Domain Diary

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann.org) said last week it was considering eliminating some outdated domain name extensions, according to reports.

ICANN began accepting public comments in Sao Paulo, Brazil this week on how to revoke certain outdated suffixes, primarily those assigned with countries that no longer exist. ICANN currently controls 265 domain name extensions.

The corporation says the Soviet Union’s .su is on the top of the list for deletion and the former Yugoslav republic’s .yu is also being taken into consideration.

And his Mexican lawyer shot the same day.

VeriSign, a provider of intelligent infrastructure for the networked world, today announced that it received notification from the Department of Commerce that it approved the .com agreement submitted by the (ICANN).

Since 1999, VeriSign has operated the .com registry. Today, VeriSign’s primary computers for .com can handle 10,000 times the DNS query volume they could in 2000, says the company.

As of January 1st 2007, the registry will offer .eu domain names for 5 euro to all accredited .eu registrars.

Afilias, a registry for .info domains, announced today that it has released support for eight additional Internationalized Domain Name language scripts in the .info generic top-level domain.

According to the company, these eight additional scripts join the German script that launched in 2004. The new scripts include Polish, Swedish, Danish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian and Korean languages. Afilias IDNs provide users with the ability to register domain in their local language, using non-ASCII characters that previously did not work in web browsers. Afilias IDN technology works with IDNA web browsers and e-mail clients so that the new domain can resolve. Internet applications such as internet explorer 7, netscape 8.1.2, firefox 1.5.0.7 and opera 9 support the use of IDNs.

A US judge has denied a request to order internet registrars to suspend Spamhaus’s domain, easing concerns that the spam blocking service might be interrupted.

Judge Charles Kocoras turned down a motion from e360 Insight, a firm that sued Spamhaus after the anti-spam organisation blacklisted its domains over alleged spamming, in the latest chapter in an ongoing legal tussle between the two organisations..

In a default ruling [PDF] made by an Illinois court last month, Spamhaus was ordered to pay $11.7m in compensation to e360 Insight, pull the organisation’s listing, and post a notice stating that it was wrong to say e360 Insight was involved in sending junk mail. UK-based Spamhaus did not defend the case and the ruling was made in its absence.

The Internet will soon have a domain to unify businesses and other users in the Asia-Pacific region.A key oversight agency has approved a “.asia” domain for Internet addresses, supplementing suffixes available for individual countries, such as “.cn” for China and “.jp” for Japan. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers earlier approved “.eu” for the European Union.

Made up of groups that run domain names for China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries, the DotAsia Organization Ltd. plans to explore permitting domain names in Asian languages under “.asia.”

In just seven years of operation, the caseload of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) topped the 25,000 mark with a case that has just been decided.

Since it launched its domain name dispute resolution services, the WIPO Center has resolved disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and various other policies. The 25,000th case related to a cybersquatting dispute handled under the UDRP in which the panelist ordered the transfer of the domain name to the trademark owner, the Red Lion Hotels chain.

In the period since the launch of its dispute resolution services under the UDRP in December 1999 through August 2006, 9,567 UDRP or UDRP-based cases (generic top level domains, gTLDs and country code top-level domains, ccTLDs) have been filed with the WIPO Center, covering 17,912 separate domain names involving parties from 136 countries.

Internet overseeing organisation ICANN will vote later today on whether to introduce a new system aimed at closing a loophole in domain name rules that enables speculators to register thousands of domain names effectively for free.

The method, called “domain tasting”, has proved highly controversial in the past year and, its critics argue, is costing the industry money as well as restricting choice on the internet.

The ICANN board will decide whether to allow an amendment to the contract that covers all .org domains, currently held by non-profit organisation PIR, that will enable PIR to charge five cents for every domain registered with it that is returned within five days - something that it hopes will remove the financial incentive for so-called “domainers”.

Sedo.com LLC plans to introduce this week an auction service for domain name sales, a company executive said Monday.

Jeremiah Johnston, COO and general counsel for the online marketplace for buyers and sellers for domain names and Web sites, said the new seven-day auction platform will augment a traditional model, where domain names are posted on the site for sale and price negotiated.

The eBay-like model aims to satisfy requests by businesses, as well as professional investors who purchase high-ticket domain names each year.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said in a statement Wednesday that it does not have the ability or authority to comply with a proposed court order that it suspend the Internet service of the Spamhaus Project. Spamhaus is a volunteer-run antispam service.
In a proposed order last Friday, Judge Charles Kocoras of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois called on the organizations responsible for registering the Spamhaus.org Internet address to suspend the organization’s Internet service. Both ICANN, the nonprofit organization set up to manage the domain name system of the Internet, and Toronto-based Tucows, the Spamhaus.org registrar, are named in the order.

