Talk about a good call. Vancouver-based domain name holding company Live Current Media just sold the domain name Call.com for $1.1 million.

If you think Live Current hit the jackpot, wait ’til you hear how the domain’s changed hands over the last few years. This is one of those rare times when a company gets to trade a bird in the bush for two in the hand. More →

Niche Stores, an Austin-based boutique of category-specific Internet properties has acquired the domain name HomeBrewing.com, for an undisclosed sum.

Niche Stores builds and operates numerous websites within Internet verticals that can uniquely succeed on the web by efficiently reaching a global audience of niche consumers. The acquisition of generic keyword website domains within new verticals is a key strategy for Niche Stores. These types of Internet addresses can draw significant amounts of direct type traffic and are logically favored by Google and Yahoo in search engine results pages.

“Despite the current economic environment and the decline of the housing market, Internet real estate continues to be an excellent form of value investing. HomeBrewing.com is an important square on the internet monopoly board for us,” Niche Stores CEO/Founder Christian Lavender said.

ComputerWorld reports that web hosting company Network Solutions LLC has suspended a web site that a conservative Dutch politician wanted to use to release an anti-Quran video that critics are saying is extremely critical of Islam. Right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders planned to release the movie titled Fitna, whose Arabic name translates to ordeal, on the Web site March 31.

DotAsia Organisation announced that the launch of the .asia netted 266,663 applications within the first 24 hours, demonstrating great interest around the world to stake claims in the most prestigious cyber real estate in Asia. Including Pre-Sunrise, Sunrise, Pioneer programs and the first day of Landrush, the total number of domain applications to date is 298,861. “.Asia” Landrush opened Feb 20 and will close on March 12, 2008.

Unlike conventional first-come-first-served processes, DotAsia utilizes a model that treats all applications received equally no matter if it was submitted within the first second or on the last day of the Landrush period. For domains receiving two or more applications, an auction will be held between the applicants.

Over 35% of the Landrush applications received came from Asia, with 40% from North America and 24% from Europe. A total of about 28,000 domain names received more than one application.

Elysium Internet, Inc. has acquired the domain name SECLawyer.com.

“We already own SecuritiesAttorney.net, LocalSECAttorney.com, LocalSecuritiesAttorney.com and the term SEC Attorney with a .com address for every state and every major city in the US. Acquiring a premium name like SECLawyer.com allows us to brand our Securities Attorney directory with a top level direct navigation domain dot com name. We now believe that we have developed possibly the largest and certainly the deepest domain name portfolio relating to the business of Securities Attorneys in the world,” Elysium and FTS CEO Scott Gallagher said.

“SECLawyer.com is scheduled to be launched in 6 to 8 weeks or immediately after the launch of Therapists.net and Auditors.com. As previously mentioned upon completion of our directory platform Elysium will begin launching one directory every two weeks for the next year.”

Burned Media Ltd. has announced its acquisition of Lyricing.com, an established domain with traffic from North American visitors searching for artist and album lyrics. The company migrated the domain property to its platform in the past 3 weeks and has re-launched the site with a new and improved music lyrics application. This functionality will tie into its existing Burned Music platform and Hypster.com music discovery property.

Over the coming months the development team will continue to work to build the traffic of the site, improve it’s search engine ranking and implement various advertising and affiliate programs.

Tucows Inc. announced that the company had over 150,000 Internet domain names in its private domain name portfolio.

To best obtain value from the domain names, the Tucows portfolio team strategically sells some of its names via live and silent auction, some are bundled and sold individually to interested parties, and some are leased to businesses on a multi-year term. In addition, some names are sold as Premium Names through the company’s network of resellers.

A sampling of the some of the key Tucows domain name assets include the following list of 100 names: More →

MothersClick announced the acquisition of MothersGroups.com and the launch of a new portal for their growing network of mom-centric and parenting websites.

The strategic acquisition of the unique domain, MothersGroups.com, represents the company’s focus on developing related and relevant online assets that contribute to the flagship service. “We believe MothersGroups.com is a definitive domain for our target audience,” says Andra Davidson, co-founder and president of MothersClick.com. “Since we provide services specifically for active moms and mothers groups, we are thrilled to own this important address and add value to our existing brand.”

While planning the expansion of its online services by rolling out a nationwide network of parenting sites, MothersClick has long recognized the importance of unique URLs to define and reach deeper into its marketspace and the company currently owns a portfolio of over 150 parenting-related domains.

Demand for aftermarket domain names grew substantially in 2007, setting yet a new record-setting benchmark for the market, according to an annual report conducted by Sedo. The continued increase in domain name value was spurred by the necessity for organizations and businesses to secure quality domain names that are no longer available through traditional registrars, as well as the greater ability to generate search engine optimization through targeted domain names.

Sedo, whose leading secondary domain name marketplace has long served as an index for industry performance, topped the $70 million mark in domain sales brokered for the first time in its history, twice the amount in 2006.

The Sedo report also found that advertising revenue generated from domain name parking, or matching pay-per-click advertisements with relevant domain names, also increased substantially on a per site basis as parked sites offered visitors more compelling content. In 2007, Sedo paid out more than $50 million to its community of domain owners using the company’s award winning parking program to monetize their unused domains.

Register.com announced that it has expanded its domain name search capabilities to include over 1.5 million premium domains. Through this expansion, Register.com gives small business customers access to both new domains and names that are currently registered but are available for resale.

One of Register.com’s key partners in building this expanded search capability is the Domain Distribution Network (Fabulous.com). Leveraging Fabulous.com’s expertise and extensive inventory of previously registered domains, Register.com has expanded its ability to help customers create memorable online brands that are easy to market and remember.