Would your Registrar sell your domain name ?

OH YES HE WOULD !

The role of a good Corporate Registrar is to secure your domain names and ensure it works properly.
Now, the security of your domain name does not only rely on your registrar’s tools: automated systems can lock domain names and Registrar’s internal procedures can provide a very good security.


Now: what happens when there is a problem ?

Let’s imagine a domain name is not on auto-renew status and the person in charge for this domain is not familiar with renewal procedures ?
What if renewal alerts are blocked in the SPAM filter ?
What if she is on holidays that day ?
What if she was fired recently ?
What if her position has changed and no one is in charge of domain names anymore ?
What if her email was closed ?
So many “what if” can endanger the security of your domain names.
Domain names do not only rely on systems, they also rely on people.
And what if…

…your registrar doesn’t care about your problems and wants to be paid that day?

Well, that famous day, your Registrar could just “sell” your domain name.
The domain name market is a very lucrative one. According to the number of letters your domain name has, if it is a generic term, how long it has been registered for, what traffic it generates, your domain name can reach a very high price if it is sold in live auctions.


Now: what live auctions have to do with the security of your domain name ?

Companies like Pool.com, Snapnames and many other have deals with Registrars: they have a preferred access to their automated systems to “grab” domain names when they expire so they can sell them during auctions: “These partners offer their expired domains through SnapNames before they are available anywhere else in the public market, giving SnapNames customers exclusive access to some of the highest value—and best priced—domain names on the market.”(Source: https://www.snapnames.com/about_snapnames.jsp)


What does it mean ?


Whatever the legal protection your brand or name has: it does not mean it is secured on Internet. Such partnerships can considerably endanger the security of your domain name because they maximize the risk to have your domain name automatically taken by someone else at its expiration if you forget to renew.

Would your Corporate Registrar sell your domain name ?
Check if he is a partner of these companies: Pool.com – Snapnames (down the page) – List of partnerships

Searching for a real Corporate Registrar ? Have a chat with me.

Algorithmes de recherche et extensions personnalisées

Les "extensions personnalisées" représentent la révolution 2009 en matière de nommage Internet. Aujourd'hui, de nombreuses organisations communiquent avec un nom de domaine en .COM ou en .FR.

A partir de 2009, il sera possible pour ces organisations de prétendre à leur propre extension personnalisée: .SOCIETE et déployer ainsi des noms de domaine de type: http://www.contact.societe, http://france.societe http://www.produit.marque, etc...

Imaginez un « .WINE »: une opportunité exceptionnelle de déployer un projet unique dans l’industrie vinicole. Lancer un tel projet vous installerait au rang de registre, au même niveau que le .COM avec un réseau de distribution déjà existant: les « Registrars ».

Ce serait un projet qui pourrait s’avérer très lucratif si celui-ci est bien conçu : référencement, enchères, régies publicitaires, intérêt de la communauté vinicole mondiale à communiquer « en ligne » derrière une extension qui lui est consacrée…

Un tel projet installerait son promoteur directement au devant de la scène de son industrie.Une position extrêmement avantageuse car, dans le cadre des nouvelles extensions personnalisées, l’organisme de tutelle, l’ICANN, n’autorisera pas de confusion dans l’attribution des extensions et donc…peu de chance de voir se développer de concurrence dans toute industrie qui lancera sa propre extension.

Imaginons maintenant qu’un grand moteur de recherche intègre demain dans son algorithme de recherche la prise en compte de l’extension du nom de domaine ? - rappelons que cette extension n’est pas considérée à ce jour dans la lecture d’une URL lors de l’indexation - Nous entrerions dans une nouvelle ère de qualité des résultats de recherc1he sur Internet.

Chaque site Internet de l’industrie vinicole utilisant une URL propre à cette industrie (ex : www.mon-vignoble.vin) se verrait propulsé de l’avant et déclasserait nombreux de ses concurrents utilisant d’autres extensions.

