An IDN ccTLD criticized as βuselessβ by locals when it was approved five years ago has fewer domains today than it did at launch, and a portfolio of web sites even a Simpson could count on one hand (twice). The Greek-script .Ξ΅Ο (.xn--qxa6a) is one of two internationalized domain name versions of the European Unionβs [β¦]
The post After five years, βuselessβ TLD has two web sites first appeared on Domain Incite.
Verisign has agreed to take down abusive .com domains under the next version of its registry contract with ICANN. The proposed deal, published for public comment yesterday, could have financial implications for the entire domain industry, but it also contains a range of changes covering the technical management of .com. Key among them is the [β¦]
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Verisign will retain its power to increase .com prices by 7% a year, and prices in other gTLDs could well go up too, under a new proposed registry contract designed to help patch up ICANNβs budget. The proposed .com Registry Agreement was posted for public comment this evening, and the pricing terms within could have [β¦]
The post New .com contract could see ALL domain prices go up first appeared on Domain Incite.
Domain investors may shoulder additional risk when they register domains in the relaunching .ad TLD, judging by the registryβs new cybersquatting policy. Andorra Telecom, which will make .ad names generally available globally October 22, has signed up with WIPO to implement an adapted version of the UDRP that is a lot less friendly to domainers. [β¦]
The post Investing in .ad domains may be risky first appeared on Domain Incite.
The GNSO Council has approved a blanket ban on singular and plural versions of the same word being delegated as gTLDs in future and passed it to the ICANN board of directors for final consideration. The proposed policy would prevent anyone applying for the singular/plural equivalent of an existing gTLD, and would put future applications [β¦]
The post Plurals ban policy handed to ICANN board first appeared on Domain Incite.
Amazonβs Early Access Periods for the new .now and .deal gTLDs have so far netted at least three premium-priced sales. Zone files reveal that so far .now has three new EAP domains but .deal has none. The .now domains are, perhaps predictably, porn.now and news.now, which were both registered via Gandi, and free.now, which was [β¦]
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Itβs $227,000. Thatβs the minimum ICANN expects to charge for each new gTLD application in the Next Round. The Org confirmed the price, which is $42,000 more than it charged in 2012, in a blog post this afternoon. Itβs toward the low end of the $208,000 to $293,000 range discussed in June, but up on [β¦]
The post ICANN confirms new gTLD application fee first appeared on Domain Incite.
ICANN has upped its expected new gTLD application fee after approving a costly new plan to tack name collisions. The baseline price of applying for a single string, most recently pegged at $220,000, is now expected to go up by $5,000, according to a recent resolution of the ICANN board of directors. The board earlier [β¦]
The post New gTLD application fee rises by thousands after collision call first appeared on Domain Incite.
The Neustar spin-off that once operated the .co TLD reportedly has lost a case against the Colombian government in which it had sought $350 million in damages over the acrimonious renewal of its registry contract. According to local reports, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, part of the World Bank, last week [β¦]
The post Former .co registry defeated in $350 million contract fix case first appeared on Domain Incite.
It had to happen sooner or later. With a few dozen would-be new gTLD applicants breaking cover over the last year or so, we seem to have our first clash and our first potential 2026-round contention set. The sought-after contested gTLD is .chain, which now has two announced hopefuls after blockchain-based alternative naming system Freename.io [β¦]
The post Is this the first Next Round new gTLD contention battle? first appeared on Domain Incite.
ICANN Compliance is taking on one of the worldβs largest technology companies over claims that a registrar it owns turns a blind eye to DNS abuse and phishing. The Org has published a breach of contract notice against a Singapore registrar called Aceville Pte Ltd, which does business as DNSPod and is owned by and [β¦]
The post ICANN gunning for Tencent over abuse claims first appeared on Domain Incite.
SK-NIC, part of Team Internet, says it plans to auction off all 36 single-character .sk domains over the coming months. The auction plans also include releasing all the 200-odd two-letter domains that match existing ccTLDs, as well as .com.sk and .net.sk, which have all been registry-reserved to date. The registry said it plans to hold [β¦]
The post All the one-character .sk domains to be auctioned first appeared on Domain Incite.
One of the outstanding contested gTLDs from the 2012 application round looks set to be delegated finally, after the winning bidder signed its Registry Agreement with ICANN. Merck Registry Holdings Inc is now the officially contracted registry for .merck, and it appears the intent is to be a dot-brand jointly controlled by two unaffiliated chemical [β¦]
The post Straggler gTLD signs first ICANN contract for years first appeared on Domain Incite.
GoDaddy seems set to get a renewed and relaxed .xxx registry contract, after ICANN dismissed the concerns of critics of the deal. In a much-delayed analysis of submissions to a recent public comment period, Org indicated that it is in favor of GoDaddy, via subsidiary ICM Registry, migrating to a Registry Agreement much more in [β¦]
The post GoDaddy likely to win relaxed .xxx deal first appeared on Domain Incite.
Australian ccTLD overseer auDA has appointed industry veteran Bruce Tonkin to CEO. Itβs an internal promotion; Tonkin has been chief operating officer at auDA since 2018. Heβs replacing Rosemary Sinclair, who intends to leave at the end of the year. Tonkin was formerly chief strategy officer of Melbourne IT, one of the very first batch [β¦]
The post Tonkin promoted to CEO at auDA first appeared on Domain Incite.
ICANN has named its new Ombuds, who will take over the role vacated by Herb Waye almost a year ago. Sheβs Liz Field, a HR specialist who spent most of her career at Amnesty International but most recently has been working for WIPO as an independent outside consultant, according to her LinkedIn. After almost two [β¦]
The post ICANN hires new Ombuds from WIPO first appeared on Domain Incite.
ICANN is to ban new gTLD applicants from paying each other off if they apply for the same strings, removing a business model that saw tens of millions of dollars change hands in the 2012 application round. But, in a twist, applicants will be able to submit second-choice strings along with their main application, allowing [β¦]
The post Big twist as ICANN bans new gTLD auctions first appeared on Domain Incite.
ICANN has revealed it is to βstrengthenβ its anti-harassment policy, but the announcement came the same day as it picked another public meeting host country where being gay can lead to jail time. βThe Board Anti-Harassment Working Group has recently worked to evaluate and strengthen the ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy,β chair Tripti Sinha posted over [β¦]
The post ICANN to βstrengthenβ harassment rules as it picks another homophobic meeting host first appeared on Domain Incite.
Malaysiaβs .my ccTLD has so far failed to attract the hoped-for thousands of new registrations since it relaunched to a global audience a few months ago, according to registry statistics. MYNIC puts the total number of .my domains, including third-levels under the likes of .com.my and .biz.my, at 313,588 at the end of August, barely [β¦]
The post .my global relaunch starts slowly despite cheapo prices first appeared on Domain Incite.
