America’s housing industry may be falling, but recent reports indicate the Internet’s real estate market is going nowhere but up. In its quarterly report, VeriSign announced domain name registrations for top-level domains (TLDs) have gone up in the first quarter of 2008.
According to the report, there were more than 160 million domain name registrations across all TLDs in the first quarter. The data indicates a 26 percent growth since the first quarter of 2007. VeriSign said the reported growth is repetitive of the growth seen from 2006 to 2007.
VeriSign also revealed it had registered more than 71 million domain names at the conclusion of 2004. That number increased to 105 million domain names by mid-year in 2006.
The company processed a peak of more than 50 billion DNS (Domain Name System) queries per day in the first quarter of 2008, compared to an average of 30 billion DNS queries per day in the first quarter of 2007. Each query represents an Internet user accessing a Web site or sending e-mail.
The information also indicates India as a possible expansion area. The country features approximately 41 million Internet users, making it eighth among countries in users. “India is emerging as an increasingly important country for domain names,” the company said in a press release.
Adding to VeriSign’s claim, VeriSign Senior Vice President of Naming Services, Raynor Dahlquist, said the country is one to watch out for.
“Rapidly emerging regions like India underscore the importance of ensuring that the Internet infrastructure is able to serve every corner of the world,” Dahlquist, said in a press release.
According to the report, 2008’s first quarter featured 1.2 million India-based domain name registrations. The figure marks a 46 percent increase from the previous year and a whopping 12 percent growth from the fourth quarter of 2007.
Undoubtedly, domain name registrations will continue to increase and possibly boom in January as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) loosens its guidelines surrounding domain name extensions. By this time next year, domain names featuring extensions such as .sex, .food and .travel will be a reality, expanding the Internet real estate market that much more.
In a recent report by VeriSign, Inc., the company reported China’s domain name, .cn, increased in registrations by 23 percent during the past quarter. While specific numbers were not provided, the database organization said the quarter’s registrations had tripled in comparison to the first quarter of 2007.
VeriSign, a managing company of .net databases and other major directors that assist computers with finding Internet sites and routing e-mail, also said the increase was especially significant because the domain extension bypassed the global .net registrations. The occurrence took place sometime in May of this year when, .cn caught up to Germany’s .de domain name with 11.8 million registrations and .net’s 11.6 million users.
VeriSign’s study follows a recent report by the communist nation indicating an increase in Internet users in China. According to the Associated Press, China’s Internet users have risen to more than 200 million. A number the news agency said ties the United States online population as the biggest on Earth.
Dot cn first came online in 2003. At that time, according to Nielson NetRatings, the country boasted the second largest Internet population at 56 million users. It was estimated by NeuStar that China would account for more than a quarter of the globe’s Internet population by 2004.
The heavy increase in .cn registrations can also be linked to the China’s Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) decision to postpone its one yuan registration for several months in 2007.
According to the Associated Press, however, while .cn is growing by leaps and bounds, it still poses no threat to the ultra popular .com suffix. Dot com registrations lead the pack with more than 76 million users worldwide.
Both “.net” and “.com” are worldwide domain extensions, accessible to people, groups and organizations across the globe on a first-come, first-serve basis. The suffixes are generally used by American entities. On the other hand, country-specific domain names such as “.cn” and “.de” are characteristically preferred.
However, several country-specific domains have relaxed registration policies in recent years, to include worldwide users allowing the extensions to function in a manner like that of .com and .net.
In a move that could radically transform the Internet, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently proposed a new policy that would relax the regulations on top-level domain names.
If the policy is approved, companies will be allowed to register specific brands as generic top-level domain names (gTLDS). This change will also provide more personalized options for individuals with Internet sites and may significantly increase the registration of new gTLDs as early as this year.
Based on June discussions held at the 32nd ICANN meeting in Paris, the span of gTLDs available has slowing increased to 21 domain names including .asia, .tel, and .aero.
The ICANN hopes the policy will support innovation, creativity, competition and consumer choice.
Along with a more flexible gTDL policy, the ICANN also proposed to permit new domain names to be written in international scripts. This move will promote the growth of worldwide use and culture in the Internet.
According to Chief Executive of the Internet Industry Association in Australia, Peter Coroneos, a reduction of gTLD registration policies may trounce trademark and branding disagreements including cyber squatting. Currently, cyber squatting is a common act in both the United States and Europe.