A ce jour, environ 500 candidats ont manifesté leur intérêt et envisagent un éventuel lancement en Septembre 2009. De 21 extensions génériques (.com .net .org .biz .info ...), nous passerions entre 2009 et 2010 à plus de 500… Avec de nouvelles extensions dédiées à différentes industries, il serait surprenant que ce grand moteur de recherche ne considère pas ces extensions à l’avenir dans la qualité de ses résultats.

Rappelons que l’objectif d’un moteur de recherche « de qualité » est de proposer un résultat en adéquation avec la recherche de l’internaute.

En d’autres termes, cela en revient à se poser la question suivante : qui, mieux que le futur registre mondial du vin, peut proposer une meilleure garantie d’être trouvé dans un moteur de recherche avec des URLs de type www.monvignoble.wine ou www.ma-marque.vin?

Réponse : personne.

Acheter son nom de domaine en .vin (.wine, .vine ou autre) et référencer son site Internet deviendraient « très certainement » les meilleures façons d’être trouvé dans un moteur de recherche mais aussi de se positionner devant des concurrents déjà bien installés avec un .COM, un .FR ou toute autre extension de nom de domaine.

Devons-nous nous attendre à des résultats de recherche fondamentalement différents grâce au lancement des nouvelles extensions ?

Réponse en 2010 !

Who really is your Registrar ?

• Did you know your accredited Registrar – your domain name service provider - can be buying your domain names to another Registrar ?

• Did you know the final Registrar is the one responsible for the technical management of your domain names and not the reseller ?

• Did you know an ICANN accredited Registrar can be a domain name reseller ?

• Did you also know being  ”ICANN accredited” does not automatically imply that your Registrar has the technical hand over your domain names, which means he cannot react if there is a technical failure or any other technical problem ?

So how do I know who my Registrar really is then ?

There is an easy way to guess: use any Whois database and check which name appears after “Registrar:”

The name of the Registrar where your domain names are registered appears then. If it does not correspond to your service provider, it means your Registrar doesn’t have the technical hand over your domain names.

Lets’ take an example with the Registrar “INDOM” :

1. Go to http://www.indom.com  and enter the domain name “indom.com”
2. Click on “free search”
3. Click on the link entitled “owner”
4. The line to ckeck is “Registrar: INDOM”
   

The name of the Registrar for the domain name “indom.com” really is INDOM

Now: try the name of your Registrar and check where it is registered ! Shouldn't it be registered with...him ?

DAG v1

Draft Applicant Guidebook version 1

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-en.htm

Top Level Reserved Names List

The list of extension below will be reserved. Note an application for a gTLD string that is identified as too similar to a Reserved Name will not pass the Reserved Names review.
Reserved extensions are :

(Example: ".RIPE")

AFRINIC
IANA-SERVERS
NRO
ALAC
ICANN
RFC-EDITOR
APNIC
IESG
RIPE
ARIN
IETF
ROOT-SERVERS
ASO
INTERNIC
RSSAC
CCNSO
INVALID
SSAC
EXAMPLE (Reserved in multiple languages)
IRTF
TEST (Reserved in multiple languages)
GAC
ISTF
TLD
GNSO
LACNIC
WHOIS
GTLD-SERVERS
LOCAL
WWW
IAB
LOCALHOST
IANA
NIC

.WINE or .VIN ?

So: “.wine” or “.vin” ?

Who’s going to be the fisrt to launch the .wine?
Want to participate ? Read more on the ICANN participation forum

Should such extension remain in Bordeaux - France: wine’s capital?

Just for Bordeaux, figures are already impressive:
13 000 wine growers,
9 380 vineyards,
400 traders,
160 countries where to export,
130 brokers,
60 cooperatives,
57 AOC,
…and how many brands and famous names...

Now counting worldwide, this is a lot of domain names!

According to the new information available online, the average investment to launch a new TLD is around $500 000 dollars with a non refundable fee of $50 000.

For a price of $20/domain name sold during a Landrush, this represents 25 000 domain names to sell.Did I forget to mention the price of a Sunrise is far higher than a Landrush?And…did I also forget to mention each domain name is to be renewed once a year?
Based on these figures, it should take less than 2 years to reach profitability.

Lucrative isn’t it?

