DomainWeblog.com

Domain name conferance set for May 25th

Name Intelligence Inc. the force behind domain search provider whois.sc, is holding a high profile domainer conferance in Seattle set for May 25th-May 27th.
Should be the talk of industry as Verisign and Microsoft officials are schedualed to be at the Domain Roundtable event.
Who knows? Could be a chance for Bill Gates and the likes of a Mike Roe Soft to rub shoulders...that'd be worth the $620 admission fee alone.

Click here for more info

.us domain policy change lifts cover off registrants

"The United States Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA") has recently completed its review of "proxy" or anonymous domain registration services by .us Accredited Registrars. At the conclusion of this review, NTIA directed NeuStar to phase out the offering of such services by Registrars or by any of its partners or resellers and to ensure that complete and accurate WHOIS data is provided for any existing registrations in .us." source Domain State

In a nutshell, current and future .us domain registrants are under the gun regarding Nexus requirements for registrations.....this could get ugly.

Fox Drops The Ball On Go Daddy Superbowl Ad

Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons has revealed (via his weblog) that the domain registrar has bought an additional 2.4 million dollar commercial slot for this sundays upcoming Superbowl bonanza. It now becomes an under 5 million dollar on air investment for the tld seller..... a few more Ben Franklins if you add the cost to produce the spots........one of which the Fox network (airing the grid iron spectacle) has rejected. Click here for the story and get a sneek peek at the ad that won't be airing come game time.

Google Enters The Domain Arena

The story first broke via Lextext, and has now been picked up by other media outlets.....it appears the king of search engines is now an official ICANN approved domain registrar!

No doubt the already hot battle ground for one upsmanship in the domain pricing wars will be heating up. Googles search adversary Yahoo had been claiming it's stake in the market in 2004, slashing prices for it's domain offerings to a 4.98 price tag (albeit with a one domain per user policy), when you consider the wholesale rate for registrations run in the mid 6 dollar range and the fact 2003 Yahoo domain registrations were 35 dollars per unit....shows their tenacity at the very least..ya think?!?! Anything to boost the margins when it comes to hosting accounts, even if it means dipping into the red on one internet offering to supply another.

It was just a matter of time before Google followed suit and they have a great hosting subsidiary (Blogger.com) to market with should they decide to go that route. And why not? Blogs are all the rage with more than 6.5 million currently being tracked by the likes of blog indexers like Technorati. They're the new wave medium of choice and Googles Blogger is one of the most recognized blog applications out there, it would make an excellent starting point for this new venture. A domain name integrated with the Blogger brand would fit like a glove....it'll be interesting to see what direction they take to get the ball rolling.....knowing Google....it'll make an impact, regardless.

GoDaddy Tackles A Super Bowl Spot

One of the largest domain registrars on the web (GoDaddy), is looking to "hike" some interest with a TV ad campaign that's schedualed for kick off at the 39th Super Bowl.

"...there's even an early candidate for what Chris Wall, co-creative head at WPP's Ogilvy & Mather in New York, called the game's penchant for the "Hail Mary play for brands nobody has ever heard of." GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain-name registrar, is in with one unit. The site-which hasn't even had an ad agency before-will pick between two New York shops working on Super Bowl ideas, Adstore and Cliff Freeman and Partners, for the "huge exposure" the Big Game offers, said a rep for the Scottsdale, Ariz., company."
source: Adweek

It won't come cheap either, the Fox Network price tag for a one 30 second commercial unit is 2.4 million dollars. The GoDaddy ad will air when the big game hits TV screens, February 6th, 2005.

.travel Not Flying With New.net

It appears that New.nets .travel registrants are in for a bitter surprise if ICANN approves the Tralliance sponsored .travel tld currently being overviewed.

"The domain space, if approved by the Internet governing body, will be the seventh sTLD approved to run alongside the popular .com, .net and .org generic TLDs (gTLDs), opening up the congested name space market to new entrants.

However, ICANN's decision is bad news for the approximately 175 million Internet users who use New.net software to resolve domain names on their Web browsers.

While at worst it's a nuisance for surfers, these developments are potentially devastating to some of the many New.net domain name owners who have an established business presence with the New.net service.

Kris DeSylvia is the domain owner of the Web site www.wtpdx.com, as well as the owner of New.net's "germany.travel" domain extension for her travel agency. She said she wasn't aware of the latest developments with Tralliance and ICANN and its ramifications on her Web site. Even more, she didn't know that not everyone surfing the Web could see her Web site, and feels she was misrepresented when she bought the domain. "
source: internetnews.com

While the internetnews.com article gives some excellent insight, much has happened that could make things even worse for New.net registrants hoping for a grounded soloution.
Tralliance, which did hold meetings with New.net in 2003 to co-ordinate a mutual venture, might be under new ownership if the extention gets approved.

"Theglobe.com (OTCBB:TGLO), an Internet communications company, today disclosed a loan and purchase option agreement with Tralliance Corporation. Tralliance Corporation has entered into exclusive technical and commercial negotiations with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to become the registry for the .travel top-level domain. The agreement between the two companies was originally entered into on February 25, 2003 and has since been amended. The Securities and Exchange Commission granted theglobe.com confidentiality treatment with respect to full disclosure of the details of the Agreement pursuant to Rule 406 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Theglobe.com intends to exercise its purchase option for Tralliance upon certain conditions being met, including final approval to be the registry of the .travel top-level domain from ICANN. If and when theglobe.com exercises its purchase option, it will issue 1.5 million shares of its common stock in exchange for all the capital stock of Tralliance."
source: Business Wire

  But even if a takeover doesn't transpire, Tralliance has stated it won't recognise New.net .travel holders as registrants if its tld is green lighted by ICANN.

