.guru first new gTLD to 50,000 names Donuts’ pioneering .guru yesterday became the first new gTLD to surpass 50,000 domain name registrations, according to today’s zone files. DI PRO makes today’s total 50,210, having added 209 names yesterday. Technically, that means .guru passed the 50k mark on Wednesday, but I’m excluding some infrastructural ...
DomainIncite.com - Friday, April 18, 2014 - 10:15
First .london anchor tenants named The forthcoming .london gTLD has earmarked its first 28 domain names, most of which are going to some famous, and not-so-famous, local brands. Judging by the list of names, registry Dot London Domains is going for a relatively classy bunch of anchor tenants, which is probably why I wasn’t invited to the launch event earlier [&#...
DomainIncite.com - Friday, April 18, 2014 - 9:53
.rich promises new marketing after pitiful launch I-Registry’s .rich may have taken the ignominious title of Worst New gTLD Launch Yet, but the company says it’s not in any rush and is planning to start its marketing campaign in about a month. According to zone files, .rich has 22 registered names, despite the fact that it’s been in general availability for a [R...
DomainIncite.com - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 9:59
Bug takes out HostGator, BlueHost for a day Endurance International, the domain name registrar that owns some of the world’s biggest web hosting brands, has been hit by a “network firmware” bug that took out one of its data centers. It’s not currently clear how many many of the 10 million+ domains that EIG hosts were affected, but the outage seems to ha...
DomainIncite.com - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 8:9
New gTLD domains top 500,000 as Schilling goes on parking spree The total number of new gTLD domains broke through half a million for the first time yesterday, but it seems to be due to Frank Schilling obtaining tens of thousands of names in his own TLDs. Uniregistry’s .link became the fifth-largest new gTLD, moving almost 20,000 names, but it appears that the vast majority are […]
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DomainIncite.com - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 8:58
Pricey .luxury made $500k already The new gTLD .luxury seems to have sold more than $500,000 worth of domain names already. Today’s zone file for the Luxury Partners-owned TLD popped from 1 domain to 470 domains. Most of the new names appear to have been registered during the sunrise period, which ended early last week. Given the current retail price […]
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DomainIncite.com - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - 8:49
Belgium comes out against Donuts’ .spa bid Belgium wants Donuts’ application for .spa rejected after the new gTLD applicant declined to sign a deal with the city of Spa. In a March 20 letter to ICANN, published today, the Belgian deputy prime minister Johan Vande Lanotte said “negotiations between the stakeholders are closed”, adding that Belgium: requests t...
DomainIncite.com - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - 7:36
Geo gTLDs catch a break with new launch rules New gTLDs with a geographic or community focus have won concessions from ICANN under new rules published today. All new gTLD registries will be able to allocate names to public authorities, matching for example district names or landmarks, even if those names match trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse. The change came in the fin...
DomainIncite.com - Friday, April 11, 2014 - 9:14
Famous Four wins .party gTLD contest Famous Four Media has won the .party new gTLD contention set after coming to a private agreement with the only other applicant for the string, Oriental Trading Company. Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed. Oriental Trading is a supplier of party goods that intended to run the gTLD as closed, single-registrant name...
DomainIncite.com - Friday, April 11, 2014 - 4:25
Republicans advance “embarrassing” DOTCOM Act Republican US Congressmen today voted to advance the DOTCOM Act, which would add a delay of up to a year to the IANA transition. The Communications and Technology Subcommittee voted 16 to 10, split directly along party lines, to advance the bill to the next stage of the US legislative process. The bill (pdf) has […]
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DomainIncite.com - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 15:15
ICANN sets ball rolling on IANA transition ICANN has put the wheels in motion towards the ultimate transition of the IANA functions from the stewardship of the US government. The organization put forward a proposal this morning, apparently compiled from views gathered at the ICANN 49 meeting in Singapore and mailing list suggestions. It’s a proposal for a process to dev...
DomainIncite.com - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - 7:8
Four governments file ICANN appeals over .wine France, Spain, the UK and the European Commission have formally appealed ICANN’s decision to allow the .wine and .vin new gTLD applications to proceed. In doing so, they’ve become the first national governments to file Requests for Reconsideration with ICANN since the process was introduced in 1999. All four governments a...
DomainIncite.com - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - 5:7
How Russia and China could take over the internet! Do governments have too much potential power over ICANN, and do they need reining in before the US cuts itself loose? It’s a question that’s emerging given the recent decision of the United States government to remove itself from stewardship of the domain name system root zone. The US National Telecommunications and Infor...
DomainIncite.com - Monday, April 7, 2014 - 9:42
Euro winemakers talk .wine boycott, EU block European wineries are threatening to boycott .wine and .vin and may lobby for the two new gTLDs to be “blocked” in the EU. The news follows ICANN’s decision to allow .wine and .vin applications to proceed over the objections of the EU, and a its decision a few days later to put both strings on […]
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DomainIncite.com - Monday, April 7, 2014 - 5:28
.wine frozen after EU complaint ICANN has frozen the applications for .wine and .vin new gTLDs, again, following a complaint about process violations from the Governmental Advisory Committee. The New gTLD Program Committee of the ICANN board on Thursday voted to prevent any of the four affected applicants signing Registry Agreements for at least 60 days. But the NG...
DomainIncite.com - Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 8:41
Chehade rules out move to Geneva ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade yesterday called for an end to “speculation” about plans to move the organization’s headquarters out of US jurisdiction to Geneva, Switzerland. Responding to a reporter’s question during a panel discussion at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, Chehade said: I did not say that I’...
DomainIncite.com - Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 7:48
Second US bill would block IANA transition Another bill has been introduced into the US Congress related to the IANA transition process, and this one would actually be dangerous if passed. Rep Mike Kelly introduced the Internet Stewardship Act (pdf) to make the IANA transition a matter that requires Congressional legislation. The press release announcing the bill is longer th...
DomainIncite.com - Thursday, April 3, 2014 - 16:32
ICANN fights the fear in Congressional hearing A Congressional hearing yesterday addressed fears that the decision to cut ICANN loose from US governmental oversight would lead to the internet being seized by backwards regimes. Long-term DI readers may recall that I’m usually quite snarky whenever a Congressional subcommittee convenes to pretend to be interested in ICANN ...
DomainIncite.com - Thursday, April 3, 2014 - 15:50
Are Whois email checks doing more harm than good? “Tens of thousands” of web sites are going dark due to ICANN’s new email verification requirements and registrars are demanding to know how this sacrifice is helping solve crimes. These claims and demands were made in meetings between registrars and ICANN’s board and management at the ICANN 49 meeting in Singa...
DomainIncite.com - Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - 8:36
Applicant claims “rogue” GAC rep killed its gTLD The unsuccessful applicant for the .thai top-level domain has become the third new gTLD hopeful to file an Independent Review Process complaint against ICANN. Better Living Management had its bid for the restricted, Thailand-themed TLD rejected by ICANN in November due to a consensus objection from the Governmental Advisory Committee...
DomainIncite.com - Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - 3:24
