Poker.org was just purchased for $1 million by PokerCompany.com (source DNJournal). Sedo is reported to have brokered the deal. Pure poker, casino, and gambling domain names are high interest keywords, and generally have sold for substantial amounts in recent years. Poker.org is the highest ever “publicized” .org domain name sale.
Also of special interest is a post at DomainNameWire regarding Afilias. The entry reports that Afilias has requested approval from ICANN to release 1 and 2 character .info domain names from their reserved list. The Neustar Registry did something similar several months ago with the .BIZ web address resulting in a number of 5-figure sales for 1 character .biz domain names.
Lastly, consider this a public service announcement -> Avoid automated domain name appraisals. Like the ones you find advertised & sold on domain name registration websites. Sadly, I have noticed a new wave of people selling (pushing) automated domain appraisals, quoting them in domain forums, and referencing them in email inquiries.
Quality domain names in particular cannot be properly appraised using the simple metrics that automated appraisals employ. Those who sell automated domain appraisals are looking to cash in on the gullibility of new domain investors and buyers. An experienced domain professional will never make reference to automated domain appraisals as they are uniformly understood to be nothing more than a gimmick or toy.
There may come a day when automated appraisal algorithms are sophisticated enough to tap into real value and produce a defensible price range for premium domain names. At the current time, nothing comes close to doing this. All automated appraisals have enormous margins of error such that they consistently fail tests for validity and reliability.
.ORG Domain Names
.biz, .info, gambling, las vegas
Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defense contractor famous for manufacturing fighter jets, rockets, radar systems, and a wealth of high technology products in use around the globe.
The company is operating off of websites at Lockheed.info and Lockheed.com. Actually, the .com site is LockheedMartin.com and Lockheed.com forwards to that whereas Lockheed.info is a self-standing site on its own. Some of the links there track back to the LockheedMartin.com site particularly in regard to the jobs availability page.
The .info and .com sites appear to mirror each other. Lockheed Martin have also registered variations on their name in the .US, .biz, and .mobi extensions. Most likely to prevent trademark infringement by cybersquatters.
However, it is nice to see a multi-billion dollar global corporation actually using the .info 
version of their company name. Afilias.info are the official registry and overseer of the .info web address which currently totals 5,595,978 domain name registrations worldwide.
.INFO Domain Names
.info, airliners, lockheed
Afilias have released their 2009 report outlining the growth of the .info web address since its introduction in 2001. Currently, there are 5,497,143 .info domain names registered around the world.
Over the years, Afilias have occasionally used several promotions to boost .info registrations such as free first year registration and the 2009 .INFO Website Awards contest.
North America presently accounts for 61% of all .info domain registrations and European countries comprise 23%. The United States and Germany are # 1 and # 2, respectively, for registration numbers by country. Rounding out positions 3, 4, and 5 are the U.K., France, and Canada which demonstrate broad international appeal and global support of the .info web address.
A beautiful .info geo domain profiled here earlier in the year was Spain.info. There are many interesting and well developed .info sites across the internet such as PropertySlides.info, MutualFunds.info (owned by Time Inc./CNN), and Encompass.info.
Since .info represents “information“, the domain works extremely well for a wide variety of applications including many general topics, health & science, business & industry, and city or state websites.
Having become the 7th most registered domain in the world, .info has established itself as a very significant player on the internet world stage.
.INFO Domain Names
.info, Afilias
The Afilias Registry, who administer the .INFO web address, recently held a contest and awarded cash prizes for the top three developed .INFO websites. Ron Jackson wrote on DNJournal.com that Afilias received over 50 entries from 18 different countries.
$7,500 was awarded for first place to Thueringen.info (a travel site serving Germany). Second place, with a prize of $5,000, was awarded to GPS-Tour.info (a website where individuals can share and download outdoor GPS tours). In third place was Turkel.info, a travel & tourism marketing site, taking $3,000 for their efforts.
There are currently 5,428,453 .info domain names registered around the world. Fully developed sites and services are being launched on a daily basis due to the gradual adoption and popularity of the .info web space.
For those of you who are interested in the .info domain name, check out Spain.info. It’s a beautifully designed website & portal for the country of Spain that exemplifies the logic behind the .info domain name extension.
.INFO Domain Names, Site Development
.info, Afilias, Spain
DevHub is a website development platform which was introduced to the public within the past year. Based on my experience working with the software, it appears to be a step well beyond the typical “minisite” concept.
DevHub was created by Evo Media Group and its goal is to provide easy content creation (and editing) with less complexity than is normally required for custom html coding.
I have found that one can put up a basic, somewhat generic site with relative ease and which provides some desireable user functionality. However, you can introduce custom graphics and more sophisticated features if willing to 
invest more time in the development.
Development itself is a process which often evolves in stages. DevHub allows you the option of working effectively within time constraints since you can start off with a basic website that can grow. For a large portfolio owner, developing all of one’s domain properties can be a time intensive process. Premium domain names deserve quality attention & development, but often must begin as a simple concept that will become more complete with future development.
Charlotte.US is an example of a time intensive website that takes many weeks to complete (even on the user-friendly Wordpress format). By contrast, a website like Raleigh.info can be built with DevHub in about 5 to 8 hours. Below (and pictured right) are 
a variety of websites I developed in the last few weeks. All of them were done on DevHub. None of them are in their final stage …
More DevHub developed sites …
.INFO Domain Names, Geodomains
.info, development, DevHub
Ron Jackson, editor and owner of DN Journal, writes on his blog today about various new domain addresses he has sold in the past couple of weeks. .BIZ, .US, and .INFO domain extensions in particular.
I remember meeting Ron online around 2004, and bought a .US domain name from him several months later. Funny how time flies. He, myself, and a seeming handful of domain investors liked the newer top level domains in biz/us/info and assembled deep, high-quality portfolios in these newer addresses.
I have written for quite some time about the shifting tide having watched on several levels the growing adoption of .biz, .us, and .info domains. All of these have a substantial footprint not only in America, but also globally. They are growing as expected.
Each of these three offer a unique identity separate and apart from .com. I recently was negotiating on a high quality .com domain and the first question asked of me was did I have the .BIZ as well.
Small businesses have been using the alternatives for awhile. Now, larger businesses are looking to biz/info/us domains as illustrated in the Ford auto dealership example discussed in Ron’s blog entry for today. Ron writes that he’s glad he placed his bets years ago on the newer tld’s. I’ve known for a long time that biz/info/us would define a critical place on the internet, and watched the concentric circles of use get bigger and bigger with every passing year.
If you would like to read Ron’s thoughts on the subject and about his recent sales, check out the blog article here …
–> http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2009/dailyposts/03-17-09.htm
.BIZ Domain Names, .US Domain Names
.info
Spain.info is a gorgeous example of what a geo domain name can become. Using the web’s official information address, .info, Spain’s Institute of Tourism developed Spain.info into a multimedia dream come true.
The site is rich with colorful video, panoramic photos, interactive maps, deep content for avid readers, and all of the functionality needed to plan a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime trip.
It would appear that Spain.info draws considerable visitor traffic. The site enjoys a near top position in Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines. A Google page rank of “7″ and 76,537 incoming Yahoo links are more than enough evidence to conclude Spain.info is providing travelers with what they need. More stats indicate that the website drew between 40,000 and 100,000 site visitors per month over the course of 2008. Impressive.
Spain.info’s designers have adapted the site for four major languages: Spanish, English, German, and French. Some of the interactive multimedia functions, which really shine, require the installation of Quicktime (if not already resident on your computer). The install is free and effortless if you’re interested.
Afilias.info is the registry that manages the .info (information) domain extension. Additional, high-quality .info geodomain websites that may interest travelers are …
.INFO Domain Names
.info, Europe, Spain, travel
Facts.info is currently available to the highest bidder in an ongoing Sedo auction. The current bid is $3000 EUR which is $3956 U.S. dollars, and the reserve has been met. I was the original registrant of Facts.info in 2002 and had previously sold this domain at auction in April 2007 for $2550.
It is an excellent fit for the .info (information) domain extension since facts & information are at the very core of what makes the internet so powerful. Mr. Harald Ebert of Barcelona, Spain is the present owner and looks to make a nice return on his investment.
Facts.info would make a logical brand & online identity for a wikipedia type website, online encyclopedia, news aggregator, or research center for a major university. Online education and degrees are big business being so well suited to live streaming over the internet. I’ll be interested to see if this nice name is possibly acquired by a known educational institution, or is purchased by a domain name investor.
.INFO Domain Names, Domain Sales
.info, Afilias, Domain Sales, Sedo
