Uniregistry launched .Flowers into general availability yesterday and ended the day with 24,194 registrations according to ntldstats.com
However it appears that North Sound Names, owned by the principal of Uniregistry, registered over 98% of the domain names.
The registrar with the 2nd most .Flowers registrations was CSC with 100 domains, which were all trademark holders.
I had a bunch of pre-orders placed, all of which came back even before the extension launched, as being no longer available.
When I checked the whois yesterday on each of the domain names I had pre-ordered I got the message that the domain had no whois record but was not available for “normal” registration price.
Today all of those domain names I had pre-ordered and paid for had the same whois info like one of my pre-orders:
Domain Name: PLANT.FLOWERS Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.uniregistrar.net Registrar URL: http://uniregistry.com Updated Date: 2015-04-07-T22:04:21Z Creation Date: 2015-04-07-T22:03:46Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-04-07-T22:03:46Z Registrar: UNIREGISTRAR CORP Registrar IANA ID: 1659 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@uniregistry.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.9494785380 Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited Registry Registrant ID: UNIREG_Z4EJRHGF Registrant Name: DOMAIN ADMINISTRATOR Registrant Organization: NORTH SOUND NAMES Registrant Street: 30485 SEVEN MILE BEACH Registrant City: GRAND CAYMAN Registrant State/Province: GC Registrant Postal Code: KY11202
Every registry basically has the right to reserve as many domains as they want before launch.
I just wish Uniregistry just reserved these domain names in advance so they could not be registered and pre-ordered to save everyone the hassle and money of pre-ordering domains with muliple registrars that they had no intention of allowing to be registered.
I know that Mr. Schilling made many statements leading up to the launch of the new gTLD program that almost all of the domains on Uniregistry launched strings would be available on launch and then he might go in and register domains a few weeks after launch that were still available but clearly the top 24,000 domain names in .Flowers were never going to be made available to the public.
Taking away the 24K registered by North Sound Names it looks like .Flowers got around 400 third party registered domains, including well over 100 domain names registered in the Sunrise period by trademark holders.
Same thing happened to me. I had orders (multiple orders for the same domain across various registries) for 10 .flower domains and 9 of them turned into “reserved” names the day before (max two days before) General Availability. This means I had money tied up for about 4 weeks for names I was never going to be able to register.
What is worse, is that .flowers already had a “reserved” list of domains well over 4 weeks ago and at the last minute they added some more. My guess is they are monitoring whois queries and pre-orders and then changing to “reserved” some good names they missed. This doesn’t seem right; it isn’t very sportsmanlike.
What do you expect from a guy who said so many times something but did differently later.
Isn’t that called front running?
“My guess is they are monitoring whois queries and pre-orders and then changing to “reserved” some good names they missed.”
Would like to see anyone even try to get away with disagreeing with a “guess” like that. I’ll bring the shovel, and the popcorn. 😉
We all know what Frank Schilling has been doing with .Flowers and .Links recently.
Hello MHB,
There is a reason we call the new gTLDs ( Quasi-Derivatives ) Echoes of CMO Debacle Anyone ??
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Michael~ I own the single word Flowers in an extension~ if you need it just drop me a note~ thank you.
after 24k i couldn’t imagine what would really be left worth registering.
“A certain 10 percent [profit] will ensure the employment of capital anywhere; 20 percent certain will produce eagerness; 50 percent, positive audacity; 100 percent will make it ready to trample all human laws; 300 percent, and there is no crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged.”
Hello MHB,
I have been exposed to many Marketing Sales shows. Actually when I worked for Merrill Lynch (Briefly) I was indoctrinated and coerced to attend Sales show meetings. I looked at the slick presenters with a jaundiced eye trying to figure out their real agenda. Their agenda was often not in tune with my clients agenda and I always protected my clients best interests, but some presenters were slick enough to devieve me and my clients. With close to 30 years experience on top of the close to 100 years of collective experience of my colleagues we have come to the conclusion that the new gTLDs are a passing fancy to fleece unsuspecting participants of their hard earned money. We may be wrong but we feel compelled to warn people of our collective senses that the gTLD experiment is very, very risky. Sincerely and
Gratefully Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Had hopes of picking up some .flowers, not even going to bother looking after reviewing the whois on every single one only to see that everything I try is part of the 98% registered.
Any other extension they release I probably wont bother with either.
For the record, I am an end user and .FLOWERS is now equivalent for finding what I want in.COM…a pain in the .neck so I am better off looking elsewhere
If you’re an end user I may have your name “Flowers” in a certain extension-please contact Michael here if interested and he can act-if he will-as the broker-thank you. John M.
Thanks God, I got onlineshop.flowers without any problem. I am thinking to run a business on this OR should I sell it ?
Sell it? It’s worthless!
Pre registration via registrars is not encouraged nor sanctioned by gTLD registries. Premium lists are readily available for the registrars to check before deciding to take a possible registrants money. Sadly It seems to be a regular occurrence and appears to be an acceptable form of customer service for certain registrars.
The domain “plant.flowers” is clearly a premium domain and the thought of being able to register such a domain for $24.99, although I’m sure exciting, seems awfully hopeful.
Deep In the t&c’s of your chosen registrar I’m sure you will find a clause that states they cannot guarantee the registration of a pre registration domain and unfortunately the fault here lies squarely at the registrars door not the registry who took money for something that they hadn’t checked to see was available.
Registries are allowed to create premium domain lists of any size for their TLD’s to be sold at any value that they choose. Once the TLD is launched at either landrush or GA, therefore having been through sunrise,, they are their property of the registry to do with as they wish.
The domain “ilikeplanting.flowers” is available. I would have had that on my premium list…..
ilikeplantingflowers.com is available…someone better register that “premium” domain…ha what a joke.
oh and the actual complaint is adding domains to the premium list very close to GA ensuring many people would have already placed preorders. and sure its their right to do whatever but franks mass registering of domains (not just reserving them) takes the cake. he’s making his tlds irrelevent basically.
You cant place a pre-order, that was my point. The registrars take it upon themselves to list domains they don’t know will be available.
If a registry wants to keep all of the premium domains for themselves that doesn’t make the tld irrelevant, you can still register non premium domains? Premium domains account for a small percentage of overall registrations numbers. When the status of the domain changed from “available” to reserved was when the registrar most likely actually checked what was(nt) available for the GA launch not some clandestine activity from the registry. The registries also don’t have knowledge of what has been “pre ordered” by the registrars until the actual GA date when they try to register them for their registrants. Well, i know we certainly don’t.
This is a registrar issue, not registry. We have the same issue every time we launch a new gTLD. Its usually the same registrars doing it and the same irate emails to us from their customers asking why they cant have something like “learn.science” for $20 that their registrars allowed them to pay for 6 months ago and we should honour the sale agreement…one we never agreed to i may add….After informing them of what i have said previously in this comment, they go off to check the registrars t&c’s and we never hear from them again, it is simply not our fault.
i get what you’re saying but 24k “preimum” domains in .flowers? come on! I’d be hard pressed to come up with a few hundred.
Premium doesn’t necessarily mean they will be 50k though. The registrars sell domains for the GA price, there maybe a lot that are worth up to $500 that cant be sold through the normal channels (yet). It is often the case the premium lists are over the top at first and then dwindled down when there is more time to fully analyze the domains. Unfortunately its a reasonably manual task as every tld is different and a premium domain is subjective according to the string. For example plant.mom isn’t going to be the same value as plant.flowers.
Its better to be overly cautious than let possibly valuable premium domains fall through the gap and be registered for $20….or maybe Mr Schilling may just have a thing for .flower domains. Who knows.
Hello MHB,
Kudos in having the guts to expose this greedy operation. You are educating and protecting unaware investors. Thank You
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Why would anyone even want .Flowers? Other than if you got a “category killer” single word.
I’m sure some of the 100k+ florists worldwide may be interested in their name.flowers….
Really? As mentioned above-we own the single word “Flowers” in a pretty good extension and our email isn’t flooded with offers. I understand your post but I think most florists would opt for a great Geo name with a .com.
Your domain wont be $24.99 though….whereas something like grandcayman.flowers is.
That’s very true. lol