Recent Posts
- Whois plan approved, but it may be a waste of money
- Should YOU have to pay when lawyers access your private Whois info?
- Nominet shuts down “hostile” discussion forum
- Donuts to launch .contact next week
- GoDaddy denies weird front-running claim
- Is India’s largest registrar about to go titsup? And where the hell is ICANN?
- Webcentral rejects Web.com buyout bid for LOWER offer from Aussie telco
- Portugal reports lockdown boom continued through the summer
- No ICANN meetings until 2021
- ZADNA hikes up the price of .za domains
- Floodgates, open! Trademark Clearinghouse now supports .com
- Radix premium renewals approach $1 million
- GoDaddy could lose control of .co this week
- ICANN ordered to freeze .hotel after “serious questions” about trade secrets “theft”
- CentralNic parking boosts revenue even as its registrars suffer
- ICANN will spend $51,000 on your broadband
- Verisign measures the industry’s lockdown bump
- ICANN apologizes to “arms dealer” claim security firm after email goes missing
- Amazon waves off demand for more government blocks
- Told us so? Nominet ditches auctions plan, will charge drop-catchers higher fees instead
- Schreiber really did sue you all, sorry
- Fight over closed generics ends in stalemate
- New gTLD prices could be kept artificially high
- Here’s what’s in the NamesCon Online schwag bag
- New back-end approval program could reduce the cost of a new gTLD
- Single/plural gTLD combos to be BANNED
- ICANN might pay for your lockdown broadband
- The end of the beginning? ICANN releases policies for next round of new gTLDs
- It’s a CONSPIRACY! Canadian registrant “sues” pretty much everybody
- “Arms dealer” registrar probed by ICANN
- No lockdown bump for .eu as domain base shrinks in Q2
- After a year’s delay, .gay reveals launch dates
- ICANN names Egypt-based head of Istanbul office
- Countries ask Amazon for thousands more domain blocks
- Dot-brand fizzles out after acquisition
- Corrections: AlpNames and Famour Four Media
- The two biggest registrars knock it out of the park in Q2
- Domain industry had best April ever under lockdown
- .bible-thumping anti-porn registrar goes titsup
- The pricey, complex, clusterfuck plan to reopen Whois
- Tucows sells off Ting business, retreats into the back-end
- No .sex please, we’re infected!
- Domainers immune from the lockdown bump?
- Drop auctions not a slam-dunk, says Nominet
- After Chapter 11 filing, JCPenney dumps its dot-brand
- Israeli registrar denies “arms dealer” claims
- Nominet members revolt over “deepest pockets wins” auction plans
- CSC becomes first foreign registrar to get the China nod
- ICANN close to becoming $200 million gift-giver
- The $135 million battle for .web could be won in weeks
- .com renewals lowest in years, but Verisign sees lockdown bump anyway
- ICANN washes its hands of Amazon controversy
- Google’s .new now generally available
- $11 billion dot-brand blames coronavirus as it self-euthanizes
- ICANN still has no clue how coronavirus will affect the domain industry
- ICANN throws out “Ugly Houses” UDRP appeal
- Brazil to launch domains for detectives, librarians and geologists
- Endurance also got a lockdown bump in Q2
- Nominet wants to kill off the .uk drop-catching market
- Right to reply: new gTLD applicant hits back at my “delusional” comments
- One.com takes big chunk of Danish market with third acquisition this year
- Web.com acquires another of the original five registrars
- Mucho weirdness as Google “forgets” to renew major domain
- First deadbeat dot-brand ripped from the root
- Coronavirus helps .nl beat 6 million regs
- NamesCon Online ticket prices and name change revealed
- GoDaddy domains doing just fine during pandemic, lays off hundreds anyway
- I was wrong, rejected “racist” web site didn’t go to Epik
- World’s most deluded new gTLD applicant makes coronavirus pitch
- Does ICANN have a race problem?
- As the world burns, ICANN gives its richest execs huge pay rises
- Web.com is kicking out a racist web site. How long before it winds up at Epik?
- Over 660,000 “coronavirus” domains registered
- Watch three members of the ICANN community get assassinated
- “Horrifying” Zoombombing attack on ICANN meeting, again
- Coronavirus is saving ICANN millions of your money, but will it use the cash wisely?
- Half as many women apply for ICANN leadership jobs
- ICANN decision to cancel Hamburg was NOT unanimous
- NamesCon goes virtual with intriguing 24-hour conference concept
- Virtual cocktails coming to ICANN meetings. Really.
- More dot-brands dump their gTLDs
- GoDaddy, PorkBun and Endurance win domain “blocking” court fight
- You won’t need a password for ICANN 68 after all
- Donuts rolls out free phishing attack protection for all registrants
- .black gTLD has seen boost since George Floyd killing
- ICANN confirms Hamburg cancellation
- Bored? Try the DI Fiendishly Difficult Domain Name Pub Quiz
- Three big registries will take down opioid domains for US govt
- Should Epik be banned from NamesCon as racism debate spills over into domain industry?
