Web.com to Acquire Network Solutions

Internet's oldest domain name registrar, Network Solutions, today announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Web.com. Network Solutions was founded in 1979 and pioneered the domain name registration business. In addition to domain name registration, the company also offers services such as web site design and hosting, e-commerce solutions, online security products, SSL certificates, and search engine marketing and optimization. According to Network Solutions, the company manages over 7 million domains, 3 million email boxes and more than 400,000 web sites. more

Broadband Tariffs: The Significant Gap Between Residential and Business

Analysis from Point Topic's recent reports on global broadband tariffs has revealed a significant gap in residential and business tariffs worldwide. Clearly businesses are paying more for their services than residential consumers but the relative differences in the ratios is more marked than might be expected. The first thought is that they are paying for more bandwidth and that is true to an extent. more

Domain Registrations on Decline, Google and Lower Ad Spendings Blamed

According to recent reports, the total number of new domain name registrations in the third quarter of 2008 reached 11.5 million, pushing the total number of domain names registered in total across all Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs) to 174 million. While the growth continues, the newly released Domain Report by Verisign, indicates a "a decline of new registrations by 2%t from second quarter and 2% from third quarter 2007, driven by declines in both gTLD and ccTLD growth." The decline in new domain name registrations are found to be partly due new changes made by Google to its AdSense program -- the report explains... more

Geneva Discussion to Include India’s Proposal for Government Control of Internet

Shalini Singh reporting in the Hindu: "The raging controversy over possible excessive state regulation of the internet based on the IT Rules 2011 is now likely to be dwarfed by discussions in Geneva later this week over India's proposal to the United Nations General Assembly, for government control of the Internet... In its proposal submitted to the General Assembly in New York on October 26, 2011, India has argued for a radical shift from the present model of multi-stakeholder led decision-making, to a purely government-run multilateral body..." more

FCC Drops Every Major Item from the Agenda

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has taken all rulemakings off agenda a day after the Republican Party lawmakers' request. more

FTC Proposes a Do-Not-Track List for the Web

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed on Wednesday a do-not-track list for the Web. "The proposal, which would allow consumers to opt out of having their online activities tracked, was included as part of the agency's preliminary report on consumer privacy," reports Gautham Nagesh in The Hill. "The report is intended as a framework for any potential privacy legislation from Congress but stops short of explicitly calling for a legislative solution." more

Reaching Google via Asia?

Across the Internet, yesterday, Google users twittered, blogged and emailed that Google search and mail were not usable. And, yesterday afternoon, on Google’s official blog, Urs Hoelzle reported that Google “direct[ed] some […] web traffic through Asia”... Even though Google is very well-connected to a diverse set of other networks, two of these relationships predominate. It is through these relationships that much of the Internet reaches Google... more

Food for Thought on the “New TLD” Business Models

There is always some degree of confusion in discussions about the "new TLDs". Some points of view try to be optimistic, others on the contrary only highlight the bad news, and most refer indistinctly to the "new TLDs" as if they did not break down into different segments, each of which obeys dynamics and constraints of its own. The purpose of this post is to provide some food for thought and to shed some light on those dynamics and constraints... more

Not Another Yearly Recap: What 2018 Tells Us About .brand Domains

It's that special time again! Time to unwind, spend time with loved ones -- and to reflect on another 12 months of progress across the .brand movement. Over the last few years, we've used this end of year assessment and our efforts with MakeWay.World to show you how the industry is being embraced globally -- through a range of examples, statistics and predictions about how the year ahead will be our best ever. more

We Are Protecting the Internet, Not Giving It to the United Nations

Like many foreigners, I follow U.S. politics closely. What happens in Washington, D.C. on trade, economics, foreign policy, and security matters can often have ripple effects across the world. This is also true with respect to internet policy, and like many who work in the internet industry, I am getting increasingly concerned by some of the news coming out of Washington. more

Google Says ITU Is the Wrong Place to Make Future Internet Decisions

Google has launched a "Take Action" page to urge people to speak out amidst the gathering of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) taking place next month in Dubai to update global telecom rules for the first time since 1988. Google and others have raised concern as some countries may see this as an opportunity to set up new rules for the internet. more

Sun’s New Green Data Centre Expected to Save $1 Million a Year

Responding to market demand for more energy-efficient datacenters, Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the completion of its new Broomfield, Colo. datacenter. The largest datacenter consolidation project undertaken in the company's history is expected to save more than $1 million in electricity costs and 11,000 metric tons of CO2 per year in Broomfield. The new Broomfield datacenter follows similar Sun projects completed in Blackwater, UK, Santa Clara, Calif. and Bangalore, India in August 2007. more

An Economic Perspective on Internet Centrality

The IETF met in November 2022 in London. Among the many sessions that were held in that meeting was a session of the Decentralised Internet Infrastructure Research Group, (DINRG). The research group's ambitions are lofty: DINRG will investigate open research issues in decentralizing infrastructure services such as trust management, identity management, name resolution, resource/asset ownership management, and resource discovery. more

Major U.S. ISPs Say They Will Not Sell Customer Browsing Histories

Amidst U.S. Congress approval of legislation reversing Internet privacy rules, Major U.S. Internet providers, Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, said they would not sell customers’ individual internet browsing information. more

Lawrence Strickling on NTIA and the Upcoming ICANN Meeting Next Week

In preparation for the upcoming ICANN 53rd meeting in Argentina, Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator, reminds the community that "one of NTIA's top priorities continues to be the transition of NTIA's role related to the Internet Domain Name System." more