. You must pay the $1000 licence fee each time because they patented the process of entering data into a field and hitting a button to search for availible domains which might or might not be availible for purchase.
With all the recent competition this became such a low margin business. I wonder what amazon expects to get from it...
It turns out amazon.com is reported as already taken.
we see this on amazon: Get STY networking in 24 hours + A DOMAIN OF YOUR CHOICE! Step right up, it's yours for $29.95!
In light of becoming a registrar, Amazon is going to patent no-click domain registration.
And then muscle everyone out of business even Verisign!
Sad thing is, I'm not sure which is worse.
Black and grey are both shades of white.
Recommendations will be particularaly helpful:
"People who registered "cowsex.org" also registered: "grandmasex.org" "verbalsex.net" and "mbate.org"
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
I do wonder what they have planned for this... with the addition of domain name registration to their list of products I can imagine them introducing some sort of turnkey affiliate web site product.
One thing you don't want to see when browsing domain names:
I hope their domain database is more secure than their creditcard database
will people stop saying "amazon will patent domain registrations"?
... 4 times after that doesn't help to make it any funnier.
the joke is dead.
it died after the first time it was posted. repeating it in a different form 3
Free shipping on two or more domains. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay.
In other major retailer news, it turns out that Wal-Mart will be expanding the range of products they sell by adding a new "Sam's Choice" soda Pepsi Blue imitation. Analysts are speculating why anyone would want to buy generic Pepsi Blue, let alone the real deal.
I am not suprised at all.
I use to be a member of the team that ran, maintained and added new domains to Amazon.com DNS's. While I won't tell you everything, I can tell you they did this to save money since Amazon.com owns something like 4,000 domains (Maybe less, maybe more).
Just paying the money to be a registar and then not having to pay to register new domains and also not paying to re-register all the domain names they own will save them a lot of money.
Smart move, IMHO.
Linux O Muerte!
Say what you want about Verisign, they had it right, and so it should come as no shock that Amazon.com has entered the domain registration business. Verisign operates in the two markets that are at the gateway to the net. they are the premier SSL certificate authority and the the primary (although far from the best) domain registrar. Amazon - as a well run business - is seeking to mazimize proffits so it follows that they would enter the domain registration business, since it has one of the highest margins of any known internet business with the possible exception of the sale of pornography, and, yes, sales of SSL certificates. If the bariers to entry int othe Certificate Authority weren't so high, I'm sure Amazon.com would have attempted entry into that market as well.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Domain Name: AMAZON.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
bgphints - internet routing news, hints and ti
The number of registrars keeps growing, and the competition is starting to really have a positive effect. A few years back, it was hard to register a domain name for less than thirty dollars a year, without signing some kind of heinous terms of service agreement that legitimately threatened your rights as a domain owner. Now, there are a bunch of places that charge $10 or so a year.
In a couple months, I've got to re-register my domain names. Does anyone have good info on cheap places to register domains that don't have evil contracting agreements that may endanger my future rights to the domain?
And, in a related matter, do all registrars nowadays feed unrenewed domain names to domain squatters, who undoubtedly purchase registration rights for a pittance? I noticed when I let a couple less-than-desirable domain names lapse, they went straight to a squatter gambling search engine portal scam page the day my rights ended.
That's one of the funniest things I have read on Slashdot in a long time! Very clever and topical!
Great, now they're going to patent "A method of assigning numbers to computers for use in transferring information"
Sorry you couldn't figure out Amazon's highly complex search feature:
...
1) Go to cdnow.com
2) Select "Music" in the search box
3) Type in the über-trendy album or artist you want to impress your friends by owning (e.g., "Mass Romantic")
4) Hit enter/return
5)
6) Profit!! (well, for Amazon at least)
You kill the joe, you make some mo'!
You obviously weren't very high up in the department. A registrar still has to pay Verisign for the privilege of being able to register and keep registered .com and .net TLDs.
Yes, but it's only $6 (might be different for different TLDs, I'm not sure).
You also have to pay an entrance fee to become accredited to register domains.
I'm sure they figure they can make it back over time. Besides, this probably sounds good on Wall Street.
Yes, it's probably less money than doing it through another company. But not free.
Agreed.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I currently have one domain registered with Network Solutions, who are, of course eeeeeeevil, and when it comes up for expiration I'll go somewhere else.
I have another registered with Gandi. Although Gandi is cheap and doesn't send spam, that's about all I can say for them. I started trying yesterday to get a connection to their server so I could update a DNS entry to point to my new webhost. Tried around the clock at various times (including getting up at 1 a.m. my time), only got through after many many frustrating attempts. (Oh yeah, I e-mailed their support address, and got a reply saying that support was unavailable for an indefinite time.)
So who's good? I've heard good things about EasyDNS/opensrs/tucows, but they're not particularly cheap. Although I'm not a fan of Amazon's behavior (patents, labor relations,...), I'd be interested to see if they turn out to be a good registrar.
Find free books.
I just read that Amazon bought a small office just outside Las Vegas. The best part? The girls know your name although you were there only once six months ago.
Before they get a patent an "original method for automated online internet address commericialization [sic]"
I manage servers and build software for several companies in the pr0n industry; it seems like most of these guys like registering with www.godaddy.com. I use them all the time with excellent results. I've registered four of my own domains with them so far; some of my friends followed me there. In total I'm managing about 120 domains with no hassles. Go Daddy's domain transfer rate is ~$7.00 and registration for a new domain is about ~$9.00/year. I have nothing but good things to say about them.
