Name.com

Name.com is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company based in Denver, Colorado. The company sells DNS domains, web hosting, email services, SSL certificates, and other website products.

Name.com
Founded2003 (2003)
Headquarters
Denver, Colorado
,
United States
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerDonuts Inc
Founder(s)William Mushkin
IndustryDomain Registrar
ProductsWeb Services
URLwww.name.com

History

Name.com was founded in 2003, by Bill Mushkin. Mushkin bought the company Spot Domain LLC (Domainsite.com) in 2002. There are multiple registrars NAME.COM LLC uses for reselling: domainsite.com, name.com, name.net, sunmounta.in, alohanic.com, briarwoodtechnologies.com, domainregservices.com.[1]

Acquisitions

On January 7, 2013, it was announced that Name.com was acquired by Demand Media.[2] According to 10K reports from Demand Media the company paid $18 million to acquire Name.com.

Rightside Group, a spin off company from Demand Media, became the parent company of Name.com in August 2014.[3] Rightside also owned domain aftermarket service NameJet and domain registrar eNom, as well as operating a domain registry with 40 nTLDs.[4] Rightside stock was publicly traded under the stock ticker NAME, inspired by their ownership of Name.com.[5] On June 13, 2017, Rightside was acquired by Donuts Inc. in a transaction valued at $213 million. In a Merger Agreement approved unanimously by Rightside's Board of Directors, all of Rightside's assets, including Name.com, became part of Donuts Inc.[6]

Community involvement

Name.com regularly hosts a hackathon called Hack the Dot, where developers, marketers, and creatives come together to create quick-fire projects within a two-hour timeframe based on a mystery domain name which is revealed at the time of the event. The company has partnered with Galvanize, Turing School of Software and Design, and a variety of other coding schools and coworking spaces in the past.[7]

In 2016, Name.com partnered with Galvanize to offer free coding classes to interested students with a program called Learn to Code. These classes were offered over the course of a year in multiple cities across the U.S. including Denver, Boulder, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin.[8]

Support of net neutrality and internet free speech

In December 2011, when GoDaddy voiced its support for Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Name.com was among several other anti-SOPA domain registrars[9] that offered transfer discounts for anyone who wanted to move their domains to another provider.[10]

When net neutrality came under review by the FCC in both 2014 and 2017, Name.com created educational videos and articles explaining to their customers why net neutrality was important and what individuals could do to protect it.[11] During the July 12, 2017 Day of Action to raise awareness and support of net neutrality, Name.com posted a banner on the homepage of its website encouraging visitors to contact the FCC to voice their support for Title II.[12]

Domain tasting allegation

In 2007, Name.com was accused of trademark infringement by Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. The companies declared the domain registrars Name.com and Spot Domain had registered over 40 domains of various misspellings, such as NeimanMarco.com and BerdgorfGoodman.com. These domains failed to show accurate contact information or provided false details.[1] In the complaint, which was filed in March 2007, in the US District Court in Denver, the high-end retailers sought damages of at least $100,000 per name.[13]

Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman claimed that the registrars were taking advantage of their special status with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), to secure misspelled domains during the five-day grace period, and paying only for the ones with valuable revenue. This practice, called domain tasting, resulted in cybersquatting on various trademarked names. Neiman Marcus had accused the registrar Dotster in 2006 of the same infringement.[14] Mushkin, however, denied the accusations of "domain tasting," explaining that Name.com and Spot Domain were merely registrars, caught in the crossfire. He also argued that "the industry is young," and the issues were not clear-cut. In the settlement, there were several stipulations imposed on the companies Name.com and Spot Domain. Mushkin declined to specify the agreement that was reached.[1]

DNS hijacking

Reports of DNS hijacking by Name.com have appeared on the Internet as early as 2010.[15] The registrar will never return a NXDOMAIN status for DNS queries, and instead directs users to an advertising site they operate. When faced with criticism over this practice, the company points[16] to a clause of their Domain Registration agreement that relates to "parked domain names," which is standard practice among registrars.

Name.com stopped the practice of DNS wildcarding in March 2013.

