Verisign is shutting down their DomainScope service. They will continue operating the service until 1:00 PM Eastern Time on July 17, 2020. In a recent email to their current DomainScope customers and a notice posted on their site, Verisign explained that their product development teams will be focusing on developing new features and functionality for their NameStudio service instead. [Read more…]
Domain Name Influencers to Follow on Twitter

Updated March 9, 2020
A recent discussion about the best Domain Name industry Twitter accounts got me thinking–there are a lot more domain name influencers on Twitter than be put into one Tweet. Even though there are a lot of characters available in a Tweet now, I just cannot possibly put them all into one or two Tweets. When I originally posted this list of domain name influencers that you should follow on Twitter, it was a list of 35. Then, after a while, some of them actually deleted their Twitter accounts. So, this is an updated list.
After the initial list, I’ve listed a bunch of Twitter accounts that you should be following related to the domain name industry. [Read more…]
SEO Testing: TLD Bias in Search
As a search engine optimization (SEO) and domain name consultant, one of the questions I get asked most often about domain names is whether or not the domain name or TLD (Top Level Domain) matters. Will the domain name ending have an effect on SEO or search engine rankings. Are certain domain name endings preferred by the search engines over other domain name extensions? I decided to answer this question based on search engine optimization testing and not just based on my personal and professional experience. [Read more…]
Influencer Gets 14 Years in Federal Prison for Hijacking Domain Name
A social media influencer has been sentenced to 14 years in United States Federal prison for the attempted hijacking of a GoDaddy domain name. According to a United States DOJ press release, “Rossi Lorathio Adams II, age 27, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also known as “Polo,” received the prison term after an April 18, 2019, jury verdict finding him guilty of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by force, threats, and violence.” [Read more…]
Network Solutions Suffers Data Breach in 2019
Network Solutions, a Web.com company, along with Register.com, has suffered a data breach (they got hacked) in late August 2019. They did not discover this data breach until October 16, 2019. They’re just notifying customers on November 1, 2019 about the data breach. Shouldn’t they have contacted their customers to change their passwords shortly after they discovered it on October 16, 2019? [Read more…]
How Expired Domain Names Are Used for PBNs, Rebuilds, and Redirects
When someone (or a company, organization) doesn’t renew a domain name, the domain name goes through a drop process. First the domain name usually enters a period of time when the current owner can renew the domain name. It’s essentially put on hold. It then enters a period (a certain number of days) when it’s marked as pending delete, and then, at one particular date and time, it is released to anyone who wants to register that domain name. The domain expiration process goes something like this: [Read more…]