For example, Coroneos said, the National Australia Bank was unable to obtain its preferred domain name when it decided to enter the Internet scene. Instead, the bank operated via national.com.au. The bank later was able to secure the nab.com.au name.
“It seems to me to be a natural progression from what we have now,” Coroneos, said. “To some degree, it could overcome historical problems with trademarks and domain names.”
Coroneos also said he believed the policy poses no major threats to domainers and Internet users.
“Greater branded use shouldn’t carry with it any significant dangers, provided that registration policies are clear and wouldn’t undermine any legitimate trademarks,” Coroneos said.
To steer clear of the materialization of fraud and phishing sites, he said gTLD registration should include anti-avoidance procedures and necessitate a high level of accountability. The completion of the new policy will be determined by vote later this month.
Go Daddy has officially joined the fight against rogue online pharmacies following a testimony by the company’s general counsel Christine Jones before the Terrorism and Homeland Security House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime. Jones testified on the increasing presence of illegitimate pharmacies and how lawmakers can stop such organizations.
In response, the house members recently introduced a bipartisan bill that will prevent illegitimate pharmacies from utilizing the Internet while improving the safety of consumers. by U.S. Representatives Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) introduced the legislation citing a growing need to address the illegal Internet pharmaceutical business.
“This isn’t just about people trying to save money on prescription drugs by unknowingly buying counterfeit brand name pills,” Jones said during her testimony. “This is about young kids who use their parents’ credit card, tell them they are buying music or video games and instead stock the weekly party with enough ecstasy for them and all their friends. This is very, very serious.”
Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reinforces Go Daddy’s concerns in a 2007 report that indicated more than 80 percent of Internet sites selling pharmaceuticals don’t require a prescription.
Go Daddy also reported that in 2007, approximately 1,300 pharmacy Internet sites were suspended by the company’s 24.7 Abuse Department for not requiring prescriptions and/or age verification prior to purchasing medication.
“For 2008, the trends are much more severe,” Jones said. “Go Daddy has suspended more than six thousand online pharmacy domain names already this year.”
On a corporate level, Go Daddy spends a significant amount of resources and time collaborating with law enforcement to help make the Internet a safer place. The company, however, said other organizations must join the fight against illegitimate pharmacies to really make a difference.
“We challenge our counterparts on the Internet to make the same commitment to stop online prescription abuse,” Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons, said. “We have documented proof our efforts at Go Daddy can make a difference. That’s the good news. The downside is, when we shut these sites down, their operators just go find one of our competitors … a registrar or hosting company that is more lax and presto, the bad guys are back in business.”
The popular social networking Web site, Facebook, recently won its battle against Australian company, Callverse Pty Ltd., for the rights to Facebook.com.au.
According to recent reports, the World Intellectual Porperty Organization (WIPO) made a decision based on a three person panel.
The Facebook dispute began after Callverse purchased the facebook.com.au domain name from its former registrant, Cocktail King Australia. The transaction is said to have taken place between June 2007 and October 2007. Facebook.coml.au currently markets a “click to call service” that is said to be “coming soon.”
After reviewing the dispute, the panel determined the purchase of the domain name was in bad faith.
“Given the Complainant’s numerous trademark rights for Facebook, and its wide reputation, it is difficult to conceive of a plausible circumstance in which the Respondent could legitimately use the disputed domain name. As noted above, the disputed domain name is the logical domain name for the Complainant’s operations in Australia. Consequently, it is highly likely that a significant number of Internet users would believe that the disputed domain name would lead to the Complainant’s web site,” the decision said. “It is also highly likely that the Respondent was aware of the Complainant’s distinctive and famous marks when it obtained registration of the disputed domain name. By using the disputed domain name, the evidence suggests that the Respondent has intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to its website, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the Complainant’s well-known mark as to the source of that website or location of an online social network service on that web site.”
The .Au extension is a country domain name code that represents Australia. Currently, registrations must be Australian individuals or companies. However, many registrants have purchased domain names and are waiting for the day the .au extensions are made available worldwide.
The Facebook ruling is exceptionally interested in light of the recent dispute over MySpace.co.uk in which MySpace won its rights to the name even though it was registered prior to the founding of the soclia network. MySpace.co.uk later won the domain name back after an appeal.