Services

Name.com registration of top-level domains (TLDs), including gTLDs, ccTLDs, nTLDs, and legacy domains, and offers an aftermarket domain brokerage. Service offerings include website hosting, email, Google Apps for Work, SSL certificates, a website builder, WordPress installation and hosting[17] Name.com also supports Two-Step Verification to help users add an extra layer of security to their user accounts.[18]

Bearglecorn mascot

Name.com's mascot is called "Bearglecorn", a mix of bear, eagle, and unicorn, which can be seen on the company's 404 page[19] and in some marketing material. The word was coined by employee Jared Ewy and the original likeness was made by Owen Borseth using various images from the internet. Rightside filed a trademark on the Bearglecorn in early 2016, citing its first use in 2013.[20]

Philanthropy

Name.Gives

In November 2017, Name.com launched a philanthropy program called Name.Gives, funded by their parent company Donuts, Inc. Each quarter, Name.com employees have the opportunity to apply for funds to be donated to a charity or community organization they support. Organizations in the Denver-metro area that have been awarded with financial contributions in the past include SafeHouse Denver, the Special Olympics Denver Swim Team, Metro Caring, Rangeview High School Track and Field, and the Northfield High School Solar Rollers.[21]

Other community programs

The company has supported several non-profits, including a small literary magazine in South Africa, Amazwi, and a local environmental organization, Environment Colorado. Many of the charities featured are small, grassroots efforts, though Susan G. Komen and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are also listed on the company's sponsorship page.[22]

The company previously had a bike-to-work incentive program which involved payback for a new bicycle.[22] Though the project appears to be at a standstill, Name.com worked briefly on a system of maps for laptop.org,[23] and offered to guide interns in their Denver office.[24] In April, 2008, Name.com sponsored Idealist.org for the Webby's People's Voice Awards, which was in turn sponsored by The Public Interest Registry, the registry behind the .org TLD. The event featured a panel of non-profits, including Greenpeace and Wikipedia.[25]

Notes
  1. Paton, James (2008-01-30). "PATON: Big brands target entrepreneur in domain name battle". Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  2. Naidu, Taryn. Naidu, Taryn (2012-01-07). "Name.com Joins the Demand Media Family". Demand Media. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  3. "Super Corporate Blog Post: We joined the NASDAQ with Rightside - Name.com Blog". www.name.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  4. Global Newswire retrieved March 17, 2016
  5. "NAME Stock Quote - Rightside Group Ltd". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  6. "Rightside and Donuts Announce Definitive Merger Agreement - Donuts News". Donuts News. 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  7. Name.com. "Hack the Dot: Powered by Name.com". www.name.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  8. "Name.com partners with Galvanize to offer free coding lessons". Confluence. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  9. Warren, Christina. "HOW TO: Move Your Domain Name Account". Mashable. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  10. Dachis, Adam. "Ditch GoDaddy's SOPA-Loving Butt and Get a Better Web Host at a Discount". Lifehacker. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  11. "Why net neutrality is a big deal (and why you should care) - Name.com Blog". www.name.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  12. Fine, Gabe (2017-07-14). "Name.com Joins Nationwide Protest Against Net-Neutrality Rollbacks". Westword. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  13. Jesdanun, Anick. Jesdanun, Anick (2007-03-23). "Neiman Marcus sues over domain names". Associated Press. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  14. McCullagh, Declan (2006-06-02). "Dotster named in massive cybersquatting suit". CNET News. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  15. Hammond, Nathan (2011-04-13). "Name.com: Another Unscrupulous Registrar". nathanhammond.com. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  16. "Pro Tip: How to get rid of that pesky parking page". Name.com. 2012-01-05. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  17. "Rapidpress - One-click Wordpress Hosting - Superbiased!". Superbiased!. 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
  18. "Name.com Stays a Step Ahead of Online Criminals by Joining VeriSign(R) Identity Protection Network". CNN Money. 2009-01-28. Archived from the original on 2009-01-31. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  19. "Name.com: Heck yeah, we're from Denver: | Tech+ — The Denver Post". Tech+. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
  20. "Name.com to trademark the Bearglecorn| Domain Name News & Views". Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News & Views. 2016-02-17. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
  21. "How Name.com is helping the community during the season of giving - Name.com Blog". www.name.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  22. "For the Good of Our Community, Our Company, and Our World". Name.com. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  23. "Name.com". One Laptop per Child. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  24. "Summer of Content organizations". One Laptop per Child. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  25. Jared (2008-04-26). "Doing Good Is Cool Again". Name.com. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
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