Recent Posts
- ICANN’s private Whois data request service goes live
- .au regs slide on 2LD anniversary
- ICANN accused of power grab over $271 million auction fund
- A registrar is getting blamed for an Israeli war propaganda site
- Two more dot-brands bite the dust
- Google sells five-figure AI domain and six-figure .ing hack
- .blackfriday is still a bit rubbish
- Internet Naming Co acquires five more gTLDs
- Domain universe grows despite .com drag
- Did somebody spend a million bucks on a Google domain hack?
- ICANN cans Freenom
- Call for ICANN to dump anti-Semitic partner
- GoDaddy domains revenue crosses half a billion
- Bosnian government to sue US domain firm that cut it off
- Freenom is “essentially finished as a company”
- Gap drops some dot-brands
- Group to seek .io TLD takeover after OECD human rights ruling
- Meta given 30 days to stop using Threads trademark
- Modest pay rises for ICANN top brass
- Nominet wins Microsoft’s dot-brand business from Verisign
- Looks like the fight for .hotel gTLD is over
- China has .com’s growth by the balls
- .web fight back in “court”
- Nominet takes over failed .desi
- Wright elected to Nominet board
- Identity Digital keeps .org back-end deal
- Freenom spanked for holding Olympics domain hostage
- Belgian MP registers Hamas domain, redirects to IDF
- Seven domain hacks already registered in Google’s .ing
- The first four new gTLDs have been unmitigated disasters
- Team Internet hires Nominet alum as domains CEO
- XYZ adds 35th gTLD to its stable
- Wood company scraps its dot-brand
- Freenom gets yet another ICANN breach notice
- Did Andrew Tate buy university.com for a “record-breaking” sum?
- After Verisign’s sluggish year, ICANN misses funding goal by $2 million
- Russia cuts off ICANN funding after pro-Ukraine stance
- Epik drops another 50,000 domains after scandal
- Palage’s epic rant as he asks ICANN to cancel Verisign’s .net contract
- Papac named interim ICANN Ombudsman
- Nominet takes over Bounty mutineers’ ccTLD
- .tube registry claims victory in linkification fight
- Ancient registrar gets ICANN breach notice over UDRP
- ICANN is starting to auto-renew new gTLD contracts
- Freenom hit by FIFTH ICANN action after litany of screw-ups
- Second DNSSEC screw-up takes down Aussie web sites
- Nominet adds handcuffs clause to proposed new Articles
- Single/plural gTLD combos to be UNBANNED
- ICANN rejects a whole bunch of new gTLD policy stuff
- Volkswagen ditches its dot-brand
- Radix looking for a back-end
- Is this why WhatsApp hates some TLDs but not others?
- Blockchain domain firm raises $2.5 million
- Verisign: 1.7 million domain industry growth in Q2
- Namecheap has given away 500,000 free .me domains
- Epik had another terrible month in May
- Blockchain startup gets $5 million to apply for gTLDs
- Buckridge to replace Shears on ICANN board
- CentralNic rebrands as Team Internet
- .ai sells 100,000 domains in a year
- Google to launch two fun new gTLDs next month
- Domainers not welcome as .music readies September launch
- Another six dot-brands self-terminate (two are very strange)
- Four more years for Identity Digital in Oz
- ICANN might be a director light after election stalemate
- ICANN turns down money from blockchain alt-root
- CentralNic chief calls on industry to tackle climate change
- London Domain Summit starts tomorrow
- Closed generics ban likely to remain after another policy group failure
- Ukrainian domains slide as war becomes the new normal
- Epik had worst month ever in April
- Go.Compare now redirecting to the .com
- Huge telco dumps gTLDs after rebrand
- Rejected former director threatens to sue Nominet
- April 2026 is the date for the next new gTLD round
- Doria leaving ICANN board a loss for new gTLD program
- A second new gTLD has FAILED and will be sold off
- .web hit by second ICANN complaint
- Registrar linked to defunct social network terminated
- Three candidates stand for Nominet board
- Next round of gTLDs could come much sooner than expected
- Registering .cv domains might become easier
- Musk prematurely announces Twitter is now X
- Nominet admits membership fees mistake
- Government to regulate UK-related domain names
- Domainer objects to Epik’s acquisition over Masterbucks collapse
- Freenom is losing another ccTLD after collecting military emails
- DENIC kicks out NCC as ICANN’s sole escrow agent
- ICANN takes over country’s ccTLD after Hall of Famer’s death
- ICANN Ombudsman quits
- ICA baffled by plan to outlaw domaining in India
- No $8 million discount for dot-brands, says ICANN