So, is France going to be the first one to INVEST and keep our Cultural “Patrimoine” in the country?

The domain name Far-West with Domain Monster

Sunrise and Landrush are lucrative periods for Registrars. Registering a .ASIA with DOMAIN MONSTER comes with the kind of answers below:

Message sent to Domain Monster support:

Hello, I could not afford to bid more to get guillon.asia so do I get a refund for the price I paid at Domainmonster?

Answer from Domain Monster Customer Services on the 2008/5/23:

Hi Jean
Thank you for choosing Domainmonster.com
We will refund a credit back to you Domainmonster.com account. This will be assigned once we have received confirmation from pool.com, this should be within the next 24 hrs at which point the credit will be assigned on Monday.

If I can assist you further please let me know.
Kind Rgds, Julian
Customer Support, Domainmonster.com
Mesh Digital Ltd

Since I had no feed-back... I asked again and received various answers:

I've checked your order, you place the application on 20/02/08. Orders placed at this time are non-refundable as confirmed at the time of your application.
If a domain does go to auction and you don't wish to bid or don't win the auction you would receive a refund for account credit minus an application fee of €4.99 per domain.

Welcome to the domain name Far-west!

The domain name Far-West with ENCIRCA

I recently received a letter, sent September the 3rd, from the Registrar ENCIRCA who is fighting hard to find reasons not to let me become Registrant of a domain name a purchase with their PRO Forwarding service.

According to the .PRO rule (provided by the registry), you can register a .PRO if you provide credentials. The .PRO Forwarding service provided by the Registrar ENCIRCA allows to by-pass the Registry rule and register .PRO without credentials. A very good idea I have to say and highly tolerated by the .PRO registry.

What I find fantastic in their letter to their customers is their knowledge of how it works “behind the scene”:
“As part of the change, upon each new registration and renewal, the registry will be collecting license information from second-level registrants. However, the Registry will not be verifying the data.”

Isn’t it great to learn you can register a .PRO by-passing the registry’s rules?

Well, if you believe it is still time to register a great .PRO domain name, forget about it. Cyber Squatters already found how to by-pass the rules, thank to ENCIRCA and the registry tolerance. Hit Generic domain names and check by yourself: hotel.pro, sex.pro…And don’t forget, all these Registrants provided credentials to register their domain name according to the Registry.

Welcome to the domain name Far-west!

For you r information I worked at EURid, the .EU registry, during Sunrises and Landrushes.

American domain name embargo on ccTLD

Selecting a Corporate Registrar is a hard thing to do, service, price, ccTLD covered, accreditations, knowledge, information, security… It is even harder if your plan is to have your brand protected in Cuba, Iran or Sudan.

What about the "RIGHT" to register a specific domain name?

According to the United States department of the treasury there are regions American Registrars are not authorized to work with. So what does it mean?

According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/), a brand cannot secure its domain names on the complete range of extensions existing if its Corporate Registrar is American. In its Sanction Programs (http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/regulations/facreg.pdf), the foreign assets control regulations for the corporate registration industry says: "As of October 2004,
OFAC administered and enforced comprehensive sanctions programs involving three countries: Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.

Unless authorized by OFAC, no U.S. individual or entity can do business with individuals or entities (including government institutions) in those countries, or individuals or entities acting for or on behalf of those countries."

OFAC was kind enough to answer my questions:
"If your registrar is a U.S. company, it is subject to the laws of the United States. U.S. sanctions regulations prohibit most financial transactions related to Cuba and Iran, including the registration of domain names. Domain names in Burma and Sudan would be subject to these restrictions as well."

Basically speaking, you cannot secure your online brand in Cuba, Iran, Sudan if your Corporate Registrar is American. Thinking about registering yourbrand.CU, yourbrand.IR or yourbrand.SD?

Well, think twice and…take your time.

.TEL is coming !

