NEW YORK, NY – Although many had hoped it wouldn’t happen, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the company behind the registration and creation of .COM domain names, has been given the virtual green light by the US Government to raise the price of .com domain names by 7% in each of the last four years of a six-year incremental contract. Late Thursday, news broke that the “Cooperative Agreement”, an agreement between the National Telecommunications and Information Administration … [Read more...]
Pay-One-Price Domain Names? Imagine Registering Your Domain Name “Forever”
NEW YORK, NY - During the 63rd International Public Meeting of global domain industry regulator, ICANN (between October 20-25, 2018) in Barcelona, Epik’s Rob Monster discusses “Forever Domains”, a registration service made available by Seattle-based Epik which allows a domain registrant to not 'lease' a domain by the year, or the generally available maximum of 10 years, but to "own" a domain name, indefinitely. The interview was conducted by Filip Borcov of Website Builder … [Read more...]
Will .COM Domains Get More Expensive with Expiration of “Cooperative Agreement”?
LONG ISLAND, NY – The “Cooperative Agreement” between NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration ) and Verisign includes a price-cap on .com domain names, however, this agreement must be renewed by November 30, 2018. This means that sometime very soon the price you pay for all of your .com domain registrations and their renewals may be raised, and there is no telling how much this increase might be. The NTIA, an agency of the U.S. Department … [Read more...]
Donuts Acquisition of BudURL Makes Good Use of New Top Level Domain Names
NEW YORK, NY – Donuts Inc, the company behind hundreds of new domain name extensions has acquired a link shortening service formally known as BudURL, and rebranded it as BL.INK. The service had been around for ten years and was founded by Andy Meadows. The acquisition took place sometime in 2017 according to a company press release, yet Donuts had been operating it in “stealth mode” quietly building in key features which will enhance the services ability to customize URLs … [Read more...]
Uh Oh: 400,000 Less gTLD Registrations First Quarter of 2018, Vs Previous Quarter
NEW YORK – New gTLD proponents will be less than excited to learn that according to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, new gTLD domain registrations, despite there being more awareness :) and more names available for registration, such extensions experienced a decline of 400,000 registrations or loss of 2% within the first Quarter of 2018 (Q1) when compared to the last Quarter of 2017 (Q4). Verisign creates these industry briefs to include quarter-over-quarter … [Read more...]
Is Dominion Registries Having Trouble Selling Their New Alternative Dots?
NEW YORK - According to a press release by Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, the company is removing a long list of previously implemented registrant eligibility verification restrictions for its new gTLD industry-specific domain extensions which consist of .AUTOS, .BOATS, .HOMES, .MOTORCYCLES and .YACHTS. The changes will be made this year, beginning first with .BOATS, which is now available to anyone at all, for just about any reason, defined … [Read more...]
Removing WhoIs Data from Public View Only Removes Transparency from the Net
NEW YORK – There has been no shortage of Data Privacy Leaks in the world; it almost seems like there is a new one every day. However, removing the public registration data behind all domain name registrations makes no-one any safer, and only adds more obscurity and complications to the business for those who buy, sell and trade online, and not just in domains. It’s more a solution that’s looking far-and-wide for its problem. For instance, when someone registers a domain … [Read more...]