Tucows Inc. recently announced its partnership with Afternic to auction off expired domain names on a daily basis.
Known for providing Internet services to ISPs and Web hosting business across the globe, Tucows now offers its expired domain names to the public via auction house Afternic. The organization is said to have thousands of expired names each day.
“Working with Afternic is a winning proposition for our resellers and for people looking to buy expired names,” Tucows Domain Portfolio General Manager Bill Sweetman, said. “We have over eight million domains under management and thousands expiring every day, so this deal provides us with a great way to share revenue with our resellers while participating in Afternic’s popular secondary domain name marketplace.”
“We are thrilled to have such a huge stream of expired domain names flowing into Afternic from Tucows,” NameMedia Marketplace’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Pete Lamson, said. “This additional expired domain name inventory significantly enhances our ability to provide a wide range of domain options to small to medium-sized business owners looking to purchase a great name.”
The Tucows/Afternic auction partnership was launched in early June. Expired domain names are available daily for purchase. According to Tucows officials, the duo’s program allows their company to allocate revenue to its domain service resellers. Through the auction, resellers earn a share of the sale price of expired domain names sold via the Afternic auction. This service is free of charge to the resellers.
Furthermore, Tucows resellers benefit from a friendly domain name program, which includes a big selection of trendy TLDs. Resellers also enjoy the ability to sell quality domain via a secondary domain name market. Other benefits include a domain name idea tool, free WHOIS privacy and managed DNS with each name sold, and a share of domain parking program revenue.
Tucows services more than 9,000 clients worldwide while hosting millions of e-mail boxes and domain names. The organization is registered with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Currently, Tucows has more than 150,000 domain names available for purchase. The company also offers services to small business owners and consumers.
One of the best ways to profit from the Internet real estate market is to sell domain names to end users. End users typically have a business model and a plan to utilize the domain. They also tend to pay retail expenses, thus making them a solid buyer.
By definition, an end user is an individual who uses a product. An end user is also referred to as a consumer and is different from a customer. In regards to domain names, the end user is the individual or organization that purchases the name.
As a domainer, there are certain things you should keep in mind when selling a name to an end user. Take for example the story of the former owner of Healthify.com, Steve, as reported by the Domain Name Wire. Steve had owned Healthify.com for several years when one day, out of the blue, he was contacted by a seemingly individual, who wanted to purchase his domain name for $7,000. After some talking, the gentleman said he could go up $8,000. Steve had already determined he would not accept anything less than $15,000 for the name. And so, he declined the offer.
This story could have ended with Steve selling his domain name for $8,000, but Steve knew better. Shortly after ending the telephone call, the domainer searched Google and found that General Mills was promoting a “healthify” service on one of its Web sites. Mind you, General Mills is a multinational corporation with deep pockets. Long story short, Steve later received an e-mail from the man wanting to buy his domain name. Not once did the individual let on that he was inquiring for General Mills. This story goes back and forth with Steve turning down offer after offer over a course of weeks. In the end, Steve sold the domain name for $15,000.
The key lesson here is things are not always as they seem. When selling your domain name, do some research on the end user and keywords associated with the domain name. By learning their motives and needs, you too may very well increase the amount of money you receive for your domain.
There are a variety of ways to go about purchasing a domain name, but have you ever considered the risk involved with purchasing an established domain?
Established domain names can be tricky because most Webmasters prefer to buy a name with some history to it. These names tend to be faster and easier to promote. Such names are either registered after the domain name expires or directly from the previous domain name owner.
While established domain names certainly have their benefits, they can also come with baggage. You don’t want to end up purchasing a domain name that turns into a second hand nightmare. For example, you could easily pick up a domain name with a bad reputation with Google. Perhaps the previous Webmaster utilized the site for illegitimate marketing techniques. Right off the bat, this fact makes the site that much harder to index and it may be blacklisted.
To prevent yourself from diving into a bad second hand domain name, you need to do a little research. Note, this research should be accomplished before you even consider bidding on the name.
1) Review the Internet archive to ensure the site’s content appears legitimate.
