Domain Diary

Well, this should be the first one. Domaindiary.net is registered today at Moniker (more about my impressions about this company - good or otherwise - a little later) …

If you’re into domaining, you must be aware of Monte Cahn and one of his companies - Moniker. They position themselves as “The Most Secure and Customer Service Driven Domain Name Registrar in the World!”. According to some fellow domainers (including Dave Zan, one of the biggest authorities in the field), Moniker has to be THE best and really most secure registrar out there. However, I would like to give you my personal impressions and experiences so far, while dealing with them. The full chronology:

2006 02 05. Wrote an email to sales [AT] moniker [DOT] com asking for the special pricing. Their standart USD18.99 pricing scheme wasn’t appealing for me at all. Asked for the level 3 (USD12.95 new registrations, USD10.99 transfers and renewals) pricing. No answer for a week.

According to: Domain Name Wire :
Opposition to the proposed VeriSign agreement with ICANN is growing. A number of registrars released formal opposition remarks yesterday.

Results from …

I promised to myself not to use GoDaddy anymore, however I couldn’t resist to register 5 domains, using (and abusing) buy.com free GoDaddy coupons, available from: http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp?prid=82517432&adid=17662

Have got …

As per http://www.hostreview.com/news/news/060216SHININGMONKEY.html
Shining Monkey Inc., manufacturer of premium car care products was a victim of a widely reported domain name cyber squatting attack. The incident, which took place between 4:30 AM ET and 7:45 AM ET on Sunday, February 5th, was caused by a sophisticated, large-scale attack on domain names across the Internet. As a result, Shining Monkey’s popular www.shiningmonkey.com domain name was stolen. A large-scale dispute that includes numerous companies has been filed with government officials. In the meantime, Shining Monkey will operate under the domain name, www.shiningmonkey.net.

I think it’s the highest time for me to point out some funny issues RegisterFly is having since their movement from being eNom reseller to their own system. I’ve posted …

Heck, I wish it was me who took this interview… VERY nice and good reading!
http://www.domainingblog.com/2006/02/qa-with-one-of-worlds-most-prolific.html

Pre-registrations: http://google.com/hosted

Very good article about quality traffic in DailyIndia.com:
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/3923.php

Just came by: http://ie7.com  and was quite suprised, to say the least. Go, Firefox!!!

Domain was created back in 1999, so probably does not violate anyone’s rights:

Registrant:
Digital Dataflow Ltd.
Basement …

It was very long week for everyone in the internet community. Still, the deal between ICANN and Verisign about .com namespace is uncertain:

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/print.php/3587281
The future of the Internet quite literally hangs in the air.

ICANN board members met this week about the revised deal with VeriSign for control of the .com registry.

The revised deal would end all pending litigation between ICANN and VeriSign, as well as allow VeriSign to raise domain prices and continue to manage the registry for “near perpetuity.”

The official announcement:
Grassroots.org, a provider of free Internet and legal services to nonprofit organizations, today announced its offering of a free domain name to US and Canadian’s new …

Yesterday, Bob Parsons (GoDaddy’s owner and CEO) put one more entry to his web blog: http://www.bobparsons.com/VeriSignRespongs.html. The thing is that he lied to the community once more, writing in …

An official announcement from ICANN:
Marina del Rey, California, 28 February 2006: Today, ICANN’s Board of Directors approved, by a majority vote, a set of agreements settling a long time dispute between ICANN and VeriSign, the registry operator for the .COM registry.

These settlement documents include a new registry agreement relating to the operation of the .COM registry. The new .COM registry agreement will now proceed to the U.S. Department of Commerce for final approval, and the entire settlement is dependent upon this approval before it is finalized. USDOC approval is required due to the unique history of the .COM generic top-level domain and it is the only gTLD which requires such approval. If approved, this settlement will clear the way for a new and productive relationship between ICANN and VeriSign facilitating ICANN’s stewardship and technical coordination of the Internet’s domain name system.

