New TLDs

ICANN Approves .XXX

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in its board meeting in San Francisco on Friday, approved the .xxx Top-Level Domain. The ICANN board members voted 8 for, 3 against, 4 abstain. While the decision still has to undergo final review with IANA and the US Department of Commerce, it appear that ICANN's decade-long, most controversial Top-Level Domain application to date has now concluded.

Kieren McCarthy: Issue Guide to ICANN San Francisco Meetings

As the ICANN's 40th international meetings start off in San Francisco, Kieren McCarthy, General Manager (US) of the Global Internet Business Coalition (GIBC), and founder of the .NXT conference, has released a guide for the most important topics (listed below) with some added commentary, background and links to relevant resources.

Hitachi Second Major Consumer Brand to Announce .Brand TLD Application

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "Japanese electronics giant Hitachi has emerged as the second big consumer brand to officially announce it will apply for a '.brand' top-level domain. GMO Registry, also based in Japan, is the company's back-end provider of choice, according to this news release..."

Domain Name Registrations Pass 205 Million

The global base of Internet domain names grew by nearly 3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign, Inc. According to the report, the fourth quarter of 2010 closed with a base of 205.3 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domains (TLDs), or a 1.7 percent increase over the third quarter. Registrations have grown by 12.1 million, or 6.3 percent year over year.

No Government Veto Over Future Top-Level Domain Names

Declan McCullagh reporting in CNET News: "The Obama administration has failed in its bid to allow it and other governments to veto future top-level domain names, a proposal before ICANN that raised questions about balancing national sovereignty with the venerable Internet tradition of free expression. A group of nations rejected that part of the U.S. proposal last week, concluding instead that governments can offer nonbinding 'advice' about controversial suffixes such as .gay but will not receive actual veto power."

Domain Registrations Reaching 202 Million World Wide, 3.8 Million Growth Since Last Quarter

The third quarter of 2010 closed with a base of more than 201.8 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domains (TLDs), an increase of 3.8 million domain names, or 2 percent over the second quarter. According to VeriSign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief released today, domain name registrations have grown by 13.3 million, or 7 percent over the past year. The base of Country Code Top Level Domains (such as .us, .ca, and .uk) was 79.2 million domain names, a 1.4 percent increase quarter over quarter, and 2.4 percent year-over-year.

ICANN Board Gets Decisive, Vertical Integration Debate Killed Off

Michele Neylon writes: "Earlier this morning ICANN made public the resolutions from the most recent board meeting of November 5th 2010. The meeting was not a "normal" meeting - it was deemed a "special meeting" and its sole topic was vertical integration and cross-ownership between registrars and registries. This topic, often simply referred to as VI, has been a subject of debate - often very heated - for the last 12 months."

Survey Indicates Fair Demand for Brand Based Top-Level Domains

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite.com: "Almost half of trademark-conscious companies are considering a '.brand' top-level domain, according to a survey carried out by World Trademark Review magazine. The survey also found that there is much more interest in new TLDs among marketing folk than lawyers, which is perhaps not surprising. So far, only a few potential .brand applicants have been revealed..."

Study Reports .COM Domain as Riskiest, .JP Safest Country Domain

Latest research suggests the world's most popular top-level domain, .COM, is also the riskiest. According to McAfee's fourth annual 'Mapping the Mal Web' report released today, 56% of all risky sites end in .COM! The study, which according to the company analyzed more than 27 million websites, also reports that while .COM is the riskiest top-level domain, the riskiest country domain is Vietnam (.VN). Japan's .JP ranks as the safest country domain for the second year in a row.

Iran’s Top-Level Domain Approved by ICANN, That is .IRAN in Non-Latin

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today its approval of non-Latin string evaluation of Iran. This approval will allow the availability of Iran's top-level domain in its own native language, Persian, also known as Farsi (that is, the domain name .IRAN, in non-Latin characters). According to ICANN, there are currently 33 requests for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) representing 22 languages out of which 18 countries/territories have so far been approved. Other countries that have also successfully passed this string evaluation by ICANN include: India, Republic of Korea, Syrian Arab Republic and Singapore.

Libyan Government Seizes vb.ly Domain

The one-page link shortening service provider, vb.ly, has been seized with no apparent warning by the Libyan government which manages the ".ly" county code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD). According to reports, Nic.ly, the registry operator of the ccTLD in Libya informed the user of the domain that the content of its website was considered offensive, obscene and illegal by the Libyan Islamic Sharia Law and therefore revoked.

Domain Name Registrations Reaching 200 Million World Wide

The global base of domain names grew by more than 3 million in the second quarter of 2010, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign, Inc. According to the report, the domain name industry ended the second quarter of 2010 with a base of more than 196.3 million domain name registrations across all of the Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs). The combined base of .com and .net domain names surpassed 100 million, finishing the quarter with an adjusted zone size of 101.5 million. New .com and .net registrations totaled 7.9 million during the second quarter, an increase of 13 percent from a year ago.

Security Experts Urge Shifting from Defense to Offense in Cybersecurity

A report, released today by McAfee, Inc., titled "Security Takes the Offensive," says that traditionally, security technology companies and computer users have taken a defensive posture, putting the cyber equivalent of body armor on computers, networks and in the cloud. The report's authors say it is now time to avoid enemy strikes altogether by taking a more aggressive stance, aligning forces and involving law enforcement.

Chinese Internationalized Domain Names Approved by ICANN

ICANN's Board of Directors on Friday approved a set of Chinese language internationalized domain names which will allow millions of Chinese language users to access the internet using their native script. The new Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) and the associated organizations approved by the ICANN board include three different organizations: CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), HKIRC (Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited), and TWNIC (Taiwan Network Information Center).

ICANN Begins Negotiations for the Approval of dot-XXX Domain

The board of ICANN on Friday gave initial approval for the addition of .xxx Top-Level Domain... Dot-XXX domains won't start appearing right away. ICANN must first conduct a "due diligence" study of ICM's business plan for the domain, and then the board will review the contract proposed for the operation of the domain. That may involve referring the matter to ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, which is next scheduled to meet in December in Colombia, said board member Bruce Tonkin. "There is a potential that this is a prolonged process,"...