In an exciting move towards fostering innovation on a global scale, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the brains behind the Domain Name System (DNS), has just dropped a bombshell – the ICANN Grant Program. Brace yourselves, as millions of dollars are up for grabs to fuel groundbreaking projects that will propel the growth of a single, open, and universally interconnected Internet. [Read more…]

ICANN Launches Global Service to Simplify Requests for Nonpublic Domain Name Registration Data

In a move that promises to revolutionize how we access online information, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has just rolled out the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS). This cutting-edge service is poised to become a game-changer, simplifying the process of accessing nonpublic registration data related to generic top-level domains (gTLDs). And guess what? It’s not just for tech gurus; it’s for everyone with a legitimate interest! [Read more…]

In a resounding acknowledgment of its commitment to financial responsibility, stakeholder ratings, and social responsibility, Identity Digital™ has proudly clinched a coveted spot on Newsweek’s 1000 Excellence Index. This prestigious annual ranking, a collaborative effort between Newsweek and the Best Practice Institute (BPI), celebrates U.S. companies that go above and beyond in setting benchmarks for corporate excellence. [Read more…]

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the force behind the .ORG domain, proudly unveiled the outstanding winners of the 5th Annual .ORG Impact Awards. This annual program, dedicated to recognizing and celebrating exceptional mission-driven organizations and individuals, showcased the incredible efforts of those committed to making the world a better place. [Read more…]

Identity Digital™, a trailblazer in linking the online world with domain names and related technologies, is highlighting the game-changing influence of new web addresses in boosting brand recognition and user engagement. Through the compelling success stories of Co.school, Cultural Currents Institute, and Levels.fyi, Identity Digital underscores the advantages of embracing new web addresses to thrive in the digital age. [Read more…]

VPN.com, a leader in premium exact-match domain name brokerage, is making waves in the premium domain name industry with the announcement of Hit.com going up for sale. This three-letter dot com domain is a real gem, and the team at VPN.com is excited to facilitate this transaction. [Read more…]

The XYZ domain registry has acquired the .CEO Top Level Domain (TLD). Following its successful acquisition and relaunch of .Lat, XYZ Registry, the innovative company behind .xyz – the world’s #1 new domain ending – has announced its 35th new domain ending: .CEO. XYZ Registry is meeting its mission to provide competition and choice to users worldwide, now by stewarding the .CEO domain, an emblematic signifier for business leaders and innovators around the world. [Read more…]

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the driving force behind .ORG, has unveiled the finalists for the eagerly awaited 5th annual .ORG Impact Awards. Furthermore, it was announced that the awards ceremony, a long-anticipated return to in-person events since the onset of the pandemic, will be hosted by none other than Padma Lakshmi. The star-studded gala will take place on November 16 in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., where the exceptional winners will be revealed. These awards commend and reward individuals and organizations worldwide for their remarkable contributions to society. [Read more…]

In a remarkable celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is acknowledging a quarter-century of international cooperation in overseeing the Internet’s naming system. ICANN’s historic journey, conceived from the vision of a unified and globally accessible Internet, underscores its unwavering commitment to this objective and the profound impact it has achieved. [Read more…]

Squarespace is acquiring Google Domains. According to a press release, Squarespace and Google has “entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement with Google, whereby Squarespace will acquire the assets associated with the Google Domains business.” [Read more…]

Web.com has launched two new AI-powered features aimed at easing the domain creation and content generation processes, two of the first major steps in launching a website. The first is an AI-powered domain name generator, and the second tool is an AI writer. [Read more…]

Many popular web browsers, such as Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are now notifying users when they try to load a website that is not secure. If you try to go to a domain name that has no SSL certificate set up, you’ll get a warning message telling you the website you’re about to visit is not secure. This is a big deal for anyone who owns a domain name, especially if your domain name is just parked and doesn’t currently have a website on it. [Read more…]

There is a post on Reddit that details how a business owner lost their domain name because they relied on GoDaddy’s Auto Renew service to renew their domain name. Their credit card failed to be charged, and they lost the domain name. [Read more…]

dotDB is NOT shutting down. Emails were sent out, apparently, to dotDB registered users claiming that dotDB was shutting down. However, a statement on the dotDB website (see above) claims that a spammer sent out those emails claiming that the website and service was shutting down. dotDB is the most advanced tool for researching domain names, according to their website. I actually use the tool regularly and recommend it. [Read more…]

Tucows and GoDaddy have both recently reported their Q3 2022 financial results. For Tucows, net revenue for the third quarter of 2022 increased 2.8% to $78.1 million from $75.9 million for the third quarter of 2021. For GoDaddy, GoDaddy delivered another $1 billion revenue quarter, along with 2% year-over-year growth in net income and 15% year-over-year growth in operating profit. [Read more…]

As you may (or may not) know, I run a company called DNProtect. We protect domain names, offer a domain name protection service, but also recover stolen domain names.

