There are a couple of new websites online where you can watch videos about the domain name industry. They are:

DomainerTV.com

and

DNTV.tv.

DomainerTV.com is the site of domainers Warren and Marcia Lynn Walker, and DNTV is the new site of domainer Page Howe. Video sites and Vlogs have been the next logical step after the emergence of domain blogs last year, I think. There aren’t many videos on those sites yet, but I’m sure the operators will put some informative domain-related videos and reports online soon.

Below you can watch a video of the BIDO.com launch party in Las Vegas, courtesy of DomainerTV.com:

Here’s another video I found via Sahar’s blog today. It’s a video interview from ParkQuick.com with Sedo‘s Matt Bentley on the subject of domain parking:

The second part of this interview can be found here.

Domain Name News reports that a class action suit against domain registrar Network Solutions and ICANN is underway:

According to a press release from the law firm Kabateck Brown Kellner, a federal class action lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court, Central District of California against domain name registrar Network Solutions and ICANN. The suit clam that the NSI has forced customers into buying domains from the company rather than through potentially cheaper avenues, in effect netting the company millions of dollars.

Continue reading here.

I’ve read an interesting article on the rise in LLLL.com prices on Elliot’s blog today. Prices of four-letter domains have indeed gone up faster than the values of most other domain names during the past few weeks. Reece of 4 Letter Noob observed that the minimum wholesale price for LLLL.com domain names rose by 10% between February 01-08, 2008 (the median sale price was up 13%). That’s just for the first week of February. I’m sure prices have climbed quite a bit further since then already.

I wrote about four-letter .com domains being a good investment opportunity in January 2008 and August 2007 myself, but now I find it hard to say that LLLL.com domains still are a safe investment due to the fact that buyers have driven the prices sky-high. Normally, this alone wouldn’t be a bad sign, but one must not forget that at least 90% of all LLLL.com transactions are sales between domain speculators and not end-user sales (the speculator/end-user ratio might be even higher).

So, a justified question arises: Do we have a LLLL bubble now?

There are both pro and contra arguments. I would say, however, that the situation looks more and more like a market anomaly. The price rise has been too high and even outperformed the best expectations I had had last year. Although it is no question that there is value in LLLL domains, I don’t think the rate at which four-letter domain prices rise is still justified. This would require a situation in the market for these domains that is far different from the situation before, but that’s not the case. The market for LLLL domains is almost the same with the sole difference that there are now hundreds of domain speculators buying these domains, because they can be bought for cheap compared to other types of domain names such as LLL domains and generics.

What we have is the buying and selling between domainers. So far, one domainer has just sold his LLLL domains to another domain investor who then resold those domains at a higher price to yet another investor. But prices cannot continue to rise in this reseller market forever. At one point there must be an end-user who buys the domain at its fair market value. If there is no end-user for a domain at the end of this resale chain, somebody is left holding the bag.

That’s why I believe we might see a market correction soon. Prices will start to fall when some of the bigger LLLL portfolio owners finally decide to sell their domains, until the rate of value appreciation gets back to normal. The value of four-letter domains in general will continue to rise in the long term. The rise in price would then be slower than it is today, though.

I don’t want to rant about LLLL domains and there are several reasons why they’re valuable: They’re short, easy to remember, brandable, possible acronyms, stock symbols and they’re rare. Still, LLLL.com prices look inflated to me increasingly often. At least if you look at them as a short-term investment. Therefore, they’re a much riskier investment than they used to be about two or three months ago, in my opinion. I still believe that 4-/5-figure average sale prices for good LLLL.com domains are very well possible in a few years, just not in a few months as the current value appreciation and ongoing high demand would suggest.

Anyway, the opinion expressed above is only my gut feeling. Nobody can say for sure what is about to happen and how long this steep price rise will continue. I would be interested in your opinions, though, as this is certainly a controversial topic that deserves discussion.