Four New gTLD Applications Withdrawn

Doug Isenberg reported on four new gTLD applications that have been withdrawn. Three of them were applied for by Google. I can see why they changed their mind; they don’t really seem sensible for use as a top level domain. There may be other reasons but .are, .and, and .est struck me as not really useful right from the start. I think they made a good decision in these cases.

Here Are the First Four New gTLD Applications That Have Been Withdrawn

Nearly one month after ICANN announced that three of the new gTLD applications had been withdrawn (and on the eve of a webinar on the “Application Evaluation Progress”), ICANN’s online database finally has been updated – to show that four applications have been withdrawn.

They are: .and, .are, .est and .ksb.

Interestingly, the first three of these listed above were all applied…

Read the story… | Source: Isenberg on Domains | Date posted: 9/7/2012

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Big Investors Bullish on Domain Names

Stephen Mandel, Lone Pine CapitalI just read an article about Billionaire, Stephen Mandel buying stock in Verisign. Considering that Verisign has continually focused deeper into the domain name business, this is good news for our industry. Lone Pine reflects “big money” thinking and it’s nice to see these kinds of investors bet on domains. This kind of thing bodes well for all registries [ 🙂 ]. Here’s the article reference:

Billionaire Stephen Mandel Bought In To Verisign

Lone Pine Capital has recently filed a 13G with the SEC to announce that it has acquired 8.6 million shares of Verisign Inc (NASDAQ:VRSN), the Internet registry service that includes .com domain names. Based on the company’s share count, Lone Pine owns 5.5% of the shares outstanding… His investments have tended to significantly outperform the S&P 500.

Mandel isn’t the only hedge fund manager to take an interest in Verisign…at the end of June John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital reported a position of 6.2 million shares. Griffin was legendary investor Julian Robertson’s second in command before founding Blue Ridge in 1996…

Read the story… | Source: InsideMonkey.com | Date posted: 9/5/2012

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A Dotless Domain Name? Why?

ICANN Security and Stability Advisory CommitteeI ran across a report today put out by ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC). The report is SSAC’s Report on Dotless Domains. In this report, the SSAC stated that dotless domains would not be universally reachable and the SSAC recommended strongly against their use. I couldn’t agree more but my reason for agreeing is not even mentioned in the report.

The SSAC looked at this idea from a technical standpoint. The idea was brought up because of the new gTLD process. A lot of new players in the domain name space began asking why we couldn’t just build domain names without a dot. The report answers many technical reasons why this isn’t feasible today but I’d like to bring up what I think is a more important reason.

The Difference Between The Virtual and Real World

Let’s pretend that technicians figure out a way to make a dotless URL work. I’m sure there is some way to make this possible. Maybe one day they actually will! But the more important question is “Why Should they?” I can think of no practical reason. Dots “.” are a handy way to express the difference between “The Real” and “The Virtual”

Just think about a world where there are no dots. If you said to your friend, “I’m going to Chicago,” he’d have to ask you the clarifying question, “Do you mean Chicago online or the real Chicago?” This simple point is why the question of eliminating dots “.” is silly. The dot doesn’t just play a role in the technology, it plays an important role in everyday communications. I can’t think of a better way to express a virtual location without having to clarify it every time one expresses their intent.

It’s the equivalent of buying a lousy domain name like “NuKarz4U.com.” Think about it. If you sold new cars and had this domain and wanted to run a radio ad, you’d have to spell out and explain that domain name over and over every time you ran an ad. It would go like this:

“Just come and visit New Cars For You.com! That’s spelled N-U-K-A-R-Z-The-Number-four-and-the-letter-U.com. It’s not N-E-W but N-U and not a C but a K and not an S but a Z…”

You get the point.

Eliminating the dot would add further necessary explanation to millions of discussions, around the world, both written and spoken. I suppose that we could go back to always using “www” or “http://” but neither of those do what a single dot “.” (or two) does so eloquently. Let’s not try to fix something that’s not broken.  Thankfully SSAC’s recommendation is right on.  The idea of dotless domain names is a bad one.

Read the report and comments… | Source: ICANN | Date posted: 8/25/2012

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New TLD Infographic

Donuts, Inc, the new TLD applicant that has applied for the most number of new top level domains, has commissioned a fun infographic about new TLDs. Of course it highlights their accomplishments (applying for over 300 new tlds), but it’s also a nice story in pictures of the new TLD landscape. I think that infographics are a great way to bring attention to your products or brand. Take a look below:

View the Full Infographic… | Source: VisualNews.com | Date posted: 7/31/2012

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