/ Most Commented

Go Daddy Sues VeriSign Over Site Finder

Go Daddy Software, Inc. has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Arizona against VeriSign Inc., seeking a temporary restraining order against VeriSign's new Site Finder service, a paid-advertising page VeriSign has established on the Internet to which the traffic associated with mistyped, and other, domain names will be directed. Go Daddy's lawsuit claims that VeriSign is misusing its position as the .com and .net domain registry to gain an unfair competitive advantage by intercepting (and profiting from) internet traffic resulting from the scores of invalid domain names that are typed into users' browsers on a daily basis. more

Quantifying SiteFinder Traffic

Want a sense of just how much traffic VeriSign is receiving from its SiteFinder service? Alexa, with its Alexa Toolbar and associated traffic tracking services, makes it easy to find out...Over the past three months, taken as a whole, VeriSign had traffic rank 1,559. But today its traffic rank is 19, meaning... more

Communicate.com to Receive $1 Million for Four Domain Names

An e-commerce company, Communicate.com Inc., that develops, owns, and operates a network of websites specializing in travel, consumer goods, sports/lifestyle and B-to-B (business to business) has announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell Automobile.com, Exercise.com, Body.com and Makeup.com for $1 million to Manhattan Assets, Inc., a private U.S. corporation. A non-refundable initial payment of $200,000 has been received. more

Do Domain Names Matter? - Part II

This is the second part of a 2-part series article arguing that the decentralization of the Internet will allow the DNS to recede to its earlier, uncontroversial role, before all the lawsuits and screaming matches at ICANN board meetings. To read the first part click here.

Another source of pressure on the DNS was the system's shifting role from one that was primarily mnemonic to one that was meaningful as well. The difference is subtle, but important. Consider the phrase "Every good boy deserves fudge", which music students sometimes learn to help them memorize what notes correspond to the lines of the treble clef. The phrase is helpful, but its content -- boys deserving fudge -- has nothing to do with music. It's mnemonic, but not meaningful.  more

Microsoft’s Popular Domain Scooped by UltSearch

When domain names expire they leave skeletons - networks of inbound links that continue to funnel traffic to that name, even if ownership has changed. Via eWeek, we learn that Microsoft owned HARDWARE-UPDATE.COM and used the name for a site featuring Windows drivers. The domain name is embedded in various error messages in Windows 2000. However, Microsoft did not renew the domain name and Ultimate Search, a company that specializes in this sort of thing, scooped it up. Now the page provides sponsored links, courtesy of Overture. The article reports that the top sponsored link pays over $3 a click-through.  more

Domain Name Theft Part II: Did ICANN Leave Foxes Guarding the Chicken COOP?

When it comes to stealing domain names, I suspect that there are two reasons why so many web bandits appear to be immune from ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers uses the acronym ICANN): the first reason I discussed in my last column on domain name theft (where I described a substantive void in domain name "regulation" as a primary factor for the increasing incidence of domain name theft), the second reason, which is the focus of this column, is the procedural anomaly that currently infuses ICANN's uniform dispute resolution process (UDRP) by providing no administrative forum for domain name registrants who become victims of domain name theft carried out by ICANN's registrars. more

The Last gTLD Round Taught Us the Wrong Lessons

Fourteen years after ICANN's last gTLD expansion, registration figures offer an incomplete verdict. The next round will test whether applicants can build namespaces with enduring relevance, rather than merely generating impressive launch volumes and revenues. more

DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists

Research suggests criminals may control a striking share of newly registered gTLD domains, raising questions about whether ICANN's definitions, contractual safeguards and enforcement mechanisms are keeping pace with the industrial scale of technology-facilitated harm. more

What Reagan-Era Cyber Strategists Can Teach America Today

Reagan-era cyber strategists anticipated today's transnational threats, proposing international treaties, public-private cooperation and infrastructure protections. As America again considers aggressive action against cybercriminals, their largely forgotten blueprint offers both lessons and warnings. more

The Dual-Front Challenge: Why Route Security (RPKI) is the Prerequisite for Quantum Readiness (PQC)

Internet security risks advancing unevenly: post-quantum cryptography may protect data while vulnerable routing still enables hijacks. Universal RPKI adoption, paired with cryptographic agility, is essential to build an Internet trust architecture ready for quantum threats. more

Poland Excluded from Starlink’s European Region: What Musk Dispute Reveals About Digital Sovereignty

Poland's exclusion from Starlink's new European roaming region has triggered a dispute with Warsaw, exposing how private infrastructure providers can shape cross-border connectivity and raising questions about digital sovereignty, accountability, and internet governance in Europe. more

The Web Has Become a Content Delivery Network

Cyberattacks, AI scraping and relentless bot traffic have transformed CDNs from performance tools into the Web's defensive gatekeepers, reshaping Internet architecture, governance and control as private intermediaries increasingly determine which requests reach origin servers first. more

The Phishing That Hasn’t Happened Yet: MX Records as Bad-Faith Evidence in UDRP Proceedings

Inactive cybersquatted domains may conceal active email infrastructure. MX records can corroborate bad faith in UDRP disputes when weighed with other evidence, helping panels address fraud risks before harm occurs without conflating capability with misconduct. more

Why AI Traffic Needs Its IP Classification

As AI agents increasingly act on users' behalf, the internet's human-versus-bot divide is breaking down. A dedicated AI IP classification could replace guesswork with transparent, context-aware traffic policies that improve access, enforcement, and infrastructure efficiency. more

The Business Value of dotBrand: Twelve Real-World Success Stories

Twelve real-world dotBrand success stories show how organizations strengthen trust, improve security, simplify customer experiences, and create measurable business value. From AI-driven innovation to global digital ecosystems, dotBrand domains are becoming essential infrastructure worldwide today. more