.COM Passes 100 Million Registration Mark in January - 3 February, 2012, 11:57 am

There are now more than 100 million .COM domain names according to separate statistics revealed by RegistrarStats and HosterStats. The 100 million mark was passed in January both websites revealed in their counts of various top level domain name registrations. According to RegistrarStats, there were a total of 100,052,046 domains [...]

Australian Netfleet Customer Database Hacked - 2 February, 2012, 8:39 pm

Customers of Australian domain name reseller Netfleet may have had their personal details and encrypted credit cards compromised after hackers infiltrated the reseller’s database, CRN reported. According to the report, Netfleet said hackers may have stolen customers’ name, email and street addresses, phone numbers and encrypted credit card numbers with [...]

Domain Name Hijacking Is A Serious Business, And How To Prevent It - 2 February, 2012, 8:14 pm

A domain name is often one of a company’s most valuable assets, yet businesses often do little to prevent the domain being hijacked.CIO recently published an article on the practice that they note is becoming more prevalent and one that IT leaders need to understand so they can protect their [...]

Singapore’s StarHub to Apply For .STARHUB TLD - 2 February, 2012, 6:04 pm

The Singaporean communications company StarHub has become the sixth company to publicly announce they will be applying to ICANN for their top level domain, joining organisations such as Unicef, Deloitte, Neustar, Canon, Hitachi and possibly even IBM. It has been predicted by many involved in the domain name business, including [...]

ICANN To Reduce “Unreachable” Whois Registrations By 50% In 1 Year? - 31 January, 2012, 9:21 pm

Review Team Asks for Community Comment on Draft Recommendations that Could Bring Big Changes to Whois Whois allows you to look up the name and contact information of whoever operates any website domain – or at least, it should. But it isn’t always accurate. In some cases, Whois contact information [...]

CIRA On The Road To Introducing .CA IDNs With French Characters - 31 January, 2012, 9:05 pm

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has launched the second and final phase of its consultation in the implementation of French characters (also known as Internationalised Domain Names, or IDNs) in .CA domain names. .CA holders and Canadian internet users are invited to provide their feedback on certain revisions to [...]

And Then It Was Quiet On The Domain Sales Front In The Week To Christmas… - 31 January, 2012, 8:56 pm

A quiet week for domain name sales in the week to 25 December according to Domain Name Journal’s list of reported sales. My.net was the top seller for a comparatively small £49,000 ($75,950) through Sedo followed by vintageporn.com for $60,000 through HuntingMoon. Third biggest seller for the week also pipped [...]

ARI Registry Services Signs 21 Contracts In The First Week Of Applications - 30 January, 2012, 4:18 pm

The opening of the application window for new Top Level Domains on 12 January by ICANN has seen a flurry of interest from business in particular. ARI Registry Services have announced this has led to it signing 21 contracts to provide technical registry services for the same number of within [...]

Business Awareness of New TLDs Sorely Lacking: Adrian Kinderis - 30 January, 2012, 2:38 pm

This is the first of a series of articles on new TLDs as a result of interviews with leading industry players. In this first article we interview Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry Services who is forthright in his views on TLDs, how business outside North America is showing little [...]

The Wayward Anti-Cybersquatter Consumer Protection Act: A Survey of 11 Years of ACPA Caselaw by Roberrt Cannon, Federal Communications Commission; Cybertelecom - 30 January, 2012, 2:30 pm

Abstract: The Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) has lost its way. The ACPA was passed in an era of domain name land grabs, where nefarious individuals would register and warehouse oodles of valuable domain names, and then extract ransom from bewildered trademark owners. Interstellar Starship Servs., Ltd. v. Epix, Inc., [...]

Kim Dotcom Owns Kim.com - 30 January, 2012, 2:26 pm

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom has certainly hit the headlines following his arrest in New Zealand last week. But one thing that had not yet been noted according to The Financial Times is that the German-born entrepreneur owns the domain name kim.com. According to Whois records, Dotcom acquired the domain name in [...]

Nominet Seeks Views On Draft Members’ Code - 29 January, 2012, 10:24 pm

As with any successful membership organisation, Nominet views it as important to review how they operate to ensure they are well equipped to deal with future challenges. As part of this process, Nominet is seeking views from members on the possible introduction of a Members’ Code that will clarify the [...]

Premium Domains Announced For Moniker and SnapNames auction on At DOMAINfest Global - 29 January, 2012, 10:34 am

With the DOMAINfest Global Conference starting this coming week, details of the Moniker Domain Live Auction, combining low and no reserve plus premium domains across all price ranges and categories have been announced. Domains up for auction include Bargain.com, Democracy.com, Work.com, QR.com, Security.com, Host.com, Emails.com, Promo.com plus many more. The [...]

