Wednesday, April 27, 2011

SITER : an interesting concept

I already use a .TEL domain name but checking ICANN’ silver sponsors, I found this new logo I had never heard of before and the tool it is promoting : SITER.

I registered my domain name (it is free).

The idea is to «make phone calls using a website address instead of a phone number”. I must admit the idea is good because, if I am not sure my friends remember Guillon.com, I am certain about one thing : is always very painful to have a service provider on the phone when he doesn’t publish a telephone number on his web site (or on the yellow pages).

Let’s take an example

I want to call SFR (my French mobile service provider), what do I do ?
  • I remember their phone number. Do you know your mobile service provider’s phone number ? I don’t. 
  • I go to the yellow pages and hit SFR for Paris ? Well just try it… 
  • I go on their web site so I enter “sfr.fr”, then I click on “contact”, then I find a phone number. 
I must admit dialing sfr.fr on my mobile could be much faster.

Would SITER be the solution ?

Let’s download their application and wait for a few years : www.siter.com

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Changes I noticed from DAGv5 to DAGv6

1.1.2.1 Application submission period
The application submission period is expected to last for 60 days.

1.1.2.2 Administrative Completeness Check
ICANN will post the public portions of all applications considered complete and ready for evaluation within two weeks of the close of the application submission period.

1.1.2.3 Comment Period
Comments received within a 60 day period from the posting of the application materials will be available to the evaluation panels performing the Initial Evaluation reviews.

Comments received after the 60 day period will be stored and available for other considerations, such as the dispute resolution process.

1.1.2.4 GAG early warning
Concurrent with the 60 day comment period, ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) may issue a GAC Early Warning notice concerning an application.

1.1.2.6 Objection filling
The objection filing period will open after ICANN posts the list of complete applications as described in subsection 1.1.2.2, and will last for approximately 7 months (INSTEAD OF 5 ½).

1.1.3 Lyfecycle timelines
Based on the estimates for each stage described in this section, the lifecycle for a straightforward application could be approximately 9 months (INSTEAD OF 8).

The lifecycle for a highly complex application could be much longer, such as 20 months (INSTEAD OF 19).

1.2.2 Required documents (Community endorsements)
Written endorsements from individuals need not be submitted with the application, but may be submitted in the application comment forum.

1.5.1 gTLD Evaluation fee
Refund available to applicant: 80% within 21 days of a GAC Early Warning: USD 148,000 can be recovered

Attachment to module 2 III 18 c IV
Will you impose any constraints on parked sites, or sites that offer only advertising?

Demonstration of Financial Capability (Question 45)
The financial statements should be for the legal entity listed as the applicant, not a partner or parent company. Notes to the financial statements and annual reports or equivalent will not be reviewed.

TRADEMARK CLEARINGHOUSE

6 Trademark Claims
6.1.1 New gTLD Registry Operators must provide Trademark Claims services during an initial launch period for marks in the Trademark Clearinghouse. This launch period must occur for at least the first 60 days that registration is open for general registration.

8 Cost of Clearinghouse
Trademark holders will pay to register the Clearinghouse, and registries will pay for Trademark Claims and Sunrise services. Registrars and others who avail themselves of Clearinghouse services will pay the Clearinghouse directly.

URS - 9 Determination
9.6 To conduct URS proceedings on an expedited basis, examination should begin immediately upon the earlier of the expiration of a fourteen (14) day (INSTEAD OF 20) Response period, (or extended period if granted), or upon the submission of the Response. A Determination shall be rendered on an expedited basis, with the stated goal that it be rendered within three (3) business days from when Examination began.
Absent extraordinary circumstances, however, Determinations must be issued no later
than five (5) days after the Response is filed (INSTEAD of 14).

Monday, April 18, 2011

.XXX works now.

.XXX is in the root and works properly, see :

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Draft Applicant Guidebook version 6

This guidebook is open for comments during 30 days.

To participate, use the  "comment" links

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Le .VIN dans la presse

C'est toujours un plaisir d'être cité dans la presse.

Un grand merci à L'Entreprise.com

.CALIFORNIA Top-Level Domain

A domain name extension for the US State of California.

Reasons explained to go for such a Top-Level Domain are to me good enough to register a .california domain name.

Even if it is difficult to say that Google will better index such domains - because content of the web site would be related to the "california" keyword" also present in the domain name - the benefit of showing "california" in the URL in your Google search results is of great value for the consumer.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

.CYMRU (instead of .CYM)

As announced in november 2010, I realized .CYM was listed in ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 list. This code was reserved for the Cayman Islands and could not, according to the draft applicant guidebook, be used as a string for the the Welsh cultural and linguistic community.

According to dotcym.org : "The top-level domain for the Welsh community will be .cymru". Reasons for this decision are explained here.

Note : Registries.tel has been updated

GAC comments on the ICANN Board’s response to the GAC Scorecard

Document is available in PDF format here - dated 12 April 2011.
22 more pages to read :-)

ICANN Board notes on the GAC new gTLDs scorecard (to be read first) - dated 4 March 2011.

These comments follow the final applicant guidebook timeline provided as a draft for final decision to launch new gTLDs in Singapore.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

There will be no www.france.BRAND

If you are thinking of a www.germany.brand or a www.españa.brand ? Well…think twice.

Large corporations see in new generic Top-Level Domains a good way to kill cybersquatting of their domain names in the next 5 to 10 years. Once used to it, users and future generations may remember that a domain name for a company like HITACHI ends in .HITACHI instead of .COM (or .JP).

Acquiring its domain for a brand is interesting because it guarantees you won’t have to fight and waste time to acquire a domain name : you own all of them from the beginning and you need no one’s permission to register a whatever.brand.
Also, there won’t be a need anymore to register your brand’s country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) in the country where you are located (ex : whatever.fr for France, whatever.us for the Unites States of America, etc…)
Yes : all domain will be yours when you acquire your own Top-Level Domain.

At least, it is what brands think but it is not true : registering a italiy.brand will just not be allowed.

According to specification 5 of the new gTLD agreement, “the country and territory names contained in the following internationally recognized lists shall be initially reserved at the second level and at all other levels”. It simply means that country and territory names will not be available for registration in all new domain name’s extensions.

Recognized lists are :

  • The English short form of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list ;
  • The table of country names from the technical reference manual for the standardization of geographical names maintained by the United Nations group of experts on geographical names (page 185) ;
  • The list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the working group on country names of the United Nations’ conference on the standardization of geographical names.

.BRAND new gTLD Reports are updated once a month: CLICK HERE !