Escom LLC, the owners of the storied Sex.com domain name, today announced a distribution deal in which the new Sex.com will become a premiere online destination for broadband premium services representing the best in entertainment for adults.The agreement calls for the Playboy Entertainment Group to power the Sex.com web site, providing content options that include a wide array of high-quality erotic programming and interactive elements that allow for social networking between consenting adults.

Internet governance experts remain divided over last week’s decision to extend the US government’s oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), with some calling it appropriate, and others portraying it as unwise.

The strong sentiments on either side reflect a chronic, troubling tension that has enveloped ICANN since 1998, when it was formed to progressively absorb the Internet management functions which, until then, were handled fully by the US government. Often accused of lacking transparency in its decision-making process and of responding disproportionately to US interests, ICANN carries on its shoulders the critical responsibility of ensuring the security and stability of the Internet.

EURid, a Brussels based registry for .eu domain names recently announced that it has opened a regional office in Stockholm, Sweden to support Northern Europe.

As a next step, offices are also planned for the Czech Republic and Italy. The Stockholm office and the future regional offices in Prague and Pisa will assume responsibility for the helpdesk support offered to registrars, domain name holders and the general public in their respective local languages.

The World Association of Domain Name Developers, Inc. (WADND), will host its third annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. EAST conference and trade show, developed specifically for domain developers and investors, sponsors, pay-per-click aggregators, buyers of Internet traffic, advertisers, and business owners and professionals.

Web hosting provider and domain name registration services firm, Network Solutions, has called upon the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) to review the proposed .com registry agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and VeriSign, Inc.

Network Solutions, an ICANN accredited domain registrar, yesterday called on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) to review the proposed .com registry agreement between the ICANN and VeriSign, Inc.

Network Solutions asked NSTAC, which provides advice to the President on communications issues related to national security and emergency preparedness, to immediately assess the security concerns that the .com registry proposal poses for the Internet. The .com proposal is pending before the U.S. Department of Commerce for review. ICANN’s Board of Directors in February narrowly approved the agreement, which includes automatic renewal terms and up to $1.3 billion in cumulative, guaranteed price increases that would not have to be directed toward security improvements or otherwise justified. The proposal fails to provide a minimal level of ICANN oversight and security risk mitigation, omitting contractually enforceable requirements for security reporting, testing, monitoring and risk analysis.

The promise of dotMobi, introduced back in May, is to deliver better more streamlined Internet content to mobile devices through optimization. Now that a Sunrise Registration period for owners of intellectual property is over, the mobile Top Level Domain Ltd (mTLD) in charge of registration for the new domain name has opened up its doors to the general public. 13,000 trademark companies joined during the Sunrise period. It is said that 25,000 were originally expected. mTLD anticipates signing up over 200,000 dotMobi sites within its first year.

The Department continues to support the work of ICANN as the coordinator for the technical functions related to the management of the Internet DNS.ICANN, today welcomed statements made by Mr. John Kneuer, Acting Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, United States Department of Commerce indicating support for private sector leadership of the DNS.Mr. Kneuer said, “The Department continues to be supportive of private sector leadership in the coordination of the technical functions related to themanagement of the DNS as envisioned in the ICANN model. Furthermore, the Department continues to support the work of ICANN as the coordinator for the technical functions related to the management of the Internet DNS.”

“Microsoft has witnessed a virtual land rush for Internet domain names with the goal of driving traffic for profit,” said Aaron Kornblum, the company’s Internet Safety Enforcement attorney. The company noticed the surge in sites earlier this year as part of its efforts to monitor so-called phishing sites, which mimic bank and other sites as part of identity-theft schemes.

The US Government this week renewed its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), effectively extending its grip on the administrative body that co-ordinates Net addressing until to 2011.
The new contract between ICANN and the US Department of Commerce covers technical functions related to the Internet domain-name system (DNS) and is scheduled to go into effect on 1 October, one day after the existing contract expires. Technically, the agreement lasts for one year, and the Government has the option of renewing it each year for up to four additional years.
“In executing this contract the Department of Commerce has confirmed that ICANN is uniquely positioned to perform this function,” Paul Twomey, the organisation’s chief executive, said in a statement.
The move appears to be consistent with a set of Internet governance principles issued last summer by the Commerce Department that ignited a worldwide debate. In addition to asserting its plans to retain control over the Internet’s “root” — the master file that lists what top-level domains are authorised — the Bush administration said it planned to maintain its supervision over ICANN.