- ICANN board tries to redefine mediocrity — literally
- GoDaddy starts protecting American customers’ privacy
- Will ICANN swap Hamburg for Zoom for 69?
- Top-level reshuffle as ICANN loses its COO
- Amazon finally gets its dot-brands despite last-minute government plea
- South Africa might raise, or lower, some wholesale domain fees
- Verisign says its coronavirus fee waivers have saved businesses millions
- Industry growth driven by new gTLD(s) in Q1
- World’s youngest country launches its Nazi-risk TLD next week
- Is ICANN chickening out of Whois access role?
- Irony alert! Data protection agency complains it can’t get access to private Whois data
- ICANN dissenter explains why she wanted .org sale approved
- CSC removes reference to “retiring” new gTLD domain after retiring new gTLD domain
- Google launches .meet gTLD after Meet service goes free during lockdown
- Aussie ccTLD surges under coronavirus lockdown
- Spring Break redux! ICANN picks Cancun for 2023 meeting
- ICANN’s .org decision was NOT unanimous, and it was made in secret
- Donuts kicks down .place fences after attempt at innovation
- .org sale officially dead
- Afilias promotes .vote domains amid US vote-by-mail controversy
- After Zoom trolling, ICANN 68 will be password-protected
- Despite Brexit, .eu actually returned to growth in Q1
- ICANN whistleblower expects to be fired after alleging budget irregularities, bugged meetings
- Portugal ccTLD says growth better than expected during pandemic
- The .org deal may be dead and buried, but calls remain for PIR to lose its contract
- “Dangerous precedent” as ICANN rejects $1.13 billion .org buyout
- ICANN may scrap its $0.18 reg tax in coronavirus “solidarity”
- Domain industry likely to suffer from coronavirus as ICANN slashes budget by 8%
- Decision on .org deal may come sooner than you think
- ICANN meeting got “Zoombombed” with offensive material
- CentralNic does not expect big coronavirus impact as it posts almost-doubled revenue for 2019
- Verisign expects to sell fewer domains because of coronavirus
- Coronavirus lockdown is working out great for at least one registry
- Coronavirus could cause “high risk of widespread outages”, ICANN says
- Free domains registrar gets FOURTH breach notice
- Four more dot-brands join the gTLD deadpool
Momentous’ .sucks bid “about creating dialogue”
Kevin Murphy,
May 31, 2012, 17:07:03 (UTC),
Domain Registries
The CEO of Momentous’ .sucks new gTLD applicant reckons smart brands will embrace the cheeky concept.
I chatted to John Berard, CEO of Momentous subsidiary Vox Populi Registry, this afternoon for a piece in The Register, and he reckons .sucks isn’t the money-grubbing scam many people will say it is.
“If some people think this is just a way to get registration money out of corporations, then those people are either unaware or are being short-sighted about their marketing effectiveness,” he said.
Berard believes smart companies nowadays are embracing social media interactions as a way to improve their marketing, and that .sucks will be a way to facilitate that.
That said, the policies governing .sucks are still not clear.
Momentous is also applying for .design, .rip and .style.
Kevin,
Thanks for putting DotSucks at the top of your list of newsworthy new gTLD applications.
I will grant you it may seem “cheeky,” but the rise of social media, the history of criticism occupying some dangerous Internet backwater and the importance of engagement make it all pretty sensible.
Specific provenance, light of day, dialog may just increase customer loyalty and improve corporate responsiveness. Win-win, eh?
As for the governing policies, we will be assiduous in protecting brands, vigilant in adherence to our terms and conditions and diligent in a take-down process that supports both.
Cheers,
John Berard
John, perhaps I’m a bit confused. Is your goal to sell domains like Dell.sucks to Dell? Or to individuals that want to gripe about Dell?
If the former, wouldn’t something like .feedback make more sense?
Andrew,
My hope is to create a dialog no matter who registers the name, but there will be trademarks deference built into the system.
As for the use of “sucks” over the more prosaic “feedback,” well, I think that is the reason. We need to get people’s attention so as to create the hub we intend. And cutting through the clutter of daily life requires taking some liberties with the language.
The test will be to see if consumers come to believe their comments are being heard and if companies come to rely on the registry to give them access to real points-of-view.
Watch this space!
Cheers,
John Berard
Same John Berard who represents the BC on the GNSO Council? If so, that seems relevant to me and an odd omission, IMHO.
It’s the same John Berard. I didn’t think his role on the Council was especially relevant here. Plenty of applicants and people representing applicants are on the Council.