The only problems we had so far were in transferring domains from Verisign/NetSol over to Go Daddy. NetSol makes it almost impossible to happen; it takes two or three iterations before they comply.
Cheers and good luck,
Ehttp://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
At least Amazon is a Profitable company! Yes, they are on the wrong side of the patent sensibility fence, but they didn't get to be what they are without taking care of customers--something other registars seem to think is optional.
Also, this could be a good way to finally destroy ICANN! Talk them into joining the Open Domain projects [of course keep them from patenting it out from under us] Amazon, Yahoo, and Google...example only, could each run their own DNS out from under ICANN. The system is designed to do this--It's high-time someone did it. And Bezo isn't the type of guy to put up with ICANN's s#$%!
I think you guys forgot to mention that.
These days *anyone* can become a registrar, it seems.
That's how cybersquatters can afford to snatch up tens of thousands of domain names the moment they expire. The cybersquatters aren't paying $35 to another registrar for each name; they're just putting out a couple of thousand bucks to become registrars themselves then they get to snap up as many newly-expired domain names as they want, for free.
And then they easily recoup the couple of thousand bucks by finding people who didn't mean to let their domains expire, and extorting large sums of money from those people to give them their domains back.
Cybersquatters are scum of the earth, second only to spammers.
I wonder if there's any chance they'll sell "preowned" domain names for a significantly reduced price. I've gotten a lot of good DreamCast games that way!
I just tried the first 7 entries on your list, and only 1 of them is registered to Amazon. One is actually MSN. So apparently that's not where the 4,000 domains are coming from. Anybody else got any ideas?
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I've tried doing searches where I specify dvds, but end up with search results of movie times.
I've listed their new releases on sci-fi/fantasy, and discovered that somehow they have regular fiction in there too. (One was the story of a woman as she approached menopause and how she dealt with her emotion over it. Definitely not sf)
Amazon's search system leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, I would go there more often if they would give me the option to NOT see the recommendations. It's just a pain the the arse, clutters the screen, and wastes my bandwidth.
I usually go to amazon only if I'm clicking on someone's link. What really irks me is that my investment club bought amazon stock. In other words, I'm a stockowner of them. *grumble*
Only in Soviet Russia.
I probably could've been nicer about my response, too. Sorry about that. I just wanted to indicate that I haven't had any problems with Amazon's search functions in the past. (I never did much browsing at either CDNow or Amazon, so I can't comment there.) Judging from other posts, your experience is probably more common than mine.
Re: musical taste -- there are a few people whose taste I respect enough that I'm curious to know what they think of mine. They may suggest other stuff I might like (like the aforementioned New Pornographers CD, which was the last CD I bought from Amazon). They might challenge some of my choices, which might make me re-evaluate them (like Avril Lavigne's CD, which I think is surprisingly solid). However, I wouldn't make changes just to fit in with them. I'm 31, so I've felt this way for about a year now. ^_^
And yes, I could probably get the page fixed. However, the last (and first) e-commerce site I made had a nasty bug where it assumed your credit card's approval number would actually be a number. (I blame the merchant system's API.)
You kill the joe, you make some mo'!
What's up with /. lately? Every Dick, Moe, and Larry is trying to reply with stupid humor. 99% of the replies in this topic have ZERO substance and filled with lame "patent" "one-click" "goatse.cx" comments.
*Yes I know my post is stupid too*
eTrade SUCKS
This is good, it means less seedy companies setting up domains with cheesy, mid-nineties-looking pseudo portal websites. Damn I hate those things. I wonder what will be placed on the available domains.
What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
Here is my prediction:
Amazon has seen how successful Yahoo has been with the Yahoo Store concept -- offering shopping cart hosting for some monthly fee, then taking a percentage (3.5% in Yahoo's case) of gross sales for all sales which come through searches of Yahoo shopping.
This latter tithe is optional, but is the chief attraction of Yahoo Store -- your products automatically and instantly show up in a popular searchable directory (Yahoo Shopping, not Yahoo Directory). Other advantages:
- customers can use "yahoo wallet" to purchase items
- stores can participate in a ratings service which allows them to earn stars based on customer feedback surveys
This is a powerful model (though the feedback mechanism isn't as powerful as Ebay's), and one which makes Yahoo lots o' cash.
I think Amazon wants to do something similar and being able to register domains is just the tip of this iceberg.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
When you register on Joker.com you don't own your domain. They do. I used domainsnext.com At least they seem honest.
stock prices are not a reflection of a company's true value. Stock prices are a reflection of the demand for that stock. Amazon is a great example of why you're wrong. What was their stock price in 1999? Start at near $100 and cross that line twice. in 2000? A steady decline from around $100 to almost as low as it was at the beginning of 2002. And now you're gonna say that their $9 gain last year shows the company's value?
stock prices show the value of the company's stock as measured by demand for that stock, not the value of the company.
The truth doesn't care what I think.
Actually all I was thinking was that you could "GIVE EM' THE PAIN! THE PAIN TRAIN'S COMING! WHOOOO WOOOO!"
Not rebuild their site. But I guess that would work too.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.