Comments on: Another Exampe Of A Great Domain: Oscar.com Traffic Up 87% From Last Year

By: Kevin M.

Kevin M. — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:49:44 +0000

Thanks Michael. Ahh, the cherry picking days of 1994-5, must have been overwhelming not knowing which to reg, or not!!

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:44:21 +0000

Ahhhh… my desire for nostalgic stories of days of the past has been filled for another week=).

It was a good story. That would have been torture to sit there watching others pick up premium domains.

Thanks Mike.

By: Michael Castello

Michael Castello — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:52:10 +0000

It was 1994-1995. I was able to register my first 5 names. Powwow.com, Palm Springs.com, Whisky.com, Mattel.com (my wife worked for Mattel) and Berlin.com. At the time I really believed I was abusing domain protocol by registering more then one name. My business was called Powwow Productions. I tried to register more in early 1995:

MonteCarlo.com
Toledo.com
SantaBarbara.com
Oscar.com
777.com
and many others.

I was rejected with the reason the 5 names were enough for my company. I stopped registering for 6 months and watched everyone else get the names I was previously declined for. Out of frustration I began changing my business name on new registrations and was able to start acquiring premium domains again.

Berlin.com was hacked from me. I watched my registration information disappear and the reappear with someone elses info. The Mattel.com story was interesting. I may have unknowingly been the first “cybersquatter” since a registration NEVER came with a contract. After I battled with lawyers and InterNIC all new registrations started coming with agreements.

Hope that fills in some of the story for you.

By: David J Castello

David J Castello — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:47:37 +0000

LOL Thank you, Alan.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:19:07 +0000

David,

Keep developing like a rock star – stay away from blogging … it takes too much time

better to tell the stories over a beer… or 17.

Cheers

Alan

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:55:15 +0000

Yeah, they all do a great job but none of them can tell YOUR stories=)

By: Kevin M.

Kevin M. — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:37:43 +0000

I believe Oscar.com has been around since before Jan. 22. Archive has it tracked back to ’97, and The Academy has had it since ’96. Maybe they redid it recently and relaunched it on the 22nd!? Unless you were referring to the nominations being on the site since the 22nd. Either way, it is a great name. I also believe at one time Oscar.com forwarded to Oscar.org. Though that may have been a SAG thing, not Oscar.

@David – We’ve got time, tell the story!

By: David J Castello

David J Castello — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:12:15 +0000

We’ve thought about it, but Mike, Elliot, Andrew, Sahar, Rick, Adam, Ron, etc already cover this terrain pretty well.

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:57:20 +0000

Bummer about your brother loosing the domain David! But I bet it would make a great story!

Man! I was 11 years old in 94′ and I sure wish that I had been a smart enough 11 year old to see the value in domains even then. Oh well, I am doing just fine for myself now with my own “secret plan” but a couple of one word cat. killers would have been sweet.=).

Ever considered starting your own Blog David? I think you and your bro would probably have some pretty awesome stories to tell.

Troy

By: David J Castello

David J Castello — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:45:57 +0000

I believe my brother actually acquired this in 94, but lost it. Long story.