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Domainers not welcome in one-character .org auction

Kevin Murphy, October 10, 2012, 18:01:31 (UTC), Domain Sales

The Public Interest Registry is to auction 85 one and two-character .org domain names, but only to organizations that promise to use them in a manner consistent with the .org brand.
The sell-off, branded Project94, will be handled by Go Daddy and eNom, which have each been provided with half of the available portfolio.
Discounting legacy registrations, 94 domains were released when PIR amended its contract with ICANN earlier this year, but nine of them are being held back because they match ccTLDs.
It’s going to be a straightforward auction, but to get a chance at bidding your idea will have to be vetted first.
“We want to see these names used in a way that reflects the brand attributes and the values of .org,” PIR CEO Brian Cute told DI today.
“Before getting into the auction there will be a filter where the applicant has to say the purpose to which they’re going to put the .org that they’ll be bidding on,” he said.
People wondering whether the .org auction is a park-and-flip opportunity seem to be out of luck.
I believe it’s the first time that a TLD registry has merged the RFP and auction phases of their allocation process when they release previously reserved one and two-character domains.
PIR, which is a non-profit, says it will earmark the auction funds for special projects, such as encouraging deployment of new technologies like DNSSEC.
The full list of names being sold can be found at Project94.org

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Comments (4)

  1. Mike says:

    well, there goes my plans for B.org. LOL.

  2. Ron says:

    I got an email from my gd rep last year about this opportunity…

  3. blehblehbleh says:

    “I want to champion innovation! *click* champion innovation! *click* champion innovation! *click* *bzzzzzzzzzz…”

  4. Janko says:

    Well, thoug I also deal with short domains I thinkit is a goog idea to make such an condition for .org
    .org is for organizations nor for commerce – this should be respected
    Pozdrowienia

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