Unfortunately recovering domain names takes up quite a bit of my time, as it’s a huge problem that no one talks about. People are literally waking up in the morning, their email doesn’t work, their website is down, and they quickly realize that their domain name has been stolen. DNAccess is currently the only company that currently offers a service to recover domain names. [Read more…]

GoDaddy is ending the forwarding of existing GoDaddy shortened links. So, if you were (or are) using one of GoDaddy’s shortened links, then after June 4, 2022 the shortened links will no longer work. [Read more…]

Sedo, the domain name parking and aftermarket place, has suspended trading and parking for domain names under .RU and .BY. In addition, they are currently unable to serve customers residing in Russia or Belarus, as well as corresponding bank accounts. The affected accounts will be temporarily deactivated. [Read more…]

The stolen domain name Patterns.com has been returned to its owner. The domain name was stolen from Cosmic Patterns Software, Inc. via their Network Solutions domain name registrar account. The thief and hacker accessed the account and transferred the domain name to their BizCN registrar account. BizCN was uncooperative, and refused to return the domain name to its owner. Therefore, DNProtect, with the help of Daniel Prince, a domain name attorney, filed a UDRP domain name dispute. They were successful with the UDRP, and the domain name is being returned to it’s owner. [Read more…]

In a Tweet today, Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall expressed his concern over the current situation occurring in Ukraine. As a result of current events, Namecheap is terminating services to Russian customers. They will also begin blocking internet traffic to their website, as well.

War is always a terrible thing, it’s even worse when many of our own team members are on the ground. Our company stands firmly against Russian aggression and war crimes being committed against the people of Ukraine. Insuring the safety of our colleagues is our number one priority

In an email message sent to affected customers, they said:

“Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime’s war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russia. While we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by.

If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you transfer them to another provider by March 6, 2022.

Additionally, and with immediate effect, you will no longer be able to use Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP, and Private Email with a domain provided by another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (??), .by, .xn--90ais (???), and .su. All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden, however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to another provider.

Customer Support,
Namecheap”

Customers who are affected by this decision by Namecheap will need to transfer their domain names to another domain name registrar by March 6, 2022.

The domain name registrar Namecheap has released its annual industry report. The 2021 ‘Domain Insights & Trends Report’ features domain registration data from 2020 and 2021. The data shows insight into global TLD registration trends for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, technology journalists, domain investors and web industry experts. [Read more…]

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the organization behind the .ORG TLD (Top Level Domain), has announced the winners of the 3rd annual .ORG Impact Awards. The .ORG Impact Awards honor and celebrate mission-driven organizations and individuals working to make the world a better place. The award winners were announced as part of an online global event to celebrate and honor “Champions for Change.” [Read more…]

Recently, there has been an uptick in the number of domain names that are being stolen. I am not sure if it’s because of the worldwide pandemic and people are getting more desperate for money, or if domain name thieves are taking advantage of the changing digital and tech environment. COVID-19 is causing more of us to be online and conduct business online. But that also means that many don’t fully understand how to properly protect their digital assets, like domain names. This may be why we’re seeing more and more online scams, phishing, and online theft in general. [Read more…]

RightOfTheDot.com is holding a live, online domain name auction on February 25, 2021. They’re broadcasting this live domain name auction starting at Noon on February 25, 2021 from College Station, Texas. Pre-Bidding on these domain names is now open, and will continue up until the live auction on the 25th of February. [Read more…]

UNR, the owner of some Top Level Domains (TLDs) has decided to auction off 23 TLDs to the highest bidder. There are 23 total, including some great endings such as .audio, .blackfriday, .christmas, and .help, and .link. These are not domain names, but the endings of domain names. [Read more…]

Two different repeating three-letter, .COM domain names, FFF.com and HHH.com, have been put up for sale by the domain name brokers Brannans.com. [Read more…]

Google has lost ownership to one of their Blogspot domain names. Blogspot is the former name of the blogging service that allowed bloggers to create and post their own blog for free. Blogspot.com redirects to Blogger.com, where you can continue to create and post on your own blog. Blogspot.in is the India version of Blogspot, each Blogspot blog was redirected to the local version (typically a ccTLD). So, someone viewing a blogspot blog in India would be redirected to username.blogspot.in. [Read more…]