Damien Hirst, a young British artist best known for experimental art involving animal parts, is in dispute with another artist over a domain name. The domain name, www.damien-hirst.co.uk, was purchased by Mr Simon Phillips, who describes himself as an ‘Internet artist’. Mr. Hirst’s contention is Mr. Phillips is profiting from a site which visitors might believe to be Hirst’s official site (which has yet to be launched). Mr. Hirst has given Nominet (www.nominet.org.uk), the “.uk” domain name manager, three weeks to assign the domain to him before proceeding with legal action. Mr Phillips has promised to fight the action and retain the name.

Trademark holders can register domain names from September 15 from the premium name list, developed with the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
dotMobi, the registry for .mobi domains, today announced that qualified trademark owners can now apply for dotMobi Premium Names starting September 15, 2006.

In cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), dotMobi has developed a Premium Name Application Process for trademark holders. Trademark holders must meet defined criteria to register domain name from the premium name list. The Premium Name Application process can be accessed at the dotMobi and WIPO Web sites.

VNNIC, the registry for Vietnam that manages the entire .VN zone, will offer the top level domain .VN. The only restriction imposed by the registry, is that only companies can register .VN names.

According to the company, for years, the Vietnam registry only offered second level domains under ‘com.vn, org.vn’, however, beginning Tuesday, the 15th of August, the ccTLD is set to embrace a significant success in a world where domains become strategic investment for brands and ‘’domainers.'’ Vietnam has a population of 84Mio, for now an Internet penetration of 15%. The population size can be compared to the population of Germany.

dotMobi, the company behind the first and only Internet address created for
mobile phones, today announced that qualified trademark owners may apply for
dotMobi Premium Names starting September 15, 2006.

In cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO),
dotMobi has developed a Premium Name Application Process for trademark holders.
Trademark holders must meet clearly defined criteria to apply to have their
name removed from the Premium Name list and successfully register the domain.
The Premium Name Application Process can be accessed at the dotMobi and WIPO
Web sites (http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/gtld/mobi/).

Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho won back the rights to a website address including his name on Thursday, successfully tackling a serial cybersquatter. A United Nations agency ruled that ownership of the www.ronaldinho.com domain name must be handed to the FC Barcelona and Brazil player within 10 days.

The name Ronaldinho has not been registered as a trademark, but a World Intellectual Property Organization arbitration panel said it considered the player’s name a trademark because it identifies him and his professional activity.

Two emails…

From eNom:
Dear eNom Reseller,

We are excited to announce eNom, Inc., has completed the purchase of the business and operations of BulkRegister, LLC. The combined companies will surpass Network Solutions® to make eNom® the second-largest registrar in the world with over 6.8 million names under management.

Dotster, Inc., an ICANN-accredited domain registration and web hosting company, yesterday announced its tenth virtual ‘Happy Hour’ event scheduled for Wednesday, July 26, 2006.
Beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern, …

I think it was about the time to do this:

EURid, the non profit organisation operating the …

GOLDMAN SACHS, the US investment bank known for its fierce work ethic, is up in arms at suggestions that it has diversified into sex tourism.

The bank is trying to remove or change the name of a site called goldmansex.com, which provides business travellers with links to strip clubs and escort agencies around the world.

It is run by Rob Muller, a Dutch entrepreneur who claims that his nickname is Goldman because his friends had always regarded him as lucky. He also claims never to have heard of his near-namesake in the banking world until recently. Mr Muller is baffled why Goldmans should see any confusion between his site and the many variants of its name the bank has already registered.

Goldmans confirmed that it had submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum, which decides on disputes on internet names, arguing that there could be confusion and that the disputed site contained links to adult material. Asked if he knew what the site contained, a spokesman answered: “I don’t know. I’ve never looked at it.”

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 management of that unique root in the public trust according to policies developed through participation and acceptance by the community; and 2) By offering users an easy-to-use and reliable means of unambiguously referring to web sites, e-mail servers, and the Internet’s many other services, the DNS is helping the Internet achieve its promise of a global communications medium for commerce, research, education, social and cultural and other expressive activities. Effectively ICANN operates as a steward for users who depend on the Internet’s naming resources. As a result ICANN needs to focus on participation and input to decision making regarding this global resource.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 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.

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:
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.

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 …

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:

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …