Google Wants You to Share Your Knowledge With a .How Domain - Google today released a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) ending to the world. It’s simply .how.The search giant’s aim in offering the newest URL extension in the growing Google Registry is simple: To offer businesses and individuals a more direct, interesting way to share content that teaches people how to do something.With 130 million URLs falling into .com territory, .how offers companies and entrepreneurs a unique way to stand out from the competition. “The Internet is ... read more ...

The DNA.org Global Domain Name Preferences Survey: 85% Type Domains … -         The DNA.org, a trade association whose members include new gTLD registries, domain name registrars and consultants to the industry (Disclaimer a company I’m a Director of RightoftheDot.com is a member of the DNA) released the results of a poll conducted by  Research Now a a global firm headquartered in the U.S., the Global Domain Name Preferences Survey. This Domain Name Preference study was conducted during the period of October – November 2014 in 10 countries and had over 5,000 ... read more ...

Donuts Marks One Year of New gTLD Availability with More Than 12 Million … - BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Donuts Inc., the world's largest registry for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), marked the one-year anniversary of general availability of new Internet identities today, reporting that its 150 live gTLDs are home to more than 1.2 million registrations, accounting for nearly one third of the four million total names registered across all new gTLDs. The company, which expects eventually to run approximately 200 gTLDs, said it currently ... read more ...

My Top Picks From The RightoftheDot.com Extended Auction From Namescon - The RightoftheDot.com extended auction from the Namescom conference is running on Snapnames.com and closed out on Thursday at 3:15pm EST according to the normal closing rules for Snapnames.com As of publication 19 domain names have bids. Here are my favorite domain names in the auction;  Those I think are the best buys: Photographers.com Its a category killer A Huge category with 10,200,000 results on Google for the term. This is a developed website and all content is available for purchase as well. The ... read more ...

The Largest New gTLD Registry Operator – Donuts – Reaches Their 1st … - Donuts CEO and Co-Founder Paul Stahura said, "We’ve built a foundation to create vibrant online communities that drive commerce, ... read more ...

1st Day New gTLD Totals .Space 1784; .Band 776: .Rip 348; .How 250; .Ryukyu … - Five new gTLD’s had their first day of general availability (GA) yesterday. Here the total number of domain registrations after the first day. These total include all domains registered in Sunrise by trademark holders as well as any domains registered during an Early Access Program or Landrush where people paid extra money to get early access to domain registrations: .Space 1,784 .Band 776 .Rip 348 .How 250 .Ryukyu 143 The purpose of .ryukyu is to promote Okinawa and spread to the world Okinawa ... read more ...

Howard Lefkowitz Shares Insight About His New Company - Howard Lefkowitz is something of an icon in Las Vegas. As the former CEO of Vegas.com, Lefkowitz has tremendous experience building and managing a great brand, and he has a massive rolodex of contacts in Las Vegas and in the travel industry. While attending NamesCon, I had the opportunity to have dinner with Lefkowitz, and we chatted about his new company, One Degree World. To me, one of the most interesting aspects of this travel technology company is that it is in the process of launching ... read more ...

Donuts Win Another New gTLD .Express Beating Out Express.com: No ICANN … - Donuts has won yet another new gTLD string ahead winning .Express. The only other applicant was submitted by Express.com who has now withdrawn their application. This domain was scheduled for an ICANN Last Resort Auction. There are now 11 new gTLD scheduled to go to an ICANN in February and 19 more for March. As things have been going the vast majority of these will be settle ahead of time by private auction while some contention groups will ask and receive an extension. Several contention sets that ... read more ...

ICANN CEO Fadi Bites The Hand That Feeds It Calling out Those “Hogging … - Fadi Chehade, CEO of ICANN, in a story published by the HuffingtonPost.com, which also contains a video interview with Fadi at World Economic Forum in Davos, explaining how we “went from twenty-something” top domain names to hundreds” throws large domain investors under the bus and then backs up the bus and rolls over them again calling them Cybersquatters. In respond to a questions regarding “land grabs” in the new domain extension Fadi said: “The reality is, the more there are names ... read more ...

Donuts Wins The Rights To Operate The New gTLD .Cafe Beating Out Co. That … - Donuts has picked up another new gTLD extension winning the rights to .Cafe, beating out Punto 2012 the registry that runs .Bar and .Rest. The new gTLD string .Cafe was scheduled to go to the ICANN Last Resort auction later this Month. Other new gTLD’s that touch .cafe include .Restaurant, which is operated by Donuts .Eat was applied for by Google .Food is in contention by three parties .Rest one of the two strings owned by Punto 2012 and is meant to be a shortener for .Restaurant   ... read more ...

Afilias Wins The .Bet new gTLD Beating Donuts, Famous Four & UK Gambling … - The new gTLD .Bet has been settled in what we can only guess was a private auction won by Afilias. Afilias won the rights to operate the new Top Level Domain beating out two big portfolio applicants Donuts and Famous Four Media as well as Ladbrokes a publicly traded  British based gaming company. According to Afilias  application with ICANN they expect to have 21K .Bet domain registrations by the end of year three. .Bet was set to be resolved later this month in the ICANN Last Resort Auction. Here ... read more ...

ICANN: Our Top 3 Policy Priorities for 2015 - 2014 was a big year for us and for our clients. The new gTLD program forced us to rethink, reprioritize and implement new and different strategies to protect our brands online. The uncertainty largely behind us, and with more information at our fingertips about just how well (or not) brands are faring in the new environment, it's time to look forward to what we can do in 2015 to fix what's broken, throw away what's useless, fight for what's important and generally continue to try and make navigating ... read more ...

