Got an email from 1&1, the German domain and hosting company, that their domain pricing is being raised.
In order to stay competitive and continue to offer you excellent services, we need to adjust our pricing structure. The following new domain rates will be changed to $14.99/year, dependent on your individual renewal date, at earliest on 07/01/2013.
Hate it when companies sugar coat their message to justify the price gouging. Just tell us you're raising the price and STFU with the rest of the stuff. What kind of an idiot would ever believe that you're doing this for your customers?
I'd like to say that I remember the days when domains were going for $4.95/year and 1&1 was one proponent of cheap pricing. The truth however is that I remember the days when domains were given away for free by Internic, the predecessor of today's Network Solutions.
The good old days when good domain names were free and plentiful. I was too lazy and conceited to grab few names then, like it was beneath me to take 2 minutes to register a few. How time changes one's perspective.