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Name.com is an
ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
accredited
domain name registrar A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...
and
web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web h ...
company based in
Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. The company sells
DNS domain The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...
s,
web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web h ...
,
email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
services,
SSL certificate In cryptography, a public key certificate, also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate, is an electronic document used to prove the validity of a public key. The certificate includes information about the key, information about the ...
s, and other website products.


History

Name.com was founded in 2003, by Bill
Mushkin Mushkin () is an American computer hardware company best known for producing computer memory modules (RAM). Located in Pflugerville, Texas, its customers include gamers and industry professionals. It has supplied to companies like Apple Inc. and ...
. 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.


Acquisitions

On January 7, 2013, it was announced that Name.com was acquired by
Demand Media Leaf Group, formerly Demand Media Inc, is an American content company that operates online brands including eHow, livestrong.com, and marketplace brands Saatchi Art and Society6. The company also provides social media platforms to existing l ...
.Naidu, Taryn. 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. Rightside also owned domain aftermarket service NameJet and
domain registrar A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...
eNom, as well as operating a
domain registry A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a do ...
with 40 nTLDs. Rightside stock was publicly traded under the stock ticker NAME, inspired by their ownership of Name.com. 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.


Community involvement

Name.com regularly hosts a
hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. Th ...
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 A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
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 Coding may refer to: Computer science * Computer programming, the process of creating and maintaining the source code of computer programs * Line coding, in data storage * Source coding, compression used in data transmission * Coding theory * Ch ...
and
coworking Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, a ...
spaces in the past. 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.


Support of net neutrality and internet free speech

In December 2011, when
GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. , GoDaddy has more than 21 million customers and over 6,600 employees worldwide. The co ...
voiced its support for
Stop Online Piracy Act The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a controversial proposed United States congressional bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Introduced on Oc ...
(SOPA), Name.com was among several other anti-SOPA domain registrars that offered transfer discounts for anyone who wanted to move their domains to another provider. When net neutrality came under review by the
FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
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. 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.


Domain tasting allegation

In 2007, Name.com was accused of
trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may o ...
by
Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
and
Bergdorf Goodman Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman. To ...
. 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. 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. 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 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
), to secure misspelled domains during the five-day grace period, and paying only for the ones with valuable revenue. This practice, called
domain tasting Domain tasting is the practice of temporarily registering a domain under the five-day Add Grace Period at the beginning of the registration of an ICANN-regulated second-level domain. During this period, a registration must be fully refunded by the ...
, resulted in
cybersquatting Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The term is derived f ...
on various trademarked names. Neiman Marcus had accused the registrar Dotster in 2006 of the same infringement. 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.


DNS hijacking

Reports of
DNS hijacking DNS hijacking, DNS poisoning, or DNS redirection is the practice of subverting the resolution of Domain Name System (DNS) queries. This can be achieved by malware that overrides a computer's TCP/IP configuration to point at a rogue DNS server unde ...
by Name.com have appeared on the Internet as early as 2010. 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 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 domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
s (TLDs), including
gTLDs Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of eve ...
,
ccTLDs A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all t ...
, 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 WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
installation and hosting Name.com also supports
Two-Step Verification Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
to help users add an extra layer of security to their user accounts.


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 In computer network communications, the HTTP 404, 404 not found, 404, 404 error, page not found or file not found error message is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) standard response code, to indicate that the browser was able to commun ...
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 A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
on the Bearglecorn in early 2016, citing its first use in 2013.


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 Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 1 ...
Denver Swim Team, Metro Caring, Rangeview High School
Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
, and the Northfield High School Solar Rollers.


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 Susan G. Komen (formerly known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure; originally as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; often simply as Komen) is a breast cancer organization in the United States. Komen focuses on patient navigation and advo ...
and
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
(EFF) are also listed on the company's sponsorship page. The company previously had a bike-to-work incentive program which involved payback for a new bicycle. Though the project appears to be at a standstill, Name.com worked briefly on a system of maps for laptop.org, and offered to guide interns in their Denver office. In April, 2008, Name.com sponsored
Idealist.org Action Without Borders (also known as Idealist) is a non-profit service organization based in New York City, founded in 1995 by Ami Dar. The group has offices in the United States and Argentina. History Founder Ami Dar was interested in s ...
for the Webby's People's Voice Awards, which was in turn sponsored by The
Public Interest Registry Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in ...
, the registry behind the
.org The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from ''organization''. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by th ...
TLD. The event featured a panel of non-profits, including
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
and
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
.


Notes


External links


Name.comName.com Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Name.Com Companies established in 2003 Companies based in Denver Domain name registrars Web hosting Internet properties established in 2003