The company behind the proposed .xxx top-level domain, which was rejected after the Bush administration intervened, has been trying to dig up embarrassing government documents through a federal lawsuit. Make that “was trying.” Last week a federal judge granted summary judgment to the Bush administration in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the ICM Registry. More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
The March 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief released by VeriSign reports that “the Domain Name Industry closed 2007 with more than 153 million domain name registrations worldwide across all of the Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs), an increase of nearly 33 million domain name registrations since the close of 2006.” A summary of the report follows… More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
Day two of Domain Pulse 2008 last Friday (see review of day one) focused on online security issues giving the techies amongst us details of security issues, and the more policy-orientated amongst us something to chew on in a few other presentations. Kieren McCarthy, these days of ICANN, also gave some insights into the drawn out sex.com drama with more twists and turns than the average soap opera has in a year! And Randy Bush outlined the problems with IPv6. Among other presentations… More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
Around 350 attendees came from Russia in the east to Ireland in the west, as well as a few people from elsewhere around the globe, to attend Domain Pulse 2008 in Vienna on February 21 and 22. Day one’s focus was internet governance. The future of the DNS was one of the key issues addressed by Michael Nelson of Georgetown University in Washington DC, with domain names becoming less important, but their numbers still increasing, as online access by a myriad of devices skyrockets connect — everything from the television, refrigerator, washing machine, pets, sprinkler systems and cars. More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
Internet addresses ending in popular extensions such as “.pdf”, “.doc”, or “.mp3″ could appear under a new proposal by ICANN. However, ICANN said it would likely bar all-numeric suffixes, such as “.123″. Once ICANN finishes crafting its criteria, it will start taking bids from outside companies and groups for new domain names, so a “.pdf” domain would appear only if an applicant comes forward and wins approval. The organization is looking for feedback on security and operational issues that may arise from the introduction of new domain names as early as this year. More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
Domain Pulse, the yearly get-together of the German-speaking registries of nic.at (Austria), Denic (Germany) and SWITCH (Switzerland) is happening on February 21 and 22 in Vienna. The conference alternates between the countries — last year it was Switzerland, this year Austria and next year Germany… Domain Pulse covers everything in the domain name arena from management of the DNS, what’s happening in each of the ccTLDs, after market and domaining, security threats to the DNS and internet as well as wider issues affecting the internet’s development such as internet governance. More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
In a message posted to the ICANN GNSO list, Avri Doria forwarded along a most interesting document from Neustar, who runs the .biz domain… Neustar proposes to change their registrar agreement so that each registrar will only get credit for deletions of 10% of their new domains, with a few minor exceptions for tiny registrars and bulk registrations due to one-time mistakes. They say they expect Afilias to propose the same change for .info. More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
The number “5″ license plate sold for $6.8 million dollars in Saudi Arabia and another 300 vanity plates sold for another $56 million at last week’s auction. It is estimated that the number “1″ will be auctioned next month for up to $20 million dollars. Domain names and license plates share some common characteristics. Both allow only one person to own a particular word or number. Of course, the exact same license plate ‘word’ or ‘number’ can be registered in every country and, in the USA, every state… More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
I didn’t see the Fortune article Are domain names recession proof until the weekend, and being the author of the now infamous Domain aftermarket overdue for an asset repricing last year I feel somewhat obligated to comment on it. So, how will domain names fare in a recession? The Fortune article was upbeat… More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back
Paul Sloan writing in Fortune magazine: “Global markets are in a state of panic. Credit markets are all but closed. And recession fears are everywhere. But at the conference I attended in Hollywood this week, called DomainFest, you’d have little clue that the financial world was melting down. The domain world — the people that buy and sell names and make money from pay-per-click ads on their websites — is booming. Downturn? Bring it on.” More…
Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back