As the domain names industry grows to what this year is reported to be a $2.5 billion dollar industry in terms of registration sales & trading of domains [1], we may hear two terms more commonly used in Operations or Technology department of any company.

First, a “domainer” is a person or company which attempts to profit from the Internet’s system of unique identifiers called “domain names.” Current methods of profiting include a) buying and selling domain names which are highly valued, b) purchasing domain names and placing “landing pages” filled with advertisements which appear to be contextual links related to how the internet surfer found the domain. [2],[3]

Second, “domaining” is the “business of buying, selling, developing and monetizing Internet domain names. Such domain name portfolios often include cleverly chosen and highly marketable generic domain names, or domains whose registrations had lapsed yet still retain reasonable traffic. There is sometimes no actual intent to use any of the domain names with the exception of generating advertising revenue through domain parking. Domain names are the addresses of the web and come in a wide variety of extensions (.com being the most popular)” according to a recent wikipedia.org entry. [4]

1. http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/29/technology/nextbigforeign.biz2/index.htm
2. http://www.wordspy.com/words/domainer.asp
3. http://blogs.business2.com/business2blog/2006/06/the_new_cybersq.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domaining