New TLDs

Trademark Owners Beware: Cybersquatting Spreads to Twitter

TechCrunch reports that its brand has been taken as a Twitter name, and that there is a landrush going on to get these names, which are already trading for money. The problem is so bad that a name brokerage, Tweexchange, has sprung up to get to facilitate sales. more

Domain Registry/Registrar Cross Ownership: A Reality Check

Funny how marketplace reality can poke holes in claims and theories. A debate is raging between some existing registries (Afilias, PIR, Neustar) and registrars like ourselves over the issue of 'cross-ownership' in Top-Level Domains (TLDs). At question: should the same set of shareholders be allowed to own all or part of a registry as well as a registrar that sells names in the TLD owned by the registry? These registries are saying 'no', and one of their principal objections is they think current registrars have an unfair advantage in pursuing TLD deals. more

The Chinese Domain Name Bubble Bursts

Nearly one year ago, I asked Will .CN become the next .COM? And perhaps I was right in more ways than one. Because now it appears that .CN is experiencing its very own .COM bust. Just a year ago Chinese domain registrations were booming, so quickly in fact that .CN had surpassed .DE to become the most-registered ccTLD. more

Swedish Regulator Bans Inclusion of Letters “b”, “a”, “n”, “k” in Domain Names Under .SE

Swedish Regulator PTS have today notified .SE, the Swedish (.SE) TLD registry that they have to change the rules... In short, the decision implies that any form of the sequence of the characters "b", "a", "n", "k" are illegal in domain names in Sweden. Further that checks of what domain names are registered are to be checked before registration. more

Unreasonable ccTLD Registry Price Increases!

It highly concerns me when domain registries controlling a certain Top-Level Domain (TLD) raise the wholesale prices they charge to registrars (domain retailers) without consultation to domain registrants (domain buyers). When this happens, all the registrars will need to pay more to the registry for every domain which they register or renew for a customer. They will in turn raise their prices to cover the additional cost to them. Transferring the domains to a different registrar will not help, as all the registrars for that TLD will be forced to raise prices as they all have to pay more to the registry. Don't think it hasn't happened before? more

Forget TLDs, Keep Dot Suffix and Move On

I have been working on URL, Web address, ID's and Namespace since quite a long time and I have my reservations about the present set up being a complete network. generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), country codes (cc), .co are all complicating the network, add to that the problem of address shortage plus other problem mentioned in comments and blogs at CircleID. It's time for out of the box thinking. more

Examininng Value in New ICANN TLDs on Search and Navigation, Companies, Domain Registries

I outline the implications for value presented by ICANN's proposed introduction of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) on user search and navigation, companies, and registries... For the new tools to be value adding they should facilitate navigation, reduce search cost, or provide actionable branding information through marketing. Unfortunately, the new TLDs bring in a mixed bag of value-adding and -destroying tools. more

Accepting New Top-Level Domains As Suffix-Less Cyber Brands

First off all, still unknown to the masses, this newly proposed $185,000 USD generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) scheme is in reality a suffix-less, custom-made, designer, globally exclusive domain name. Well done ICANN, as it is what the world needs now. However, ICANN has never mentioned this special marketing feature to date, as this suffix-less quality alone brings a major and a very positive revolution in cyber branding architecture for the net savvy marketers and dramatically changes the global thinking which has been primarily locked into a suffix based mentality when trying to reach for anything on the net; what name and what suffix? more

Realizing There’s More to Life Than .COM, Europe and Asia Already Do

It's getting so hard to find a decent .COM domain name that a big weed patch of businesses has grown up hawking really terrible names for enormous prices -- and they're finding buyers. They're catering to people who are just trying to find something -- anything! -- that will work for their new web site. The problem is especially acute for those who are trying to start a business. more

When It Comes to gTLDs, Follow the Money (Part 2)

In my previous article I showed that ICANN expects to recover a lot of money from the first round of applications for new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) -- $92.5 million, to be exact -- and that even that dramatic figure is probably substantially underestimated. For that reason, I argued that ICANN probably will recoup a windfall from the first round of gTLD applications and pointed out that ICANN's promise to consult with the Internet community before spending such a windfall is unsatisfactory because it has failed to say beforehand what surplus revenues might be spent for. more

When It Comes to gTLDs, Follow the Money (Part 1)

Introducing new generic Top-Level Domains represents, as ICANN says, "the biggest change in the Internet since its inception 40 years ago." Among the least understood aspects of this change is its potential to alter the economic power of ICANN as an institution. To see how that might happen, let's follow the money as it is expected to flow from the gTLD application process. ICANN expects to get a lot of money from gTLD applications: $92,500,000, to be exact. more

Domain Name Registry-Registrar Vertical Separation: The Economic, Anti-Trust Red Herring

ICANN has operated on the fundamental principle that there should be separation within the domain name marketplace between registries (wholesale) and registrars (retail). This fundamental principle has been a pillar upon which ICANN has provided registrants (consumers) with increased choice, innovation, and price savings. Therefore it was with great surprise when ICANN staff unilaterally undertook this initial vertical separation analysis through exclusive consultation with ICANN contracting parties (registrars and registries), while totally excluding non-contracting parties (individual, business and non-commercial registrants)... more

A Framework for Selecting New TLDs

Your corporate domain names send implicit messages (signals) through their Top-Level Domains (TLDs) and their second-level words. Shape your domain names so to send the right messages and to avoid sending unintentionally confusing messages. The post focuses on a framework to help bidders determine which TLDs send messages that are potentially profit generating... Soon TLDs such as ".car," ".cars," ".green," and ".eco" will be available to any qualified body whose request is favored by the allocation system. The system being discussed is a combination of beauty contests and auctions. more

Trademark Attorneys Warn Companies About the Upcoming .CM Cybersquatting Possibilities

In light of recent announcements regarding Cameroon's country code Top-Level Domain, .CM, being opened to public registration, Tresa Baldas reports on Law.com: "Trademark attorneys are warning companies about a new target for cybersquatters known as '.cm,' which is the country code -- or top level domain -- for the West African nation of Cameroon. The dot-cm domain is a hot target for scammers, they say, due to 'cm' being a common typographical error for 'com' in the popular dot-com domain. Attorneys say this is significant to brand owners because Internet users searching for brand owners' Web sites frequently mistype dot-com as dot-cm and wind up on a bogus site. Not only is Web traffic lost, they say, but a brand name can get diluted or tainted along the way." (Also see, Nation of Cameroon Typo-Squats the Entire .com Space from 2006) more

How Unconscionable is the Profit That Verisign Makes from Its Registry?

VeriSign makes a great deal of money from the .COM and .NET registries. Can we tell how much they make, and how much that might change if the CFIT lawsuit succeeds? It's not hard to make some estimates from public information. The largest gTLD registry that VeriSign doesn't run is .ORG, which was transferred a few years ago to the Public Internet Registry (PIR) which pays Afilias to run the registry, and uses whatever is left over to support the Internet Society (ISOC)... more