The percentage of zones under .com, .net and .org that support IPv6 has increased by 1,900% over the past 12 months according to a new census conducted by the Measurement Factory, sponsored by Infoblox. According to the census, this dramatic increase can be primarily attributed to the introduction of support of IPv6 by a single domain name registrar, Go Daddy. more»
DomainsBot, the provider of domain name suggestion tool used by various companies such as GoDaddy, Tucows, 1and1, and eNom has just announced an update to its platform offering social networking identity search integration. The company update also includes B2B services for domain registrars, registries and new TLD applicants. more»
Although not quite there yet, statistical figures indicate total registration for the .com top-level domain will soon be reaching 100 million by the end of this year. The worlds most popular TLD currently has 98 million registered domains and accounts for 45% of all TLDs. more»
Verisign, the manager of top-level domains .com and .net, is seeking authority to shut down "non-legitimate" domain names when asked to by law enforcement. The company said today it wants to be able to enforce the "denial, cancellation or transfer of any registration" in any of a laundry list of scenarios where a domain is deemed to be "abusive". more»
Robert McMillan reporting in InfoWorld: "Microsoft has opened a front in its ongoing battle against Internet scammers, using the power of a U.S. court to deal a knockout blow to an emerging botnet and taking offline a provider of free Internet domains. Microsoft used the same technique that worked in its earlier takedowns of the Rustock and Waledac botnets, asking a U.S. court to order Verisign to shut down 21 Internet domains associated with the command-and-control servers that form the brains of the Kelihos botnet." more»
ICANN has launched a micro-site to serve as the online source for New Generic Top-Level Domain (New gTLDs) Program. From ICANN's announcement: "ICANN is in the midst of a major campaign to raise awareness around the world about the impact and possibilities of new gTLDs. The new site represents a foundational expression of the campaign. Many more new articles, tools, and materials will be made available in the coming days and weeks." more»
The latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by Verisign reports more than 5 million domain names were added to the Internet in the second quarter of 2011, bringing the total number of registered domain names to more than 215 million worldwide across all domains. The increase of 5.2 million domain names marks a growth rate of 2.5 percent over the first quarter. Registrations have grown by more than 16.9 million, or 8.6 percent, since the second quarter of 2010. more»
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The UK Direct Marketing Association has added its voice to the collection of advertising trade groups that oppose ICANN's new generic top-level domains program." ... The Association of National Advertisers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the American Association of Advertising Agencies have already made similar calls." more»
While a more secure online banking may be offered should banks choose to take advantage of ICANN's recently liberalized generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) application process, some banks may have difficulty taking advantage of their new domain-name liberty because of their "klunky names", according to nomenclature specialist Naseem Javed, founder of New York-based ABC Namebank. Additionally the American Bankers Association is concerned that whatever entity ends up controlling the .bank domain could either charge high fees to financial institutions wishing to protect their intellectual property or fail to securely operate such domains, damaging consumer confidence in the internet channel. more»
Corynne McSherry from EFF reports: "In a cursory opinion issued today that left us scratching our heads, a federal judge has ruled that the government does not have to return a domain name seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), because its seizure did not create a substantial hardship. ... Puerto 80, the Spanish company behind popular sports streaming sites Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org, which were both seized by U.S. ICE earlier this year -- even though a Spanish court found they did not violate copyright law -- had filed a petition to have the sites released pending a trial on the merits of the case." more»
In a letter to Mr. Rod Beckstrom, President, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has expressed major flaws in ICANN's program for introducing new generic Top-Level Domains. A program which ANA warns would allow as many as 1,000 new Top-Level Domains in the first year and the same cap every year thereafter. more»
Internet's oldest domain name registrar, Network Solutions, today announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Web.com. Network Solutions was founded in 1979 and pioneered the domain name registration business. In addition to domain name registration, the company also offers services such as web site design and hosting, e-commerce solutions, online security products, SSL certificates, and search engine marketing and optimization. According to Network Solutions, the company manages over 7 million domains, 3 million email boxes and more than 400,000 web sites. more»
Joly MacFie writes to report: "iBreakfast is presenting About the 'Domain' Conference: The Era of New TLDs, this Wednesday Aug 3 2011 at Herrick, Feinstein LLC in NYC. Wendy Seltzer, Esther Dyson, and Annalisa Roger, representatives of dotgay, .berlin, .xxx, plus major registries are among the participants who will discuss how the Internet will be impacted by the coming new TLD rollout." more»
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "Thousands of companies that use the pseudo-top-level-domain .gb.com have gone offline due to a legal fight between the registry and its founder. CentralNIC sells third-level gb.com domains as a 'Great Britain' alternative to .co.uk. A Google search reveals a great many small businesses use the extension for their web sites. They're all out of luck today."
more»
Dennis Fisher in ThreatPost reports: "In a rare and sweeping move, Google has removed all of the sites hosted on .co.cc domains from its search results, saying that because such a large percentage of the sites on that freehosting provider are low-quality or spammy, they decided to de-index all of them. The .co.cc domain is well-known in security and anti-spam circles for being a favorite spot for phishing and spam domains, but there also are legitimate domains hosted there." more»