I was continuosly explaining to people on the various boards about how GoDaddy’s transfer policy differs from ICANN’s Policy on Transfer of Registrations between Registrars. GD put the following restrictions in their domain transfer policy:
Go Daddy may elect to accept or reject your domain name transfer application for any reason at its sole discretion. Rejections may include, but are not limited to: The current Registrar rejected the transfer. The original registration took place less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request. The domain name has been placed in a locked status by either the Registry or by the losing registrar. The domain was transferred to Go Daddy less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request. The domain name expired but was not renewed. The domain name expired and was renewed during the forty-five (45) day grace period, and the forty-five (45) day grace period has not yet passed. The Domain Name Registrant was changed less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request. Any pending bankruptcy of the current domain name holder. Any dispute over the identity of the domain name holder. Any situation described in the Dispute Policy. Transfer orders over thirty (30) days old.

Wow, and I thought the SAGA was over… It doesn’t look so:
Just …

Read the full entry here

Yesterday, while browsing dnjournal, I’ve learned that Moniker is keeping Rick Schwartz’s portfolio. Rick is famous, almost legendary, among fellow domainers for his early …

According to tophosts.com :

Last November, iPowerWeb shocked the domain industry by cutting their domain name prices to a record-low $2.95, making them the cheapest in the world.
Examining their …

Well, I just became aware that Mr. Parsons answered my personal comment on his blog. The quality of the answer is beyond any criticism, to say the least. …

Some really entertaining reading here:

According to domain registry NetNames, Volkswagen, Ralph Lauren and Nestle have all laid claim for polo.eu. …

According to The Age:
Two US senators on Thursday proposed legislation that would establish a new “.XXX” domain for racy or sexually explicit websites.

The bill proposed by senators Mark …

Domaining made through to the mainsteam press again. Vancouver Sun published a story 6 days ago (sorry to report this too late).

Read it here.

According to Hostreview:
Noting that the Department of Commerce has given little evidence of ICANN oversight with regards to the VeriSign vs. ICANN settlement, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) on …

As per Wired.com:

Cybersquatting the domain name of a celebrity and selling it for a king’s ransom was one of the great get-rich-quick schemes of the early internet. But since …

ICANN has decided to postpone .xxx introduction. As per msn.com:
A plan for a new internet “domain” for pornography has once again been shelved, dealing another blow to the …

Several hundred thousand new .eu domain names expected when EURid opens at 11:00 on Friday, 2006 04 07

The new Internet top level domain .eu was introduced in December last year, …

I just came by an *EXCELLENT* article by an active WHT member stu2 about different terms of domain grace period and redemption. I asked Stu for the permission to use it in my blog and it was kindly given. So, enjoy:

According to TheRegister:
A director of internet-overseeing organisation ICANN has resigned from the board, claiming he will be able to do more working from the outside.

Michael Palage was due …

mTLD just announced first dates for it’s .mobi TLD sunrise periods. The schedule is looking like follows:

Sunrise

Limited Industry Sunrise – May 22nd to May 29th
Trademark Sunrise –
June 12th …

All of you are probably aware of my feelings towards Bob Parsons, however, his recent blog entries:

http://www.bobparsons.com/EULandrushFiasco.html

http://www.bobparsons.com/Newfactsemerge.html

http://www.bobparsons.com/EURidResponds.html

made me think over this case. He’s somehow right…

Open source advocate Bruce Perens has launched an initiative to discourage owners of undeveloped Web domains hosting them on servers running proprietary software.Perens wants domain owners and resellers …

The .eu domain now has 1,595,192 domain names, most of them registered since the Landrush period started on April 7.

Top 10 countries for .eu

Germany (514,984)
United Kingdom (311,692)
Netherlands (189,912)
Italy (94,207)
Cyprus (74,481)
France …

Some 123-reg clients are waiting for access to their newly acquired .eu domain names two weeks following the initial release date.

The popularity of the new domain appears to have taken …

Devshed.com just published a good article (it’s for the newbies) on what happens (or could happen) when domain isn’t renewed in time. I myself thought, for a very …

Reviewplace.com recently gave GoDaddy their 5-star rating in domain_registration/domain_tools category. Usually, it’s nothing out of being extraordinary. GD is the biggest registrar, loved by …

Datamonitor.com recently wrote a quite interesting article about GoDaddy going public:
Go Daddy’s rumored initial public offering has caused lots of tongues to wag regarding the riskiness of the domain name market, but there has so far been relatively little attention paid to the other more lucrative areas in which the company operates.