- Epik lost 125,000 domains in Q1
- Buckingham leaves Nominet’s board early
- Epik is off the ICANN naughty step
- Identity Digital is gobbling up Verisign’s back-end business
- o.com auction likely a damp squib after Overstock rebrand
- ICANN actually CHANGES Verisign’s .net contract after public comments
- GoDaddy takes over .health
- The looooong road to urgently hiring ICANN’s next CEO
- Rwanda picked for ICANN meeting
- Governments call for ban on gTLD auctions
- Red Cross gets takedown powers over .org domains
- Domain universe grew 1% in Q1
- Closed generics and IDNs debates are big drag on new gTLDs
- New gTLD registry gets second ICANN breach notice
- Epik lost another 22,000 domains to transfers in February
- Mystery buyer rescues Epik at end of crazy week
- Millions of domains to be deleted as Freenom loses its first TLD
- Everyone hates Verisign’s new .net deal
- UAE boasts rapid domain growth in 2022
- ICANN just put a date on the next new gTLD round
- Three more straggler new gTLDs coming soon
- Three more dot-brands realize the futility of existence
- woke.com among domains in NamesCon auction
- Domainer asks court to block Epik sell-off
- .web delay likely after Verisign rival files ICANN appeal
- CentralNic starts returning cash to shareholders as revenue grows
- Newly launched .zip already looks dodgy
- Progress made on next new gTLD round rules
- Brands ask for cheaper ICANN fees
- ICANN salary porn: 2022 edition
- Tucows and GoDaddy see weakness in big-ticket aftermarket sales
- Another registrar seemingly vanishes
- Verisign “pleased” at ICANN’s .web call
Neustar wins .gay contract
Neustrar has signed a deal to provide back-end registry services to DotGay LLC, one of the companies hoping to apply for .gay as a new top-level domain.
There are currently two companies planning to apply for .gay that I’m aware of. The other, the Dot Gay Alliance, has chosen Minds + Machines as its back-end partner.
The positioning is quite interesting. Scott Seitz, CEO of DotGay, played up the need for more security and stability in a TLD that may find itself the target of homophobic cyber-attacks.
In a press release due out tomorrow, Seitz says:
While security is always a concern for any gTLD, the GLBT community is at a higher risk of discrimination, making system integrity a critical component in the selection of a registry partner.
Neustar, which runs .biz and several other TLDs, has more experience running high-traffic registries than M+M. However, this fact will likely not be relevant to which company wins .gay.
Under the ICANN new TLDs program, applicants have to prove themselves capable of running a registry, but contested TLD applicants are not compared against each other based on technical prowess.
It’s much more likely that the two (or more) .gay applications will live or die based on community support or, failing that, how much money they are prepared to pay at auction.
The .gay TLD is likely to also be a flashpoint for controversy due to ongoing debates about governments’ ability to block TLDs based on “morality and public order” objections.
Recent mainstream media coverage has focused on .gay as a likely test case for governmental veto powers.
Interesting to see which will be more controversial this extension or .xxx ? time will tell i guess
Great – I can block them both right at the firewall level for every computer I ever come in contact with.
.xxx is already a major hot potato to swallow.. .gay ?? i don’t see it fly ..
If approved it will open the door (just a lil) for .
.white
.black
.moslim
.agnostic
Prolly not the best examples i post here but some will argue that they want their own tld also …
so dot gay . it is just not gonna fly.. dot pig
One of my favorite souvenirs from ICANN is .co’s flying pig. And .co has educated us: pigs do fly.
I see no reason for .gay not to fly. There are lots of good reasons for using a gTLD to support a global community. So if it is handled correctly, by an organization with strong roots in the community, it has as good a chance as any new gTLD, and better than some.
When it comes to US and other nations with a potential GAC veto (if they get their desired empowerment) I wonder what they would do about .right2choose?
The funny thing about .gay is that everybody’s focusing on the civil rights issue and ignoring the fact that a great big chunk of the namespace will be inevitably devoted to gay porn.
.gay’s biggest competitor is not going to be .org, it’s going to be .xxx
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