The premium LL .com domain IA.COM (ia.com) is for sale!

It has been registered since April 1999.
Archive.org age: 1999

There are many possible meanings for this domain name, such as:

Iowa (US postal abbreviation)
Interactive
Information Assurance
Information Architecture
Internet Access
Inter Alia
Investment Advisor
International Affairs
International Airport
etc.

Client is entertaining offers in the six-figure range.

Please take a look at this PDF brochure or contact me via email at DM (at) DMUELLER (dot) COM for more information.

SEATTLE, WA - October 25, 2007 - Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX, MCHXP), a local advertising company and leading publisher of local content, today announced that it has named Nicolas J. Hanauer vice chairman of its Board of Directors. A pioneer in the online industry, Hanauer was the founder and chairman of aQuantive (formerly Avenue A Media, Inc.), a leading global digital marketing company, which was acquired by Microsoft in July 2007. He also previously served as its CEO.

“Nick’s track record of success in identifying and executing against revolutionary advertising and consumer-focused opportunities, from Amazon to aQuantive, makes him the ideal addition to Marchex’s Board of Directors,” said Russell C. Horowitz, Marchex Chairman and CEO. “His experience, leadership and in-depth understanding of consumers, technology and advertising will provide significant value across our entire organization.”

“I have been very fortunate to be involved with a number of transformational online markets and companies. The local online market is forecast to reach $19 billon in the next five years* and I believe Marchex has the strategy, assets and talent needed to fully capitalize on this massive opportunity,” said Hanauer. “I look forward to working actively with the management team and board to help the company become the local market leader.”

Hanauer has extensive experience building and investing in leading companies. In 1995, he became a founding investor in Amazon.com and served as a board advisor until 2000. He founded aQuantive in 1996 and served as its CEO from June 1998 to September 1999 and chairman of the board from June 1998 until its acquisition by Microsoft in July 2007. In 1998, he co-founded Gear.com, which was later purchased by Overstock.com. Hanauer is currently a partner at Second Avenue Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm he co- founded in 2000.

Hanauer began his professional career at the Pacific Coast Feather Company in Seattle where he held a number of executive positions, including CEO and co-chairman, and helped grow the company from several million dollars in sales to more than $300 million.

A Seattle resident, Hanauer received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Washington. He currently serves as a director or board advisor to HouseValues.com, Pacific Coast Feather Company, the Initu group, and Qliance.

*Veronis Suhler Stevenson, 2007

ICANN is investigating whether domain registrars and other companies that have access to domain search data are using these insider information to register desired domains before the individual or business that originally looked the available domain up can buy it. The security committee of ICANN refers to this practice as “domain name front running”.

The person or company buying the domain first can then offer it to the originally interested party to make a profit. It has not been proven that domain name front running is actually taking place, but this assumption lets the domain business and especially domain registrars appear in a bad light.

Excerpt from an ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee document (PDF) on domain name front running:

This Advisory considers the opportunity for a party with some form of insider information to track an Internet user’s preference for registering a domain name and preemptively register that name. SSAC likens this activity to front running in stock and commodities markets and calls this behavior domain name front running. In the domain name industry, insider information would be information gathered from the monitoring of one or more attempts by an Internet user to check the availability of a domain name.

(…)

SSAC does not yet have any hard data to draw conclusions regarding the frequency (if any) of the occurrence of domain name front running. We do know that Internet users have filed complaints of suspected domain name front running incidents with registrars and ICANN. Some complainants offer (pre- and post-incident) WHOIS query results to support their claim. These data alone are often insufficient to determine whether the domain name was preemptively registered, how the data used to preemptively register this particular domain name were acquired, or whether this was an intentional or coincidental act.

SSAC also lists possible methods of identifying domains of interest, such as third-party whois client applications, third-party whois services, unauthorized executables (trojans, viruses, etc.) and DNS operators. Domain registrars and registries also have access to domain search data, because they perform domain availability checks on behalf of registrants.

Personally, I haven’t experienced any incidences of domain name front running, but I find it quite disturbing that insider domain registration might be taking place. In fact, I believe it is likely that there are domain front runners profiting from other people’s domain availability checks, because it is well-known that domains have become valuable assets that can be resold for a quick profit and domain front running is a quite unknown practice that is difficult to monitor.

On the other hand, in many cases it might just have been a coincidence that a checked domain was registered by another person shortly after the availability check. There are thousands of people searching for available domains every day and it is quite possible that there are people looking up the same domain name.

I don’t believe domain registrars and registries are performing domain front running. But to play it safe it should be a good idea to not use whois services operated by people or companies you don’t know, small domain registrars or software from untrusted parties for your domain availability checks.