And it is a serious hit: A “very” serious HIT in the domain name industry.
For the first time companies and particulars won’t be suggested “just another domain name” they will have to pay interest in. This time .TEL is a tool dedicated to last and to be used.
.TEL is the first opportunity to be “found” online: to have a specific contact page standardized for all. We all received emails to update our information on various web sites, we all have a profile on a web site (MSN, FaceBook, Orkut, LinkedIn…) but no standard exists today to be part of a same directory. .TEL is a solution to this.
I tried the tool myself: http://guillon.vip.tel
It is simple and easy to set up. No html knowledge required or whatsoever: just forms to fill in and menus to enable or not services.
I believe particulars will start to have a high interest in .TEL. What about Corporations:

• A unique entry point to contact Corporations: no more contact page to search for on corporation web site but a simple link to the .TEL Url
• A fantastic to synchronize address books directly at the Registry!
• Géo-localization when necessary
• More audience and traffic to your web Site: one more back link
• Access to a worldwide directory and once again “standardized” for a better comprehension

.TEL is a revolution: don’t miss it ;-)

Pre-Registered Attendees | Paris 2008

Pre-Registered Attendees Paris 2008

Auction daily inventory of expired domain

More and more Registrars announce partnership to sell expired domain names. To understand how it works, the Registrant (owner) can decide not to renew his domain name. In this case, it will expire and then, it will go for auctions if his Registrar has settled a partnership. Anyone interested to buy the domain will have to bid.

It does not mean someone will buy the domain at a higher price at all: it is another solution for the Registrar to sell the domain name to someone else and make money instead of just dropping the domain.

Of course, this is more money for the (accredited) Registrar but what is not said here is: what happens when the Registrant forgets to renew his domain name?

I believe the best quality service a registrar can offer is to provide his client “the best service”. What if I am a corporate client with hundreds of domains to manage and, for organization reasons, I can’t auto-renew my domain names?

Well: it becomes here a very risky situation to trust an accredited Registrar who is going to sell my domain name if I forget to renew it, isn’t it?

What it means is: when it comes to renewing your 300 domains and you’re not there that day, most of them can probably be renewed the next day but there’s a chance you will lose one or two in the list.

Think about it

No IPv4 left in 2011

Today, 85% of these IPv4 addresses are in use.
There should be no left by 2011. It is time to move to IPv6.

Read full OECD report here (PDF)

Landrush Period ?

A "Landrush period” is not a Landrush anymore

Previously, participating in a Landrush period offered the possibility to acquire a domain name with no prior right. Landrush was a “Go Live”; the right period to claim a domain name and be the only one to acquire it following the “first come fist served” rule. It is still the case but…

The launching of .ASIA seems to have changed this simple rule. Today, there is a huge difference between a Landrush period and a “Go Live” (also called “open registration”).

These confusing terms for the Registrant with no knowledge increase the risk to just…lose a domain name. Here is a brief description of these different periods:

A “Sunrise period”: Need of a prior right to claim the domain name (registered company, brand, etc…)

A “Landrush period”: Open to anyone with no prior right but your domain goes to auctions if at least 2 persons ask for the same domain name.

“Go live”: Open registration following the “first come fist served” rule.

So: should I participate to a Landrush period?

When acting to register your domain name during a Landrush, you also inform your competitors there is an interest in a specific domain name: if one tries to register this domain name, your domain goes to auction and the richest bidder gets the domain.

When not acting during the Landrush, you take the risk to lose your domain name to anyone faster than you during “Go Live”.

My suggestion would be to participate in Sunrise if you have a prior right. If you have a budget but no prior right, register during Landrush. If you have no budget: there are 2 options:
Search for a good Registrar with few clients who will send his list of requests as soon as Go Live period starts ( a large registrar will have a longer list).

Search for several Registrars and register with more than one to increase your chances to get the domain.

You have been outbid for guillon.asia

Guillon.asia is on Pool.com for auction.

Today I received the mail below:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Domain Name: guillon.asiaCurrent Price: $20.00 USDClose Date: 15 May 2008 18:05 GMT
Don't miss out on this domain name! You have been outbid for the domain guillon.asia.

If you want to obtain this domain, please update your Max Bid by logging into your account at:
https://dotasia.pool.com/MyAccount/auctions.aspx
------------------------------------------------------------------
What a pleasant surprise to read my family name has value.

