The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the first top-level domain registry based in the Asia-Pacific region.
The .asia top-level domain will join other Asian-Pacific Internet domains, such as Japan, China, and South Korea already managed by DotAsia Organization. The addition brings the total number of Internet domain suffixes to 266. more»
ICANN announced that it approved registry agreements for the .biz, .info and .org domains, with a restriction that traffic data cannot be used to disclose domain name registrant, end-user information or other personal data... more»
Unfortunately, it is not possible for a registrar to know a-priori whether a site is going to be used for phishing or not, says Dave Jevans, chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group. There are many "squatters" who may have every right to register domain names with other companies' trademarks in them, per ICANN policy... more»
Meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, ICANN began accepting public comments this week on how best to revoke outdated suffixes, primarily assigned to countries that no longer exist.
The Soviet Union's ".su" is the leading candidate for deletion, although the former Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro are transitioning from ".yu" to their own country codes. A Google search generated millions of ".su" and ".yu" sites. more»
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will discuss key projects and initiatives at a meeting this week, including the internationalization of the domain name system and a new, lucrative Web site registration practice that some object to. more»
Today ICANN released a beta version Top-Level Domain (TLD) Verification Tool. This verification tool has been developed in response to problems reported by gTLD registries and end-users of the non-acceptance of some existing TLDs. These problems occur in some current applications because: 1) they do not recognize any TLD of more than three characters; or, 2) they rely on legacy information where only com/net/org and a handful of ccTLDs are recognized as valid. more»
UN agency reconsiders its role as countries jockey for influence in industry... When David Gross heard last month that the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, wanted to lower-case the word Internet as a matter of official policy, he did not know whether to be alarmed or amused. more»
News of the U.S. Department of Commerce's approval Nov. 30 of the deal between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and VeriSign was met with both jubilation and disdain by those in the computer industry.
"[The DOC is] respecting ICANN's authority and the contract it has made," said Steve DelBianco, executive director of the Netchoice Coalition. Netchoice is a collection of trade associations and e-commerce businesses, and has come out in support of the agreement. more»
Approval of the new .com contract between VeriSign and ICANN means VeriSign gets to run .com until at least 2012, and very probably indefinitely. In four of the next six years, the company will be able to unilaterally raise the wholesale price of a .com by 7%.
...VeriSign spokesperson Tom Galvin said that the company currently has no plans to raise prices, but added "pricing flexibility is important so registry operators have the means to invest in their infrastructure". more»
ICANN said it has rejected a proposed search service to help guide people who mistype ".travel" Web addresses or seek nonexistent ones.
The decision comes after a review panel warned that the proposal from Tralliance Corp., which operates ".travel," could hinder spam filters and other applications that rely on the Internet's Domain Name System. more»
The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday approved a bid by VeriSign Inc. to run the key directories that keep track of the Internet's ".com" domain names.
The approval was the final clearance needed for VeriSign to extend its hold over the most popular suffix on the Internet. VeriSign reached an agreement earlier with ICANN but Commerce has veto power over ICANN decisions. more»
Waltham's NameMedia Inc. reports it has acquired Florida domain name reseller Afternic Inc. …Afternic, which already has more than 1.8 million domains, will join with BuyDomains, NameMedia's existing domain name marketplace. more»