"What's more unfortunate for New.net customers, and potential Tralliance customers, is the fact that Tralliance officials have no plans to "grandfather" them into the new registry if the registry bid is accepted by ICANN. Grandfathering would allow existing New.net domain owners to migrate their domain name over to Tralliance's registry."
source: internetnews.com

The End Of The Verisign .com Reign?

If ICANN comes up on the winning end of a (November 12th) "breach of contract" legal squabble with Verisign, then 2007 might be the year we see a new registry in control of the coveted .com.

In a report from Yahoo News Austrailia :
"ICANN claimed that VeriSign violated the .com and .net contracts when it tried to introduce services such as Site Finder and Waiting List Service, on the basis that the company should have sought ICANN approval first.
If the California court were to agree with ICANN, then ICANN could gain the power to revoke VeriSigns presumption of renewal when the highly lucrative .com registry" contract comes up for renewal in 2007."

The recent ICANN initiated court litigations come at very volitile time for the tld registry heavyweight. Verisigns contract as official .net overseer, expires in June of 2005, and from the looks of the competition in the bid race. It'll be fierce.

"The .net registry has been operated by VeriSign or its predecessor, Network Solutions, since 1993. VeriSign now is competing against several other providers of domain name registries, including Afilias and NeuLevel, to keep its .net business. Denic, the German nonprofit organization that operates the .de country code top-level domain, is another potential competitor."
source: NetworkWorldFusion

"For now, ICANN says it is taking pains to avoid the lawsuit causing bias or a perception of bias in the .net selection process. ICANN will use independent technical and financial experts to score the candidates, and the ICANN board will then pick the highest scorer."
source: Yahoo News Austrailia

According to Circle ID, December 7/2004 is the due date when a California court will decide to hold the case before it or put it in the hands of an international arbitration proceeding

All eyes are focused on who will be crowned .net king, schedualed for a March of '05 announcement, but the next few weeks could lay the foundation for an even bigger battle. A legal fight that could set the stage to who'll end up holding the keys to the .com registry, or rather, who won't be in two short years.

ICANNs New Transfer Policy.....Whatever!

Arafat dies. US forces continue their assault on militants in Fallujah. My wife's back is killing her yet again (being eight months pregnant I'll take her word for it) and oh yeah... it's chaos in the domain industry as ICANNs revamped Domain Name Transfer (DNT) policy is set to take effect November 12th.
So what's the big deal?
Well, if your sifting through the latest online reports regarding the controversial TDRP you'd think the internet was about to self implode.

Here are some of the headlines with attached articles:
1. Domain Transfers (and Hijackings) to Become Easier
2. Gaurd Your Domain Names!
3. Domain Transfer Rules are a Cyber Squatter Charter

According to Netcraft (which seem to be the catalyst for the above mentioned) in regards to the new transfer policy:

"Under new rules set by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), domain transfer requests will be automatically approved in five days unless they are explicitly denied by the account owner. This is a change from current procedure, in which a domain's ownership and nameservers remain unchanged if there is no response to a transfer request.........This could mean trouble for domain owners who don't closely manage their records........Domains with incorrect e-mail addresses and outdated administrative contact information are at particular risk......A non-response becomes the equivalent of answering "yes" to a transfer request, according to the ICANN policy change."  source: Netcraft.com

This domain author has already been inundated with registrar warnings from the likes of Godaddy and Registerfly regarding the issue. Quite strange really since I don't have a domain housed with Regfly.....hmmm? But, really nice of them none the less for the spammed heads up.
Same can't be said for Network Solution registrants. The registrar already took action by locking their account holders domains themselves as a prelude for the November 12th change. Bit of a twist on their part really. Remember, this is the same gatekeeper that would appear to have no problems unloading their warchest when the domains they house expire. Been to SnapNames lately?

But while some are crying foul, others within the wild west web landscape are saying the whole situation is being blown out of proportion.
A Circle ID publisher in response to Netcraft :

"...a closer look at the actual rules makes it clear that it is not as bad as the story makes it out to be. The registrars still have the right to deny transfers if the domain is in "lock" status (which is a free service from most registrars)"
source: Circle ID

So what's ICANN been doing as registrants "in the know" lock their domain treasures at fever pitch?
Mobilizing the troops of course.....
An excerpt from PRNewswire for November 10th.

"The National Arbitration Forum and
the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre (ADNDRC) have been approved as
independent dispute resolution providers for the Transfer Dispute Resolution
Policy (TDRP) as announced today by the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN).  This policy is part of the Inter-Registrar
Transfer Policy, which will go into effect on November 12, 2004."

While opinions volley back and forth with the new policy change, it's quite apparent that "Domain Locking" is the one key factor that will avert any inconsistancy that the new DNT protocol can ensue. This very simple procedure takes seconds to induce and most registrars offer locking as a free service for account holders.
Always best to be on the safeside...this is ICANNs brainchild after all. God help us.