Now If price is $20, I guess I could afford to pay $30 to acquire it. Bidding and bidding again the price is now $160 ! I quit. I wonder who can afford to pay $150 for guillon.asia when I am the owner of guillon.com. Let's...wait and see.

The interesting thing about auctions is that it does increase the value of the existing .COM

Melbourne IT acquires Verisign

When the giant comes out.

I like to comment news about he domain name industry and here is an interesting one: I worked for one of Verisign and Melbourne IT's direct competitor.

Large Corporate registrars tend to open their knowledge to the brand itself (with monitoring for instance and other complementary products): isn't the domain name the first entry point to introduce your brand online? Large Coporations have understood such a need to link domain name to brand management: it is easier, it faster, it reduces the number of contacts to deal with at the service provider.

Verisign was one of the first Corporate Registrar to come with a complete offer. Today is "rare" to find serious Coporate Registrars who are able to manage domain name portfolios. With the knowledge I have of the Corporate market: Melbourne IT was a competitor at the time I worked for a Corporate registrar and so was Verisign DBMS. Today, it is a serious one.

.ENG Top-Level Domain

We heard about .SCO for Scotland, .CYM for Wales, now comes .ENG for England!

It is here

Netsol front running still ?

I must have misunderstood what front running is:

Go to http://www.networksolutions.com

Enter any non already registered domain name and click "search"

Hit "back" in your browser

Read the message (...)

What if you click "OK"?

Isn't this "front running" ?

Use a consultant ?

The average domain name portfolio manager starts with a few domain names.

With long procedures, it is important to learn how to manage a domain name portfolio. Providing consulting for important corporations with very large portfolios, I found out administrators all have that same problem: they are given the task to deal with domain names and it sometimes take them more than 70% of their time !

Not only it is time consuming but it also cost A LOT to the company.

Tasting Google

Following the recent decision of Google to stop monetizing domains less than five days old, it is interesting to wonder if its competitors are going to do the same or...if they are going to promote themselves.

The ethic at Google is very important: the job is to improve the use of Internet but more than anything: improve the quality of its content. By stopping the monetization of domain tasting, Google follows its ethic and kills the ability to publish crap content which you will probably find many time when hitting almost anything on Google. What I qualify as "crap content" are these pages with multiple links which only purpose is to generate "one more click" for its owners to earn a few cents.No adsense on crap content anymore?

Good point Google. Everyone doesn't have ethic... What I would like to know is how much crap content publishers are going to loose because of such decision. What is nice is that you will probably click less to find what you are looking for.

.ME

.ME is an interesting concept: it is short, it is about the average user who wants to blog or have his personal web site. Godaddy should sell it and contribute to Montenegro development. Did I say Montenegro?

Does the average blogger know where Montenegro is or is it about selling a cool TLD to the internet user who wants to have a personalized domain name? I remember .NAME was supposed to offer this: “a cool domain name to come with my family name so I can leave a little something to my kids”.

.TV was a success; I sincerely hope .ME will bring something to the people of Montenegro.
I believe next step is Cap Verde, right?

Domain Name Front Running

Netsol is a strange Registrar...

I registered my very first domain name with them. I also discourage front-running of course. I won't be buying there anymore. But is it the worth you can say about these practices? Isn't front-running qualifying Netsol as a domainer?

Well...you want to be scared about bad practices?

Have a look here and come back with your questions

Pool.com

.ASIA is coming!

.ASIA is working hand in hand with Pool.com for auctions

Remember what happened in Landrush 2 at EURid, when pool.com was holding auctions of domains they snagged?

Do you remember how many domains Pool.com snagged?

Good luck with your domains during .ASIA Landrush...

.TEL & .MOBI

.TEL is coming!
I had a discussion with my collegue Nico a few days ago about .TEL. At the time I met Phil Colebrook in London, I thought these people were coming with something new. I still think so. I love the idea to be "reachable" anytime. TELNIC offers this with .TEL.
My friend Nico thinks .MOBI will adapt the .TEL concept to .MOBI. I think they wont. I have to admit I am scared they would. .TEL is a great idea with a high potential.