ICANN has announced that they are expanding the scope of contractual waivers for security issues to include registrars. That's a bit of a mouthful, so I'll try to unpack it a bit. Under normal circumstances both registrars and registries are bound by ICANN policies and contractual obligations. In simple terms this means that they only register and manage domain names when … [Read more...] about ICANN Expands Contractual Waiver for Security Issues to Registrars
Domain name
IE ccTLD Announces Liberalisation Date
The .ie ccTLD, which is the country code domain name for Ireland has long had very restrictive policies governing registration. Even if you were Irish or had a business based in Ireland registering a domain name in the local country code extension wasn't straightforward - at least not compared to the ease with which you can register domains in .com, .eu or .co.uk. As I … [Read more...] about IE ccTLD Announces Liberalisation Date
Sky Actively Using Their Brand TLD and a Cloud Domain in Consumer Emails
Sky were one of the big brands that applied for and got their "dotbrand" domain extension from ICANN. While they may have been increasing the usage of the domain name in their customer communications recently I haven't seen most of it, as I "cut the cord" over a year ago. This morning, however, I got an email from them in relation to their wifi service. I probably signed … [Read more...] about Sky Actively Using Their Brand TLD and a Cloud Domain in Consumer Emails
3 Years of .Global
The .global TLD has been live for 3 years and to celebrate the registry has prepared a nice graphic showing some interesting data about the domain extension's usage (see below). At time of writing there are just over 34 thousand .global domains registered. While that number may not be as high as some registries the .global registry is claiming quite high usage rates, as well … [Read more...] about 3 Years of .Global
Daily Stormer Back Online Using a .Ru Domain
Daily Stormer, the right-wing hate site, has been bouncing around the internet over the last few days. After being booted by GoDaddy it switched to Google, who took the .com domain name offline. They then switched to using the "dark web" with a .onion domain. However they've now got themselves a .ru domain name and are back online on the open internet. They're also still … [Read more...] about Daily Stormer Back Online Using a .Ru Domain
DailyStormer Offline as Google Pulls Domain Registration
DailyStormer is currently offline. If you attempt to visit the main domain name or any of its associated sections, which resided under various subdomains, you'll either get a "host not found" error or be greeted by something like this: The domain registration's status has changed slightly: Domain Name: DAILYSTORMER.COM Registry Domain ID: … [Read more...] about DailyStormer Offline as Google Pulls Domain Registration
DailyStormer Switches to Google; Google “Cancels” Registration
At time of writing the extreme right-wing website Daily Stormer is still online. The website operator is now claiming to have "retaken control" of the site. However, as has been reported in the mainstream media as well as on most domain industry sites, the domain was booted by GoDaddy. It now resides with Google: Domain Name: DAILYSTORMER.COM Registry Domain ID: … [Read more...] about DailyStormer Switches to Google; Google “Cancels” Registration
Two Years of Dot Tech
The guys over at Radix Registry have put together a nice little graphic to celebrate the second anniversary of the .tech TLD. Over the past two years the domain extension has grown to over 300 thousand registered domain names. In terms of users they've managed to get several high profile companies onboard including Web Summit, CTA and many more. … [Read more...] about Two Years of Dot Tech
Some Whois Lookup Services Might be Broken
There are thousands of sites and services on the 'net that offer domain name whois lookup services. As of last night many of them may have stopped working. Why? Many of them rely on fairly rudimentary software that parses the whois from Verisign (for .com and .net) and then relays the query to the registrar whois. The site or service then displays the whois output from the … [Read more...] about Some Whois Lookup Services Might be Broken
How Much Should Startups Budget for a Decent Domain Name?
Bill Sweetman from NameNinja has released a handy little guide to domain name pricing for startups. While the guide is aimed at businesses starting out, the information around domain name pricing is applicable to anyone who wants to either "upgrade" their online brand or launch a new one. The guide focusses primarily on .com domain names, but also mentions both ccTLDs, … [Read more...] about How Much Should Startups Budget for a Decent Domain Name?