Registry Services

ICANN and IAB Ask VeriSign to Suspend Site Finder

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has released an "Advisory" concerning VeriSign's deployment of DNS wildcard (Site Finder) service: "Since the deployment, ICANN has been monitoring community reaction, including analysis of the technical effects of the wildcard, and is carefully reviewing the terms of the .com and .net Registry Agreements. In response to widespread expressions of concern from the Internet community about the effects of the introduction of the wildcard..." more

ICANN Reaches Landmark Agreement With Country Domains

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) concluded its Montreal meeting with a landmark agreement that cements the relationship between ICANN and the worldwide community of country-code top-level domain registries. "Today's agreement represents both a historic achievement for the ICANN process, and a powerful vote of confidence in the newly reformed ICANN 2.0," said Paul Twomey, ICANN's president and CEO.

Finalizing four years of dialogue and negotiation, the creation of the Country-Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) heralds a new era of cooperative and productive relations among ICANN and the country-code domain registries. The structure and rules for ICANN's new ccNSO were endorsed by domain registry organizations and individual managers representing every region and populated continent. "Today's agreement is a testament to how ICANN is seen as a forum the international Top Level Domain administrators can come together and jointly address issues," said Twomey. more

TLD Registration Enforcement: A Call for Automation - Part II

Last month, I wrote to describe the state of registration restrictions in .BIZ, .US, and .NAME. I noted trends among nonconforming registrations in these TLDs, and I suggested that certain automated enforcement systems might serve to improve compliance. But an important larger question remained unanswered: Why care about registration restrictions in the first place? Much as registries might like to ignore the restrictions, I submit that the Internet community nonetheless ought to hold them to their contracts.
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TLD Registration Enforcement: A Call for Automation - Part I

The past year has brought a rise in so-called "open and chartered" top-level domains (TLDs). Like the traditional open TLDs of .COM, .NET, and .ORG, these namespaces encourage large-scale registrations, but they differ in that they limit who can legitimately register domains. So far, many thousands of their registrations seem to break the stated rules. It's therefore worth thinking through their respective enforcement efforts -- before the situation gets out of control. more

Now That You’ve Applied for a New gTLD, Should You Reveal?

With applications closed, new gTLD hopefuls face a changed calculation: revealing strings early could expose contention while information remains financially valuable, helping applicants make better decisions before fees are paid and withdrawal becomes increasingly costly. more

Beyond DUMs: The Case for Tracking What a Namespace Is Made Of

Domains Under Management (DUM) measures a namespace's size, but not its character. Structural composition could reveal whether growth reflects durable adoption, speculative holdings or noise, giving registries a richer view of namespace health and strategy. more

Same Shape at Every Scale: What a Larger Domnain Namespace Confirmed - and What It Didn’t

A larger namespace confirms the same four-layer structural pattern found across nTLDs, while revealing wider operator-to-investor variation and distinctive noise signatures that expose different registration dynamics hidden behind headline registration totals. more

What Zone File Analysis Reveals About the Gap Between nTLD Registration Volume and Namespace Reality

Registration totals reveal size, not composition. Structural analysis of major new gTLDs finds strikingly similar architectures but meaningful differences in operator adoption, speculative holdings, and noise, suggesting namespace health requires more than volume metrics alone. more

Public Data Is Not Public Infrastructure

Building infrastructure for public trademark data revealed a familiar lesson from Internet protocols: publishing information is only the beginning. The real challenge is engineering resilient systems that withstand inconsistent formats, unreliable sources, and organisational complexity. more

The 2026 New gTLD Round: A Strategic Framework for Risk Management

The 2026 new gTLD round is less a domain application than a high-stakes contest for digital territory. Contention, objections, opaque evaluations and information gaps can derail applicants long before launch, demanding rigorous strategic preparation. more

DOTZON Study: Digital City Brands 2026

DOTZON's Digital City Brands 2026 study crowns .tokyo as the first Asian cityTLD to top the rankings, ending .berlin's four-year reign, while highlighting the growing role of city domains in digital identity, commerce and development. more

Cybercriminals are Driving Significant Domain Name Market Demand

Cybercriminals are becoming a major force in the domain-name market, driving an estimated one-fifth of new gTLD registrations in 2025 and exposing how commercial incentives, weak enforcement, and scale continue to fuel online abuse. more

Universal Acceptance Day and the Long Arc of Multilingualism

Universal Acceptance Day 2026 marks progress toward a multilingual internet, as UNESCO and ICANN deepen cooperation. Yet unresolved implementation failures and weak registry stewardship still hinder truly inclusive digital access worldwide. more

Trusted Notifier Network (TNN) Core Concept 1: Unfair Cost Transfer and Reversal of Commercial Best

A flawed abuse-response system shifts costs from perpetrators to intermediaries, overwhelming enforcement. The Trusted Notifier Network seeks to realign incentives, curb low-quality reporting, and restore efficiency by embedding trust, accountability, and cost redistribution. more

The AI Naming Gap - and Why the Legacy Namespace Won’t Wait for ICANN to Fill It

A surge in AI startups has exposed a domain-name shortage as premium .ai addresses vanish. With ICANN's next round years away, legacy TLDs and repurposed namespaces are racing to capture unmet demand. more