Moniker/Snapnames was scheduled to hold an auction for i.CO from Februrary 3-10, and I expected the sale to be significant, especially with a reported minimum bid of $100,000. I still expect i.CO to sell for a lot of money, but it looks like that is not going to happen in the very near future.

According to Lori Anne Wardi’s post on the .CO Registry blog, the i.CO auction has been canceled. Apparently, the demand has been significant, with “well over a hundred businesses expressing different level of interest in the domain name.” As a result, the .CO Registry has decided to scrap the auction format and work with Moniker/Snapnames to find a buyer for this domain name.

I think this was probably a very good strategic move. If the .CO Registry and Moniker/Snapnames think they can hammer out a better deal in private – or without the confines of an auction, then that’s what they need to do.

As a domain investor, I am a bit disappointment. I had hoped to really see what the market would yield for this domain name, as I believe it would be a good indicator of the strength of .CO investments, especially if a large company purchased it.

The wait for another .CO auction to gauge the health of the premium domain name aftermarket won’t be too long, as Sedo’s auction will take place February 10-17.

Earlier today, Kevin Murphy posted the teaser photo released by Go Daddy with the back side of the new Go Daddy .CO girl who will be revealed in the Super Bowl commercial.

A couple weeks back, Mike Berkens speculated that it could be the very sexy Colombia-native Sofia Vergara, who stars in one of my wife’s favorite shows, Modern Family. This would seem like a good tie in since .CO is the Colombia ccTLD.

I have spent a lot of time reviewing this picture and inspecting similar pictures of Vergara. Anatomically, it looks like it could be her or perhaps even Shakira.

I am going to speculate that it won’t be Vergara or even Shakira, another famous Colombia-bred beauty. In my opinion, Go Daddy and the .CO Registry will not want to emphasize the Colombia connection to .CO and if anything, they may wish to de-emphasize it when selling it to the US public.

Colombia is a beautiful country with very welcoming people. But I don’t think the general US population will necessarily want to buy “Colombia domain names.” Much like the .TV extension likes to emphasize that it’s about “television” rather than Tuvulu, I think Go Daddy will probably de-emphasize the fact that it’s a country code TLD and prefer to emphasize that it’s an alternative to .com.

With a Colombian spokesmodel as the .CO girl, it will only play up its Colombia connection. It’s not a bad thing mind you, but you don’t really see .ME showing off it’s Montenegro roots. You can already see how Sedo is marketing its big .CO auction.

In a pretty surprising announcement today in a press release, Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne commented, “We have become O.CO.” Byrnes went on to say, “As a lifestyle destination, consumers can find absolutely anything on O.CO whether they are shopping for furniture, bedding, clothing, and jewelry, buying a car or home, and, soon, looking for their next vacation spot.”

It’s not often that a large retailer announces a re-branding effort like this, and it looks like the company may be ahead of the curve, as .CO will go more mainstream during the Super Bowl. The press release mixed Overstock.com and O.CO, and I think we will probably see a lot more O.CO and less Overstock.com in the near future, as using both would probably be harmful to the brand as that would be confusing.

In my opinion, Overstock has become much more than a company that sells overstocked items cheaply, as the brand name suggests. By transitioning to O.CO, the company that has done it’s best to become known as the big O, will now become the big O.

In a way, it’s similar to how Kentucky Fried Chicken moved towards the KFC branding when fried foods became a negative stigma in the US.

With the marketing efforts of the .CO Registry supporting companies like Overstock and Go Daddy, I think we are going to see more companies using .CO domain names in the next few years.

If you watched the World Series of Poker (or any professional poker tournament on television for that matter), you’ve probably seen all the big poker companies imploring wannabe poker players to visit their .NET websites instead of the flagship .COM sites.

I believe it’s due to US law regarding poker and gaming websites, where American citizens aren’t allowed to play poker online with real money. As a result, they aren’t allowed to market/advertise this “illegal” activity (this is all my thought and not necessarily fact). As a result, the poker companies promote the a .NET version of its brand which offers practice poker for fake money as well as tips and educational material.

The hope is that the players will realize the real action is found at the corresponding .COM and they’ll visit that website in the future. I would imagine they probably also don’t mind that some people only really pay attention to what comes before the extension, like Poker Stars or Full Tilt Poker, and they will directly navigate to the .COM instead.

Now that the .CO Registry has successfully launched and sold over 600,000 domain names, I am wondering if it would be a good idea for these poker parlors to ditch the .NET and switch to .CO. The advantage is that people are familiar with “CO” as an abbreviation for company, and because of it’s close proximity to .COM, it would align better with the .COM.

Of course, it could cause some type-in confusion, but that’s probably not a bad thing for the poker companies.

I read an “Open Letter to .CO Registrants” posted on the .CO Registry website by Eduardo Santoyo, Vice President & ccTLD Manager for the Registry. I think any domain owner who bought .CO domain names should have a look at the letter to know where the Registry stands when it comes to trademark infringement.

Some of the key points discussed in this letter include:

• .CO domain names are subject to UDRP
• When you buy a .CO domain name, you must represent and warrant that you aren’t doing so to infringe on the rights of another company (whether you are bidding on a domain name or hand registering it)
• .CO Registry will not give any refunds if a name is taken via UDRP or other legal action
• Domain owners are responsible for doing their own due diligence

Most domain investors know the ramifications pertaining to registering trademark infringing domain names, but some people don’t. I received an email last week from someone who told me she registered several .CO domain names of Fortune 500 companies that didn’t think to register them on their own. She asked how she could sell them. I told her I had no idea but referred her to my Domain Lawyer article for references.

It’s good to see the Registry post an article like this, and it will certainly be interesting to see how many UDRP cases are filed and how soon until that begins. My bet is that there will be quite a lot, especially when a strong aftermarket develops.