VeriSign creates .tv mini land-rush

Domainers are buzzing with the news that VeriSign has just made tens of thousands of premium .tv names viable for speculation.
The company cut the prices of its premium names and, more importantly, has reset the annual renewal fees for premium domains to the much lower standard flat renewal fee.
Judging from the Namepros forums, a lot of people bought a lot of domains and, potentially, got a lot of very good deals on one-word dictionary or three-letter .tvs.
Some domains appeared to have dropped off the premium list altogether, leading some to speculate that the prices were too good to be true, and that registrar glitches must be responsible.
However, I talked to Chris Sheridan, VP of sales at eNom, a little earlier and he seemed to be of the opinion that the prices were probably legit.
The new lower renewal fees, incidentally, do not appear to apply to previously registered premium .tv names, which is bound to cause angst for some.
I’m not usually much of a speculator, but I took a risk on a couple of cheap dictionary words a couple of hours ago. My new registrar is telling me the registrations were “successful”, but I’ve no idea whether I can believe it.

Comment Tagged: .tv, enom, namepros, verisign

Microsoft wins Bing.com IDN case

Microsoft has won a UDRP dispute over xn--bng-jua.com, an IDN typo of its Bing.com search engine brand.
The domain shows up as bıng.com when run through a Punycode translator, virtually indistinguishable from Microsoft’s trademark.
In what appears to be an open-and-shut case, National Arbitration Forum panelist Louis Condon found that the domain was registered in bad faith and transferred it to Microsoft.
The domain was registered on May 27, 2009, the day before Microsoft officially unveiled Bing (the news had already been leaked) and immediately parked.
The original registrant, Jason Harrington of Pennsylvania, did not respond to the UDRP complaint.

Comment Tagged: idns, Microsoft, naf, udrp

Cybersquatting registrar goes into receivership

Lead Networks Domains, an Indian domain name registrar, has been handed to a California receiver after a cybersquatting lawsuit filed by Verizon.
ICANN said today that Bret Fausset has been appointed receiver for the Mumbai-based company, which had about 130,000 domains under management when Verizon sued it.
Verizon sued Lead in January 2008, claiming the registrar’s customers had registered 238 misspellings of Verizon trademarks.
The company further claimed that Lead ignored UDRP rulings that went against it and supplied UDRP avoidance services to its users.
ICANN yanked Lead’s accreditation last July. Fausett said he will now transition any of its remaining domain names to a new registrar.

1 Comment Tagged: bret fausett, ICANN, lead networks, verizon

Sex.com auction postponed for online bidders

The auction of Sex.com, which was due to happen in New York on Thursday, has been postponed and the auctioneer is now accepting online bidders.
Maltz Auctions, which is handling the sale, posted a link to a ProxiBid.com page and the slogan “Online Bidding Available – Call for Details!”, neither of which were there last time I looked.
ProxiBid describes itself as “the World’s #1 provider of live webcast auctions”. The service webcasts and allows remote users to bid on live, in-person auctions.
The company press released its Sex.com coup on Friday.
You’ll still need to put $1m into escrow in order to bid.
It appears that legal action may be the reason for the postponement.
The ProxiBid page still reflects the March 18 date.

1 Comment Tagged: maltz auctions, proxibid, sex.com

Internet ‘villain’ to headline ICANN Brussels

It’s a date! Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, has accepted Rod Beckstrom’s invitation to attend ICANN’s meeting in Brussels this June.
Reding is a mildly controversial figure in the domain name world.
Notably, she is the recipient of a UK Internet Service Provider Association Internet Villain award over the launch of .eu, which happened under her watch as Information Society commissioner.
ISPA nominated her in 2007, for “foisting the most arcane set of rules yet seen for prior registration of .eu domains, requiring UK-registered companies to submit legal affidavits to justify the authenticity of their business.”
Arcane rules? At an ICANN meeting? Shurely shome mishtake.
It’s not clear whether Reding will be speaking at the meeting. She’s agreed to attend on June 22, the same day as the Governmental Advisory Committee meeting.

Comment Tagged: .eu, brussels, ICANN, rod beckstrom, viviane reding

Is Go Daddy’s size a competition concern?

Go Daddy is undoubtedly the runaway success story of the domain name industry.
It may not be as big as VeriSign, but unlike VeriSign it was not simply handed a multi-billion dollar resource to manage. It was essentially scratch-built. It didn’t even have first-mover advantage – Register.com and Network Solutions had that, and Go Daddy’s been eating their lunches for years.
The company has got where it is today through, in my opinion, a combination of cheap prices, decent customer service and populist marketing. Mainly the cheap prices, but I doubt that putting a great big pair of boobs on TV during the Super Bowl can have hurt sales.
But how big is the company? And with the introduction of new gTLDs, is its size now a cause for concern? …continue reading

5 Comments Tagged: go daddy, ICANN, new gTLDs

Secure64 offers DNSSEC for $20k

Secure64 Software has released a budget version of its DNS signing software, Secure64 DNS Signer.
The $19,995 package promises to automate DNSSEC key generation, management, and zone signing. It’s compatible with BIND, Windows and NSD.
While Secure64 is currently targeting smaller government agencies, due to the security mandates they have to abide by, I expect these types of products to pick up enterprise traction over the next few years.
Deploying DNSSEC is hard, but pretty soon it will be a must-have. With root signing currently set for July, and .com signing due in less than a year, Secure64 will probably do pretty well when enterprises start asking for more secure DNS.

Comment Tagged: DNSSEC, Secure64

Canon to apply for .canon

Japanese printer maker Canon has become the first global brand to throw its hat into the new gTLD ring.
The company said in a press release today that it will apply for .canon as soon as ICANN finalises the process for doing so.
From the release:

Canon has made the official decision to begin necessary procedures to acquire “.canon” upon the introduction of the new system. Following approval for the new gTLD system, which is expected to take place after the latter half of 2011, Canon will make full use of the new domain name to increase the convenience and effectiveness of its online communications.

Medieval battle recreation societies are unlikely to provide much competition for the string.

7 Comments Tagged: canon, ICANN, new gTLDs

Big claims from small registrar

You’ve got to admire the cojones on Domainmonster, an upstart registrar from the UK.
In a delightfully hyperbolic press release out today, the company reveals it is “the world’s largest new domain name supplier” and compares itself to Go Daddy.
Because I think it’s funny, I’ll post the meat of the press release before de-constructing it. …continue reading

Comment Tagged: .museum, .tel, domainmonster, godaddy

Happy Birthday .com!

Today, March 15, marks the 25th anniversary of the first ever .com domain name registration, symbolics.com.
VeriSign is running a marketing campaign to celebrate at 25yearsof.com.

Comment Tagged: .com, verisign