According to several recent reports, the Arizona-based web services firm is talking to Lehman Brothers about an IPO later this year. The company declined to confirm or deny these reports, and simply said it had no comment.

The project I am involved in required me to get a semi-anonymous domain. It required no leakage of the owner details, at least by the looking into whois printout. I’ve …

Official press release from eNom:
BELLEVUE, WA – May 1, 2006 – eNom, Inc. (www.enom.com), one of the world’s largest Internet domain name registrars, announced that it has been acquired by Demand Media, Inc., a new company headed by former MySpace.com chairman, and former CEO of Intermix Media, Richard Rosenblatt. Los Angeles-based Demand Media will broaden eNom’s offerings by developing proprietary content tools and technologies, as well as new online advertising opportunities for eNom’s clients.

NEW YORK –Faced with opposition from conservative groups and some pornography Web sites, the Internet’s key oversight agency voted Wednesday to reject a proposal to create a red-light district on the Internet.

The decision from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reverses its preliminary approval last June to create a “.xxx” domain name for voluntary use by the adult entertainment industry.

The company behind the unsuccessful bid for a new .xxx domain for internet pornography, ICM Registry, has embarked on a legal fight-back.

ICM will file a suit against the United States Department of Commerce in the Washington district of Columbia later today, in order to gain access to information withheld by the department in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made back in October 2005.
if (getQueryVar(’Middle_Ads_kid’)) { Ads_kid=getQueryVar(’Middle_Ads_kid’); } else { Ads_kid=0; } Ads_bid=0; Ads_xl=0; Ads_yl=0; Ads_opt=0; Ads_wrd='’; Ads_sec=0;
That information will provide the “extra evidence that provides the irrefutable proof” that the United States government intervened in the issue to prevent .xxx going ahead, ICM Registry head Stuart Lawley told us. If true, it would also contradict public statements made by the Department of Commerce (DoC) that it “plays no role” in the day-to-day running of the internet.

The proposed .xxx porn domain may have been rejected, but there has been no such setback for .mobi, the domain aimed at mobile phone users.Â
DotMobi announced that the first internet address created specifically for mobile phones, .mobi, will be available through 16 of the top 20 domain name registrars worldwide. From May 22, members of select mobile industry associations will have the opportunity to register their trademark names as .mobi domains.

Quoting Nominet:

May 24 2006

Nominet, the .uk domain name registry, is celebrating reaching the five million mark for .uk domain name registrations. The landmark registration, Hosepipebanbuster.co.uk, was registered by …

Well, I finally decided to write few posts how to keep your domains as secure and happy as possible.

I’ll start with one of the easiest ways to be always in …

This is the second day and the second my personal advice to keep your domains happy and secure.

*ALWAYS* keep your whois details updated, for ALL your domains. This will help …

The third day and the third my personal advice to keep your domains happy and secure.

*ALWAYS* renew them in time. By ‘in time’ I mean ‘the last couple of days’. …

The forth day and the forth my personal advice to keep your domains happy and secure.

Chose good and reputable registrar for your domains. This is self explanationary… And by ‘good …

In his last blog entry, GoDaddy’s CEO Bob Parsons introduced us to the term ‘domain kitting’, i.e. registering a domain for a short period of time (usually 5 days), ‘tasting’ it for the traffic and possible revenue, then dropping. This practice is approved by ICANN and respective registries, however originally it’s meaning and purpose was totally different: to make it possible for the registrant to amend his/her typographical errors which could possibly happen when registering a domain.

It looks like the kitting and disposable domains took just another meaning for the cybercriminals. According to Matt Chapman from vnunet.com:

BRITISH novelist Jeffrey Archer won a cybersquatting case, gaining the rights to the contested Internet domain name www.jeffreyarcher.com.