Verisign Announces Strong Growth As .COM Passes 100m Registrations - 27 January, 2012, 10:55 pm

Total registrations of .COM and .NET domain names increased to 113.8 million at the end of 2011 representing an eight per cent increase year-on-year Verisign announced. The company also announced the total number of .COM and .NET registrations increased by 7.9 million registrations in the final quarter of 2011. While [...]

DOMAINfest Global Announces Latest Updates For Next Week’s Conference - 27 January, 2012, 10:35 pm

It’s sunny and warm in Santa Monica in the lead-up to DOMAINfest Global and just five days away from the conference. The organisers are promising excitement from morning ‘til’ night with opportunities to learn, network, do deals and have fun. For more updates on the latest happening at next week’s [...]

Instra Attracts Leading Senior Channel Manager Samantha Frida - 6 December, 2011, 7:46 pm

Global domain name registrar Instra Corporation has attracted one of the industry’s top players to their team; marking yet another leap forward for the fast-growing cutting-edge company. Former VeriSign Senior Channel Manager Samantha Frida has sparked controversy by aligning herself with Instra CEO Tony Lentino; a man she describes as a ‘creative genius’. With academic achievements [...]

FREE .Brand Package by Instra for Top Level Domains - 6 December, 2011, 7:21 pm

Instra Corporation, a global domain brand protection company, has launched its gTLD flagship website, http://www.newtlds.com. In a bid to attract the premium top level domain market, Instra CEO Tony Lentino is unveiling targeted TLD promotions in an aggressive new marketing campaign. “Our initiative is to offer free or reduced-cost Instra application processes for those [...]

.XXX Sunrise period commences September 7 2011 - 5 September, 2011, 11:31 am

The registry will be accepting live Sunrise applications starting September 7 2011. Applicants that hold an existing adult domain name or trademark should apply to register their brand during the sunrise period to ensure that they have the best possible chance of securing their name in the .XXX name space. Trademark holders that want to perform a [...]

.QA - Instra to become QATAR Registrar - 17 August, 2011, 9:43 am

Instra has become provisionally accredited Qatar registrar. We expect to become fully accredited in time for the Sunrise launch, which is expected in September 2011. As a foreign registrar, we will be providing registrations in the top level .QA name space. The .QA name space will be open to applicants worldwide, and it will be a great [...]

.XXX Launch dates announced - 25 July, 2011, 3:31 pm

ICM Registry has announced the official launch dates for the Internet’s newest sponsored TLD – .XXX. The Sunrise period will commence on September 7 2011 and will run through to October 28 2011. Members of the Sponsored Adult Community that have an existing Adult Domain name or Trademark will be given preference to register their brand in [...]

ICANN approves new gTLD program - 27 June, 2011, 3:33 pm

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), who are the governing authority on domain names, have decided to approve a new program that will allow businesses and individuals to apply for their own top level domain name. This means that successful applicants will be able to own and maintain a gTLD (generic Top Level Domain) [...]

.AU Celebrates 25 years - 3 June, 2011, 3:40 pm

The Australian ICT, .AU Registrars, and the Australian Business Community yesterday celebrated 25 years of the .AU domain name. AusRegistry, the .AU Registry operator hosted the 25th celebration for .AU domain name at Melbourne Museum. The .AU domain name is widely recognised both nationally and internationally, as the name space that defines Australia’s online presence. The [...]

New TLDs Update - 13 May, 2011, 4:24 pm

ICANN have released the final draft of the New TLD handbook, which means that the New TLD program will be ready for launch very soon. There has however been a few recent developments that have further delayed the launch of the New TLD Program. We are optimistic that the regulatory requirements will be resolved, and we [...]

ICM Registry appoints Instra as .XXX Registrar - 2 May, 2011, 10:17 am

We are pleased to announce that ICM Registry has appointed Instra as a .XXX Accreditted Registrar. Instra is now accepting pre-registration orders for this name space, and we expect to be formally recognised as an accreditted .XXX registrar by ICANN within the new few weeks. We will also be publishing more details about the Sunrise stages within [...]

.XXX is now even closer to launch - 14 April, 2011, 4:02 pm

ICM Registry, which are the regulatory authority for the .XXX name space, are now in the process of finalizing the .XXX policy framework, for the purpose of officially commencing the Sunrise Launch of the .XXX domain name. While we have not been informed of any any official time frame, we are hopeful that the .XXX name [...]