2) Visit the site and click through the site’s backlinks. Keep an eye out for patterns that may indicate excessive blogroll links, directory links, blog comment span, same anchor text abuse, etc. Essentially you want to ensure the Webmaster is not taking part in reciprocal link schemes that will be associated with the domain name. Also keep in mind that while the site may not have accrued a penalty for shady scheming, it still could in the future.
3) Review the site’s Google cached date and the cached text only version.
4) Lastly, find out how many times the Webmaster switched its hosting services. This information can be found through the Whois directory. Various Whois domaintools can identify detailed information regarding the site. The longer a site sticks with a host, the more stable it is.
Once you have taken the above steps, you can then make an informed decision, and a better investment, when registering a second hand domain.
Arbitration is a popular way to resolve civil disputes surrounding situations such as divorce. Domainers, however, can also utilize arbitration to solve their domain name disputes.
In domain disputes, arbitration determines who has the right to a domain name through a policy established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution (UDRP). Currently, the ICANN boasts a handful of approved arbitrators that facilitate domain dispute resolutions.
Arbitration is a cost effective and efficient technique for handling domain name disputes regarding Internet addresses. As the Internet continues to grow and more and more individuals turn into domainers, more disputes arise. Disputes can vary, but the most common arise due to abusive registration. Sometimes this abuse is intentional, other times it is accidental.
Typically, domain name disputes are settled via court, agreement, or arbitration. Prior to arbitration, the court served as the final adjudicators when solving a domain name issue. However, this method was both expensive and time consuming. To better facilitate domain name disputes, the ICANN approved its UDRP arbitration policy in hopes of making the procedure more efficient.
In general, an ICANN approved dispute resolution service provider handles the arbitration proceedings. Domain experts say that utilizing arbitration services over litigation allows both parties more advantages. To begin, and as mentioned, the cost for arbitration is significantly less than litigation. There is also more flexibility and no limitations on evidence and jurisdiction. Additionally, arbitration takes a few short weeks to complete versus possible months in court via litigation.
Along with the pros, arbitration also has its share of cons. For example, panel decisions are discretionary; there is also a lack of appeal and restrictions on remedies.
Various companies that can be found via an Internet search provide arbitration guidance. These organizations provide their clients with domain solutions that include but are not limited to overseeing transfers, negotiating sales and purchases, domain escrow, drafting agreements, and arbitration proceedings.
Arbitration proceedings, however, can only be performed by four of the ICANN approved providers. These providers include the National Arbitration Forum, the World Intellectual Property Organization, Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre, and The Czech Arbitration Court.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers recently distributed letters to a handful of Internet domain name sellers. The letters read as a warning to sellers who have failed to follow the non-profit organization’s rules. The mailing is part of an initiative spearheaded by the INACC in an attempt to crack down on hackers and spammers who utilize shady Web pages for profit.
“This is about transparency,” ICANN Director of Compliance Stacy Burnette told United Press International. “It is an effort to improve the accuracy of information related to who controls Internet addresses, known as domain names.”
As part of the domain name registration process, registrants are required to provide personal contact information for the WHOIS Internet database. Shady spammers, who do everything from stealing identities to selling counterfeit goods, tend to sidestep the WHOIS part of registration. This is something the ICANN monitors closely.
“ICANN sends, on average, over 75 enforcement notices per month following complaints from the community. We also conduct compliance audits to determine whether accredited registrars and registries are adhering to their contractual obligations,” Burnette, said in a press release. “Infringing domain names are locked and Web sites removed every week through this system.”
While the ICANN does not have direct authority to target Internet criminals and verify WHOIS data, the organization is obligated to research reports that indicate incorrect or missing WHOIS information.
“If we find that registrars are not investigating reports (of inaccurate or non-existent WHOIS data) as they are required to, our escalation procedure can ultimately result in their accreditation being terminated,” Brunette said.
The recent round of letters request recipients to describe how they investigated inaccuracies and how they plan to fix them in the WHOIS database.
“Each case is different,” said Burnette. “We try to give registrars a reasonable amount of time to respond.”
Registrars who fail to respond, however, will receive breach notices, allowing an additional 15 days to correct the problem before losing their ICANN endorsement.
“We’re working aggressively to address the problem,” Brunette said.
According to a recent report by Internet security firm KnujOn, 90 percent of the domain names that feature spam are owned by approximately 20 registrants.