Domain Names

Amazon Gets the Green Light for .Amazon TLD Following Intense Negotiations Involving South America

ICANN has lifted the stop on delegating the .amazon top-level domain, allowing the delegation of the domain to the company Amazon Inc. over the South American region.

“Seven Dirty Words” Restriction Policy Lifted from .US Domain Name Registrations

Neustar, the registry operator of the .US domain and NTIA have reversed course, allowing the inclusion of previously restricted "seven dirty words" from future .US domain name registrations.

New Zealand’s Domain Name Commission Wins Injunction in a Lawsuit Against DomainTools

New Zealand's Domain Name Commission today won a motion for preliminary injunction in a US lawsuit against the company DomainTools.

Basketball Australia Switches Its Official Website to New Top-Level Domain .Basketball

As part of a plan to unify Australian basketball digital front, Basketball Australia is moving its official website to a new TLD-based domain name at www.australia.basketball.

PIR, the .ORG Domain Registry, Announces Radical Change to Marketing Scheme

Public Interest Registry, the non-profit organization managing the .ORG top-level domain, says it will not be offering any further volume discounts to domain registrars when the current agreements expire.

Donuts Holder of the Largest Portfolio of New TLDs Acquired by Abry Partners

Donuts Inc., a global leader in new top-level domains (TLDs), has announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Abry Partners, a private equity firm.

Team Behind Google Chrome Wants to Challenge How URLs are Displayed in the Browser

Google's Chrome browser has turned 10 and to commemorate the occasion, the company is rolling out a revamped design along with a series of new features, including a more powerful omnibox.

Study Finds GDPR Has Had Minimal Impact on Spam and Domain Registrations

Contrary to concerns regarding the effect of GDPR, "not only has there not been an increase in spam, but the volume of spam and new registrations in spam-heavy generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has been on the decline."

Special Interests Circulating Draft Legislation to Cut Short ICANN’s Whois Policy Process

Special interests who oppose privacy are circulating draft legislation to cut short ICANN's Whois policy process, warns Milton Mueller in a post published today in Internet Governance Project.

The .EU Top-Level Domain Facing Radical Shake Up as a Result of the Proposed New European Regulation

In response to outdated Regulations in a rapidly changing world of domain names and internet governance, the European Commission earlier this year proposed a new Europen Regulation for the .EU Top Level Domain (TLD).

Neustar Announces New President and CEO Succeeding Lisa Hook

Neustar Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors have appointed Charles Gottdiener as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

Former ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz to be Named Chair of Whois Group

"Former ICANN senior vice president Kurt Pritz is expected to be named chair of the group tasked with reforming Whois in the post-GDPR world," reports Kevin Murphy in Domain Incite.

DomainTools Sued for Misusing New Zealand’s .NZ Domain Name Registration Information

Domain Name Commission Limited ("DNCL"), New Zealand's overseer for the country's .NZ domain, has filed a lawsuit against the domain name service company DomainTools.

Anti-Phishing Working Group Proposes Use of Secure Hashing to Address GDPR-Whois Debacle

The AntiPhishing Working Group (APWG) in a letter to ICANN has expressed concern that the redaction of the WHOIS data as defined by GDPR for all domains is "over-prescriptive".

European Data Regulators Throw ICANN Back to the Drawing Board for a Third Time on Whois Privacy

In a letter to ICANN, the chair of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) makes it plain that even the organization's "interim" plan is fundamentally flawed, reports Kieren McCarthy in the Register.