The address had been registered by Canadian operator Celebrity 1000, which …

As per webhostdir.com:
Canadian Domain Name Services Inc. (caDNS.ca), one of Canada’s leading .ca Domain Name Registrars, cancelled a domain name, youthforvolpe.ca, on Friday, June 2, because the registration had been completed with completely fabricated contact information and the supposed registrant refused to comply with caDNS.ca’s request for proof of eligibility to register a .ca domain name and to also provide correct contact information, as is required by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).

Eric Beck, CEO of caDNS states, “At no time, to our knowledge, was caDNS.ca contacted by anyone from Mr. Volpe’s office.” The suspicion that the domain name might have been registered using fabricated information came to an employee’s attention through a phone call from a Globe and Mail newspaper reporter who claimed that the administrative contact phone number for the domain registrant, was disconnected. This prompted the caDNS.ca employee to review the caDNS.ca database entry for the domain name registration.

NameMedia, the largest buyer and seller of premium domain names, today announced its new Direct Search platform to give online advertisers access to its rapidly growing network of search destinations that already reach more than 25 million consumers monthly.

Previously known as YesDirect, NameMedia is backed by Highland Capital Partners and Summit Partners. Over the last year, it has acquired a leading domain reseller, BuyDomains, a leading domain “parking” service, GoldKey, and dozens of smaller domain collections to create a portfolio of more than one million domain names, the world’s largest.

As per webhostdir.com:
Lovethename.com launches “Fame Capitalization’ section of site. Since Domain names such as “Brangelina” or ChildrenofJolie-Pitt” are hot commodities in the Top Level Domain (TLD) name game, investors are keeping a sharp eye put for celebrity domain names. Whether it is Brad Pitt, Katie Holmes - Tom Cruise, cyberspace gives a whole knew meaning to “LoveTheName.com” Colorado LoveTheName.com is at the center of a controversy brewing over how far is too far. They have created a new category at their site called “Fame Capitalization” and are featuring domains for sale such as ChildrenofJolie-Pitt.com at their website and this has created quite a stir.

As per Out-Law.com news:

Cybersquatters who broke the rules when registering .eu domains can be stripped of them at any time, says .eu registry EURid. But if they manage to sell their domains before being caught, they can keep the proceeds, according to the registry.
Bitter controversy has surrounded the ’sunrise’ period of the new domain, launched in April. Several existing domain registrar firms, including GoDaddy, have accused US profiteers of using a lax EURid system to stockpile valuable domain names against its rules.

As per Rwandian Times:
Rwanda is going to be among the few countries in the world that will be offering free registration for an Internet Domain name to her citizens, The New Times has established. According to Dr. Raphael Mmasi, the Director of National Computing Centre in the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA), the Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) is still managed by an individual, Fredrick Gregory, based in Belgium.

DENIC, the German domain administrator, yesterday unveiled that it processed the ten millionth application for a .de domain.
This makes .de the second Top Level Domain, after .com, to …

GoDaddy.com, an ICANN accredited domain registrar, today unveiled a partnership with FabulousDomains, a domain name registration services provider.
The agreement allows Go Daddy to sell FabulousDomains’ portfolio of domains …

Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN) on Sunday officially opened its 26th International meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The meeting, which runs until June 30th, sees stakeholders from …

As per smh.com.au:
A U.N. agency has ruled that ownership of the lassie.com domain name must be handed to New York-based Classic Media Inc., the company that owns rights to the popular TV series Lassie about an adventurous collie.

Classic Media filed a complaint to the World Intellectual Property organisation over the use of the star dog’s name in an Internet address registered by Warren R. Royal of Cumming, Ga., the agency said Wednesday.

ICANN has published a real-time captioning of Domain Name Marketplace Workshop at ICANN Meetings in Marrakech, Morocco June 27th 2006. The link is here…

According to Global Intelectual Property News Agency:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced in a press release that it has signed an exchange of letters with United Kingdom country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) manager, Nominet.

This demonstrates a willingness to develop cooperation between ICANN and Nominet, the registry responsible for the United Kingdom ccTLD .uk. Nominet has become the seventh registry to formalize their relationship with ICANN in the past two months.

Nominet will also be joining ICANN’s country code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) to ensure that the .uk domain name space is represented in the global Internet arena. Nominet will be the largest registry to join the ccNSO since it was established.

Australian domain name scammer Bradley Norrish has declared himself bankrupt.
By John Leyden for The Register.

Bradley Norrish, along with business partner Chesley Rafferty, ran an outfit called UK Internet Registry, and three other firms, which sent 50,000 fake invoices to domain name holders in the UK during 2003. The information needed to mount the scam was obtained from a data mining attack on the .uk WHOIS database.

The scale of the attack was so severe that Nominet, the .uk internet domain name registry, was forced to suspend its WHOIS database, which allows people to check the registrants of domain names for nine hours to prevent further abuse.

Nominet linked the attack back to UK Internet Registry and sued the firm and its directors for breach of copyright and offences against Australian fair trade laws.

The European web hosting forum (http://www.webhosttalk.eu) Web HostTalk.eu announced today it unveiled a survey on .EU domain extensions.

It shows that most of the 3 or 4 letter .EU domain names have already been registered and those website owners who want to register a new name for their sites need to bargain for those extensions in the domain auctions web sites.

Most short .EU domains are still in “sunrise” pending period, or are not available for registration. Those who are in pending status is unlikely to be released for free registration.

Domain names such as sex.eu, cars.eu, fun.eu and etc. are capped or already lead to active web sites.

With 2 million dot-EU domains registered however there are only a small number of websites that are active under .EU extension and promote the extension under their own brand. The short and “nice looking” .EU domains that point attention to web hosting are already registered but most of them are not in use.

Taking a new approach, LoveTheName.com, an Internet Web-Address Company who is best known in the industry for leveling the playing field to allow smaller investors easier access into the lucrative domain, has gone the extra mile in the sale of “St domain name extensions. The domain name ‘Texas.st” has been made into a fully operating website so that entrepreneurs can see the value immediately of owning a site associated with an entire state.
Blaire Fanning, a marketing profession in Florida commented, “They are basically not only selling a cutting edge domain name, but having out the entire business plan> One glance at the site www.Texas.st” show that all anyone would have to do is contact any business, school, agency, event, anything, and just charge a nominal yearly fee to be listed – and they are up and running with a profitable a long term business.”

September 22 deadline provides trademark holders additional time to organize applications and register names.
dotMobi, the Internet address created for mobile phones, today announced it is extending the Trademark Sunrise Registration period to September 22.

Trademark Sunrise Registration provides owners of intellectual property (IP) an opportunity to register their trademarks as .mobi Top Level Domain names. The Trademark Sunrise period was launched on June 12 with hundreds of global brands registering .mobi domains. Trademark owners and brand managers around the world requested additional time, given summer holidays and third-quarter budget planning.

ICANN yesterday announced that over 750 delegates from 87 countries gathered in Marrakech, Morocco for ICANN’s 26th International Meeting.

During the week, a number of workshops and meetings were conducted in relation to IDNs. This meeting culminated with a Board resolution to extend the timeline for the Top Level Domain (TLD) registries working group to develop a best current practices document for submission during next ICANN meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil this December.

The Marrakech meeting also saw progress in relation to WHOIS, with the ICANN Board acknowledging that more time is needed by the Generic Names Support Organization (GNSO) and its WHOIS taskforce to make recommendations to the Board on this complex and controversial issue.

At its December 2005 meeting, the ICANN Board noted that the ICANN community could also ‘benefit from the advice of a group responsible for making observations and recommendations concerning strategic issues facing ICANN.’

In light of the above, the ICANN Board passed a resolution for the President to appoint a President’s Strategy Committee. The Committee plays an important role in providing observations and recommendations concerning strategic issues facing ICANN and contributing to ICANN’s strategic planning process, which occurs in consultation with the community.

As ICANN heads towards 30 September 2006 expiration of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States Government, members of the President’s Strategy Committee have had preliminary discussions about the path ahead. Out of these discussions the Committee has identified several themes where input from the community is needed.

According to ICANN, its mission is founded on two key concepts: 1) They are acting in the public trust, and developing decisions through a bottom up, consensus based process. ICANN is committed to a single, authoritative stable public root for the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) through the coordination and management of a unique identifier system. It is also committed to the ma