online snowball causes misinformation regarding israel.com

Yesterday I reported that the domain name israel.com was sold for 5.88 million USD. Today I was contacted by a spokesperson on behalf of Moniker and notified that the domain name israel.com was not sold and is still on sale (please contact moniker.com for info).

What is interesting in this case is that I attained the story from a leading online news site in Israel and decided to post it in English and share it with my digg community. I guess that even sometimes leading online news sites get their facts wrong and must be checked by the blog community before spreading the news further into the web.

Domain name israel.com sold for 5.88 million USD

UPDATE: Israel.com was not sold.. please read updated post

The domain name israel.com sold for 5.88 million USD on May 29, 2008. The bidding price started at 5.55 million USD and lasted for a couple of days before closing at the above mentioned price. The domain auction was held by Moniker Online Services LLC which is a leading provider of domain name registration, management, and monetization services for individuals and businesses and is located in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Joel Friedman was identified as the owner of the domain name israel.com, but the identity of the domain purchaser is unknown. The site currently has tourist and history links dedicated to the state of Israel. Mr. Friedman purchased israel.com in 1994 and did not expect to receive a significant amount of money for it. He decided to place the domain for sale as a gesture of celebration in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday.