IEDR is currently suffering a major outage. Since this afternoon none of the IEDR websites have been online, whois for the .ie cctld has been offline and all other services including registrations and updates have been unavailable. Existing .ie domain names continue to resolve. It's unclear what the cause of the outage is or when it will be resolved, though IEDR have … [Read more...] about IEDR Suffers Major Outage
ICANN Announce TLD Application Change Request Process and Criteria
Shortly after ICANN announced the new TLD applications list it became evident that some applicants may have made mistakes in their applications. For the last couple of months there has been a lot of chatter in the ICANN community about how ICANN would handle changes to the submitted applications. Finally this morning ICANN has announced the criteria that they will use to … [Read more...] about ICANN Announce TLD Application Change Request Process and Criteria
Google Withdraws 3 New TLD Applications
Google has withdrawn 3 of its new TLD applications. Its applications for .and, .are and .est are now listed as "withdrawn" on the new TLD application status page: As Kevin pointed out, the three strings break the rules, as they appear on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 list and are the codes for the United Arab Emirates, Estonia and Andorra. A fourth application, for .ksb … [Read more...] about Google Withdraws 3 New TLD Applications
Thomson Reuters Finalise Acquisition Of MarkMonitor
Thomson Reuters announced earlier today that they have finalised the acquisition of domain name registrar and online brand protection company MarkMonitor. From their release: “The addition of MarkMonitor to our Intellectual Property & Science portfolio marks a transformational shift for our business,” said Chris Kibarian, president, IP & Science, Thomson Reuters. … [Read more...] about Thomson Reuters Finalise Acquisition Of MarkMonitor
Kiwi.nz Registrations Opening September 11th
The .nz (New Zealand) domain registry has announced that provisional registrations under the new extension kiwi.nz will open from next Tuesday September 11th 2012. The new extension under .nz will not "go live" until 500 registration requests have been received. During the provisional registration phase, domain names: Can only be registered for a maximum term of … [Read more...] about Kiwi.nz Registrations Opening September 11th
Chilean Domain Registry Launch 1 Year Registrations
The Chilean domain name registry (.cl), which is celebrating its 25 years in existence has launched one year .cl domain name registrations. As of September 1st 2012 it is possible to register .cl domain names for either 2 years or 1 year. It's not clear if the registry has any plans to extend registration periods to the more "standard" 10 year period. Related … [Read more...] about Chilean Domain Registry Launch 1 Year Registrations
ICANN 47 Confirmed For Durban South Africa
ICANN's 47th public meeting will take place in Durban, South Africa from 14th to 19th July 2013. The meeting location was confirmed in the most recent ICANN board minutes. The .za Domain Name Authority will be the local hosts. Here's the relevant snippet from the board resolution: Whereas, ICANN intends to hold its second Meeting for 2013 in the Africa region as per … [Read more...] about ICANN 47 Confirmed For Durban South Africa
Icelandic Registry To Introduce “Very Important Domains”
The Icelandic registry (.is) plans on introducing extra levels of protection to some domains and their registrants. The new program is called "Very Important Domains" or VID for short (yes another acronym and you'll have to excuse my childish snigger when I misread it as VDS) It's not clear from the registry's announcement how exactly this service will work, though it's … [Read more...] about Icelandic Registry To Introduce “Very Important Domains”
Honduran ccTLD Switching to CoCCA
The .hn (Honduras) country code top level domain is switching to CoCCA from Afilias in October. From October 1st all .hn domain names will be on the CoCCA platform. … [Read more...] about Honduran ccTLD Switching to CoCCA
Dotless Domains Deemed A Bad Idea
ICANN's security and stability committee (SSAC) recently issued a report on "dotless" domain names. These would be where the domain name is the extension - so instead of having $thing.$extension you would find $extension by itself. As the report (PDF) explains, there are quite a few technical issues with the concept of no domain extension. Just polling a few users on … [Read more...] about Dotless Domains Deemed A Bad Idea