Here are some of the latest company domain discoveries from DotWeekly that include recently registered and purchased domain names by some large companies.
Target Brands, Inc.
Target registered a bunch of “tiny” related domain names, like TinyTarget.com .net /.org and then reveresed it as TargetTiny.com .net/.org and several other typo’s and misspells of the
term. They also put a focus on “Mini” with MiniTarget.net .org, MinnieTarget.com, MinyTarget.com and MinnieTarget.com . MiniTarget.com was registered on 7/22/2009 with general Csc
Corporate Domains info in whois and appears to be by Target but whois didn’t reveal it was them until 11/24/2013.
Normally when all of these domains are registered, it gives a pretty good clue that they are likely going to be doing something with the main term as a site in some sort. What it will be,
I’m not sure yet but it’s something to watch.
7/25/2014 Update: My local news just released a story on a “Target Express” that is a test store on the University of Minnesota campus. In Green Bay, Shopko has “Shopko Express” stores as well.
Twitter Inc.
Continues with it’s “shopping type domain” registrations. This time relating to a “card” of some sort. The domains included, TweetCardSpring.com, TwitterCardSpring.com and
VineCardSpring.com . Based on these terms, whatever this “card” is.. I would think it’s going to be called “Spring”.
Facebook Inc.
Appears to have acquired the domain name OpenMobile.org .
The whois history is pretty interesting. CrossPath Inc. had owned the domain in early 2012. Then on 11/10/2012 the domain transferred to Captive Media Inc. . In 2014, shortly before
changing ownership to Facebook Inc. on 5/6/2014 the domain changed from Captive Media Inc. to S McHugh of France, with the email address [email protected] and the DNS changed to a
generic Dynadot ns. Whois stayed this way until 6/2/2014 and on 6/24/2014 whois changed to whoistrustee.org which is a privacy service.
Whois changed again on 7/18/2014 and this time included Facebook Inc as the registrant but also David Taylor of Hogan Lovells LLP in the Admin Contact. Hogan Lovells is located in Paris,
so that is very likely the reason behind the [email protected] change on 5/6/2014 .
This is not the first time Facebook has used Hogan Lovells LLP, as domain names like FacebookDevelopers.com, FacebookWorldHack.com, WorldHack2018.com and more have connections.
Hogan Lovells LLP, owns its own domain registrar: Hogan Lovells (Paris) LLP which they use Anchovy.com with or AnchovyDomains.com
It appears they own eBook.com
Merlin Entertainments Group Limited
Hand registered the domain name EnjoyMoreFun.com. Who doesn’t want to do that!
Siemens AG
Registered several domain names and many variations of these domains: LetsEngineerIt.com .net / .org . MakeRealWhatMatter.com .net / .org . Hyphen versions of each as well. They also
included the brand name Siemens “first” with each term, but but only in hyphen versions? Siemens-lets-engineer-it.com but didn’t register SiemensLetsEngineerIt.com for an example.
I would also say that… Make Real What Matter, really doesn’t make sense? Make What Really Matters, makes sense to me.. Make Real What Matters etc.
Johnson & Johnson
Revealed they own several domains that were likely registered or purchase on behalf of BrandShelter. Nothing stunning but the domains were DentalCredits.com for an example, ThatsWell.net
.biz / .org. They also own ThatsWell.com but basically has no information in whois (invalid).
Thanks-Mom.net, Thanks-Mum.com .net and BesoWell.net .biz / .org. They also own the .com
Google Inc.
Hand registered the domain name WomenForward.net with MarkMonitor. This is interesting because WomenForward.com is registered by “Dixon Hughes”which is the largest certified public accounting firm headquartered in the Southern U.S. and the 16th largest in United States. They appeared to have purchased the domain WomenForward.com from HugeDomains.com on or about 9/29/2013.
WomenForward.org was registered on 1/17/2014 under whois privacy protection at Name.com . Why Google would just register the .net, I’m not sure… hard to say if they will buy the .com or not or what the interest is in WomenForward.net domain is .
Virgin Enterprises Limited
Registered a couple domain names and those include VirginCircle.com, Virgin-Circle.com and Virgin-Go.com
Airbus SAS
Registered the domain name Satcom-Airbus.com .
I would be willing to speculate Target is getting into the “convenience store” business….They may be preparing to take on 7-11 and neighborhood liquor stores.
You are correct. Just seen an article (added it to my story above) today about “Target Express” which they are testing on the University of Minnesota campus. Similar to a CVS, Walgreens etc.
Jamie
This is very valuable and insightful. Please keep up the great work, it is much appreciated!
Hey Jamie
Twitter recently acquired an ecommerce platform called CardSpring, hence the related regs.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/17/twitter-cardspring/
Thanks Leon! I try to search as much as I can… but sometimes I run out of energy “googling things” 🙂
Interesting whois history for OpenMobile.org
Specially the email @yahoo.fr
You never know who is contacting you from that random low profile free email!
I have been seeing several interesting whois history trails lately for newly acquired domains. Many of them are like the OpenMobile.org ones, with a broker of some sort, and then end user. As a domain seller, you have to assume whois is contacting you as ENEMY 🙂 and simply ask for the price that you would be happy with, no matter who the buyer is.