New TLDs

Independence is New gTLD Compatible

Independence must be a fashion of the moment. Cataluña, a place where I've lived, is fighting hard to be independent and, even if I don't believe a second that this will ever happen, it is a common example of a community which fought hard, very early and by all means, to operate a new gTLD to clearly identify its culture (and Nation) on the Internet: the .CAT Top-Level domain. Note that this TLD has nothing to do with the .DOG nor .PET new gTLDs (joke). more

Popular ccTLDs for Domain Name Disputes

As I've written before, the registry operators for many country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) have adopted the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) or a variation of it, while other ccTLDs have crafted their own dispute policies, or none at all. Although no ccTLD appears as frequently as .com in domain name disputes, it's interesting to see which ccTLDs are subject to dispute the most often. more

Will October Be Our Biggest Month Yet for .brand TLDs?

I'll admit I tend to get evangelical when I'm talking about .brands. To me and the team at Neustar, every development in this space is exciting and significant and we're always eager to share the latest news and insights. But you don't have to be a .brands nut to see that the last few weeks have shown some serious signs of momentum. And it makes me wonder, with everything that's developed in just the last week or two, could we be set for October to be the biggest month in .brands we've ever seen? more

Amazon Web Services Targets Startups and Creators With .aws

It will come as no surprise to those who've read my blogs that I get pretty excited about seeing .brand domains launch. At Neustar we're all in on promoting .brand usage in any industry, from all around the world and as such, we're always watching closely for any signs of new domains on the horizon, trawling for case studies or any hint of new activity. So imagine my surprise when a brilliant .brand example jumped out in front of me at JFK airport. more

Catalan Referendum Sites Blocked by Court Order

Websites associated with the upcoming referendum in Catalonia are being blocked by ISPs in Spain. While several of the domain names used by advocates of the Catalan referendum have been seized by authorities others are being blocked by the ISPs in Spain. For those of us outside Spain the blocking has zero impact on us, so we can see the sites without any issue, but for users in Catalonia, ISPs are blocking access. more

One Week Left for the Upcoming Brands and Domains Conference

There is only less than one week left for the second edition of the Brands and Domains conference to take place in The Hague, Netherlands, at the Amrath Kurhaus. The domaining conference will be held during the 2nd and 3rd of October, 'the place to be' for all those whose companies are interested in developing the so-called dotBrands. More than 500 companies have already requested their dotBrand domain, and many of them are already using it, but it is 'together' how we can move forward... more

The Role of Domain Name Privacy and Proxy Services in URS Disputes

Here's another apparent limitation of the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), the domain name dispute policy that applies to the new generic top-level domains (gTLDS): Proceedings are unlikely to unmask cybersquatters hiding behind privacy or proxy services. Domain name registrants often use these privacy and proxy services to hide their identities when they register domain names. The services have legitimate uses but are controversial. more

Catalan Government Claims Spanish Online Censorship Breaching EU Laws

The Catalan government has written to the European Commission claiming that the Spanish government is in breach of EU law. In a letter from Jordi Puigneró Secretary of Telecommunications, Cybersecurity and the Digital Society at the Government of Catalonia addressed to Andrus Ansip, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the Catalan government calls out the moves by the Madrid government as censorship. more

Forty Percent of New Generic TLDs Shrinking, According to Domain Incite Analysis

Forty percent of non-brand new gTLDs are shrinking, reports Kevin Murphy in Domain Incite: "According to numbers culled from registry reports, 172 of the 436 commercial gTLDs we looked at had fewer domains under management at the start of June than they did a year earlier. more

Amazon’s Letter to ICANN Board: It’s Time to Approve Our Applications for .AMAZON TLDs

When ICANN launched the new gTLD program five years ago, Amazon eagerly joined the process, applying for .AMAZON and its Chinese and Japanese translations, among many others. Our mission was -- and is -- simple and singular: We want to innovate on behalf of our customers through the DNS. ICANN evaluated our applications according to the community-developed Applicant Guidebook in 2012; they achieved perfect scores. more

Domain Registries to Discuss Possibility of ICANN Fee Cuts in Private Meeting This Month

Heads of 20 or more gTLD registries will meet privately this month to discuss various topics including the possibility of a reduction in their ICANN fees. more

Evolution of the Dot Brand Domains in 5 Years

ICANN's last new gTLD application closed in 2012 with more than 600 brands applying for their dot brand. Dot brand domains associate a keyword or keyphrase and a brand name in a complete domain name... To understand better how the evolution of the dotBrand has been throughout these years, number of websites launched, redirects, registries etc, Dot Brand Observatory prepared a few visual graphics. more

.site Domain Names Eclipse .xyz in Dispute Proceedings

Despite the launch of more than 1,200 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in recent years, .com remains - far and away - the top-level domain that appears most frequently in decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). But, some new gTLDs are attracting more disputes, including .site, which has become the new gTLD that, so far this year, has appeared in the most UDRP decisions. The rise of .site represents a change from last year, when .xyz was the most-often disputed new gTLD. more

The Great Domain Correction of 2017?

There were only 1.8 million registered .com names when I joined the NSI (Network Solutions) Marketing Team in the summer of 1998. ICANN was formed just a few months later. By the time we were acquired by Verisign in June of 2000 there were roughly 14 million names in the .com database. I recall predictions that one day there would be 100 million registered .com names. Some thought that was a craaaazy number and wanted to know what we were smoking. more

Is a New Set of Governance Mechanism Necessary for the New gTLDs?

In order to be able to reply to the question of whether a new set of governance mechanisms are necessary to regulate the new Global Top Level Domains (gTLDs), one should first consider how efficiently the current Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has performed and then move to the evaluation of the Implementations Recommendations Team (ITR) recommendations. more