.Global Registry Offering A $25 Cash Back Rebate, But just for 8 Days - The .Global new gTLD registry just launched a cash back program to give people who register 10 or more .Global Domain names a cash back bonus of $25 per domain. “This is a limited time offer only available between Friday 23th of January and Saturday 31st of January.” For details on how to apply for the cashback, please click here. It doesn’t matter which registrar that sells .global registrations you use to get the cash back bonus. The $25 per domain will be sent by the registry to your paypal ... read more ...

My Opinion: Donuts Is Not Helping Itself By Attacking .Com - Raymond Hackney just published a story on the Thedomains.com based on a blog post published on Donuts.co corporate site, which you can read here. I have written about Donuts attacking .Com to sell their own new gTLD’s before and even discussed it in our 2014 year recap. I think its a bad move. First of all its false. In 2014 .Com grew by some 3.3 million domains  which is slightly less than the total number of new gTLD registration but is more than the number of paid third party new gTLD registrations. .Com ... read more ...

1st Day New gTLD Totals: .Vlaanderen 3880; .Brussels 3742; .Forsale 2197 - Three new gTLD’s went into general availability (GA) yesterday where they could be registered on a first come, first served basis. Here are the totals after the first day of GA. The totals include all domain names registered by trademark holders in the Sunrise Period and those who paid an extra fee to get early access in a landrush period or in an Early Access Program (EAP). Any domain that received more than one landrush application for the two Geographic extensions (.Vlaanderen; .Brussels) ... read more ...

GAC Geographic Protections Would Lead To Uncertainty, Inconsistent with … - GAC Geographic Protections Would Lead To Uncertainty, Inconsistent with Current Law By Joseph WrightJan. 6 — Increased protections for geographic names would create too much uncertainty for future generic top-level domain (gTLD) applicants, according to multiple comments received on a Governmental Advisory Committee subgroup proposal.The proposed protection of a broader swath of geographic names also contravenes established international ... read more ...

New Gtld Resource Site Registered.Today is For Sale - Gtld.Link is a new forum that focuses strictly on the new gtlds, I just joined a couple nights ago. While I was going through the names for sale listings, I came across a listing for Registered.Today. I have no affiliation with Registered.today, no advertising relationships etc… I just thought it worth a mention for someone active in the new gtld field to check it out, I have found the website useful. ... read more ...

Donuts Beats Google, Amazon, Dish Network, Radix, Famous Four To .Movie … - Donuts has won the rights to operate the new gTLD .Movie beating out 7 other applicants including publicly traded Google, Amazon, and  Dish Network. .Movie was the last new gTLD scheduled to go to the ICANN last resort auction in January and was apparently settled by private auction. The other applicants that have now withdrawn their applications for .Movie were Radix, Famous Four, ARI Registry Services, and NU Dot Co LLC,  the company that sold the .Co registry to Neustar for $109 million dollars. As ... read more ...

NamesCon Auction This Afternoon - As you’ve likely heard by now, NamesCon will be conducting its first domain name auction later on this afternoon. The auction was organized by Right of the Dot (ROTD), and there is a big focus on the new gTLD domain names. Just about every time I’ve seen ROTD founders Monte Cahn and Mike Berkens at NamesCon, the duo seem to be huddling together over a laptop, most likely working on the auction. I am most curious to see how the bidding goes on the new gTLD domain names. Although I have ... read more ...

Confusion, fear and growing pains: ICANN bigwig spells out gTLD headaches - It's not easy being global DNS overseer ICANN right now. The addition of hundreds of new generic top-level domains – gTLDs from .book to .ninja – has been an operational headache; the transition of the key IANA contract is put it under an unfavorable spotlight; and a recent hack of its staff admin systems has raised questions over its technical competence. But everything is fine, and terrible, ... read more ...

Opening Day Photos and Highlights from the 2nd Annual NamesCon … - The 2015 NamesCon conference got underway Sunday (Jan. 11) at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas with a day christened Domainfest at Namescon following the show's ... read more ...

Go Only for Big Bang gTLD Rebranding - If you're considering rebranding under a new gTLD, go with a comprehensive big bang. A recent study by professors Dale Miller, Bill Merrilees, and Raisa Yakimova ("Corporate Rebranding: An Integrative Review of Major Enablers and Barriers to the Rebranding Process”) finds that success comes when senior management makes an unweaving commitment based on proactive analyses of the entire value-chain, with buy-in and input from employees and suppliers. Rebranding companies should not ignore the ... read more ...

Congress Will Oversight ICANN: And You Can Take That to the Bank - Therefore, I wish to call for the establishment of such a new body that will work in cooperation with the NTIA to exercise supervisory responsibilities over ICANN. Even though the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) plays a very important role in the global Internet ecosystem, its activities are not frequently mentioned in the mainstream international media; that is, until ICANN's name is mentioned alongside that of the US Congress in a US$1.1 trillion Omnibus spending ... read more ...

NamesCon: Spotlight on Radix - NamesCon is less than one week away, and today we have an interview with NamesCon sponsor, Radix, one of the largest participants in the new gTLD program. NamesCon will be held from January 11-14, 2015 at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are now over 750 registered conference attendees, and over 800 people are expected to attend this event. If you have any questions or comments for Radix, please post them in the comment section below. Can you tell us about your company and ... read more ...