The domain name registrar GoDaddy sent emails to some current customers. The email, which was a legitimate email and not a phishing attempt, told the customer that they had a credit on their account. However, what is alarming is that the email being sent had the wrong amount. [Read more…]

Verisign is shutting down their DomainScope service. They will continue operating the service until 1:00 PM Eastern Time on July 17, 2020. In a recent email to their current DomainScope customers and a notice posted on their site, Verisign explained that their product development teams will be focusing on developing new features and functionality for their NameStudio service instead. [Read more…]

Updated March 9, 2020

A recent discussion about the best Domain Name industry Twitter accounts got me thinking–there are a lot more domain name influencers on Twitter than be put into one Tweet. Even though there are a lot of characters available in a Tweet now, I just cannot possibly put them all into one or two Tweets. When I originally posted this list of domain name influencers that you should follow on Twitter, it was a list of 35. Then, after a while, some of them actually deleted their Twitter accounts. So, this is an updated list.

After the initial list, I’ve listed a bunch of Twitter accounts that you should be following related to the domain name industry. [Read more…]

As a search engine optimization (SEO) and domain name consultant, one of the questions I get asked most often about domain names is whether or not the domain name or TLD (Top Level Domain) matters. Will the domain name ending have an effect on SEO or search engine rankings. Are certain domain name endings preferred by the search engines over other domain name extensions? I decided to answer this question based on search engine optimization testing and not just based on my personal and professional experience. [Read more…]

A social media influencer has been sentenced to 14 years in United States Federal prison for the attempted hijacking of a GoDaddy domain name. According to a United States DOJ press release, “Rossi Lorathio Adams II, age 27, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also known as “Polo,” received the prison term after an April 18, 2019, jury verdict finding him guilty of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by force, threats, and violence.” [Read more…]

Network Solutions, a Web.com company, along with Register.com, has suffered a data breach (they got hacked) in late August 2019. They did not discover this data breach until October 16, 2019. They’re just notifying customers on November 1, 2019 about the data breach. Shouldn’t they have contacted their customers to change their passwords shortly after they discovered it on October 16, 2019? [Read more…]

When someone (or a company, organization) doesn’t renew a domain name, the domain name goes through a drop process. First the domain name usually enters a period of time when the current owner can renew the domain name. It’s essentially put on hold. It then enters a period (a certain number of days) when it’s marked as pending delete, and then, at one particular date and time, it is released to anyone who wants to register that domain name. The domain expiration process goes something like this: [Read more…]

Despite the fact that I transferred a domain name from Network Solutions to another registrar (GoDaddy), Network Solutions still wants me to renew the domain name and has it in my account. I literally transferred the domain name and moved it because technically it’s not my domain name (I bought it for a client). The client only used GoDaddy as their domain name registrar, so I had to move it away from Network Solutions. However, days later, the domain name is still in my Network Solutions Account. At this point, I am assuming that if I don’t do anything, Network Solutions will charge me for a domain name I don’t own, and a domain name that isn’t even at their registrar anymore. [Read more…]

KPMG has moved to their own .BRAND TLD (Top Level Domain), the first of the big accounting firms to make the move. Previously they were using the domain name KPMG.com as their home page, and now if you go to KMPG.com in your web browser it will redirect you to their new domain, home.kpmg, which then redirects you to https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home.html. This move is yet another sign that the big worldwide brands are beginning to move on over to their own .BRAND TLD, ditching their .COM domain name. [Read more…]

Every year at the NamesCon domain name conference, ROTD (Right of the Dot) holds a live domain name auction. This year they’ve picked 641 premium domain names to run in the auction–only the best from that list will be auctioned off live at the event this year in Las Vegas. The domain names are currently up for auction at Namejet, who is listing the domains. You can bid on them right now, right here. Some have a reserve price, but others don’t. At a minimum bid of $300, there are definitely some good buys to be had. [Read more…]

The domain name Files.com recently sold for US $750,000 according to Domain Name Wire. Action Verb, LLC bought the domain name Files.com and, according to the landing page on the site, they plan on launching “powerful file management for businesses of every size”. Certainly $750,000 is a lot of money to spend, and it is a great domain name. But did Action Verb, LLC, do any due diligence on the domain name before they bought it? [Read more…]

Does Domain Name Registration Length Affect Search Engine Rankings?

This has been discussed time and time again, but since Epik is now offering Forever Registrations of domain names, I thought that I would ask Google’s John Mueller if domain registration length is a search engine ranking factor. Or, whether or not Google prefers domain names that have been registered for a longer period of time. I asked John on Twitter, and here’s what he said: [Read more…]