Sunday, December 30, 2018

Happy New Year! Latest new gTLD reports are dated 30 December 2018!

We are happy to announce the last new gTLD reports from the year 2018. A happy New Year to all! We'll return with the next update of these reports on January the 30th, 2019.

  1. NEW - New gTLDs related to POLITICS (.gop - .vote - .republican - .democrat - etc...);
  2. New gTLDs related to LUXURY (.rich - .yachts - .chanel - etc...);
  3. New gTLDs related to the MUSIC community (.music - .band - .hiphop - etc...);
  4. Multiple Registries : Registries operating five and more domain name extensions;
  5. Singular VS Plural versions of a new gTLD : these are domain name extensions which exist in their singular and plural version (ie: .gift and .gifts);
  6. New gTLDs related to CATERING (.restaurant - .kitchen - .bar - etc...);
  7. New gTLDs related to PHOTOGRAPHY (.photo - .film - .gallery - etc...);
  8. New gTLDs related to CITIES : these are city names only (.london - .tokyo - etc...);
  9. New gTLDs related to COMPANIES : new domain name extensions that we believe a company should keep its eyes on;
  10. New gTLDs related to the LAW and LEGAL matters (.legal - .attorney - .lawyer - etc...);
  11. New gTLDs related to FINANCE (.credit - .capital - .finance - etc...);
  12. New gTLDs related to a COLOR (.orange - .pink - .green - etc...);
  13. New gTLDs related to SPORTS (.hockey - .basketball - .ski - etc...);
  14. New gTLDs related to ALCOHOL (.beer - .wine - .vodka - etc...);
  15. New gTLDs related to REAL ESTATE (.realestate - .realtor - .villas - etc...);
  16. FRENCH new gTLD applications : applications submitted by French companies only;
  17. New gTLDs related to RELIGION (.catholic - .bible - .church - etc...);
  18. New gTLDs related to CARS (.taxi - .auto - .car - etc...);
  19. New gTLDs related to HEALTH (.health - .doctor - .hospital - etc...);
  20. New gTLDs related to ADULTS (no comment).

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Merry Christmas !


Thursday, December 13, 2018

2 new Sunrise Periods: .DEV and .INC

The Trademark Clearinghouse just announced two new Sunrise Periods:
  1. The .DEV new gTLD, a secure domain (by Google) for developers and technology:
    1. Sunrise Period START: Wednesday, 16 January, 2019 - 16:00
    2. Sunrise Period END: Tuesday, 19 February, 2019 - 16:00
  2. The .INC new gTLD, for businesses:
    1. Sunrise Period START: Wednesday, 16 January, 2019 - 16:00
    2. Sunrise Period END: Tuesday, 20 February, 2019 - 16:00

Check the Trademark Clearinghouse calendar for more.

NB: the .FAN new gTLD opens to all today.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

New gTLDs: the Newsletter

New gTLDs "only": the "new gTLDs Newsletter" informs on Important ICANN announcements related to new generic Top-Level Domains; reports on registries' domain name registration volumes; collects and points to articles of interest about new gTLDs, lists new gTLD conferences and other meetings; alerts about Sunrise Periods and other Trademark Clearinghouse announcements and events; explains major players' moves; points to upcoming new gTLD projects and updates on Round 2 of the ICANN new gTLD program; updates on domain name registration volumes in which companies should secure their names (newsletter only), and more.

Follow www.newsletter.domains (a redirection to the new gTLD Club) and subscribe.

Monday, December 10, 2018

How city name new gTLDs are growing

There are 38 cities worldwide to have applied for their own domain name extension, some submitted more than one application to shorten their string and one city submitted two applications for the same name but in two different languages. This is an analysis of the November/December 2018 report with volumes of domain names registered for each city extensions. I strongly suggest to check the full report to have access to all volumes of domain names registered in the end of this publication:
  • There are 44 new gTLDs dedicated to cities in total;
  • Four cities submitted two applications:
    • One for the exact city name and the other for a shortened name:
      • The city of Barcelona went for .BARCELONA and .BCN
      • The city of Istanbul went for .ISTANBUL and .IST
    • One for the ASCII version of its name and the other for its IDN version:
      • The city of Moscow went for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА (IDN)
    • One for its name in french and the other in the language of its country:
      • The city of Koeln went for .COLOGNE and .KOELN
  • There are:
    • Four applications for USA city names only;
    • Six applications for Japanese cities;
    • and Seventeen European applications.
  • The .ABUDHABI started to create domain names in July and is one an interesting (and positive) learning curve. It now has 512 domains registered.
  • Two city new gTLDs with more than 1,000 registrations kept growing month after month since January 2018: .TOKYO and .BOSTON (it means that volumes of domain names registered from a month to the other kept increasing);
  • The .LONDON new gTLD lost more than 10,000 registrations in one month;
  • Since January 2018;
    • The .TOKYO new gTLD gained 30,000 new domain name registrations;
    • The .NYC gained a little more than 200, the same as .BRUSSELS;
    • The .TAIPEI lost half of its initial volume of domains registered.
  • On the list of 44 extensions, 15 city names in total have more domain names registered in November the 30th than what they had in January: that's not even half.
  • The .TOURS Top-Level domain was not created by the French city of Tours but it remains the name of a city. It is possible that there are many more in the full list of new gTLDs;
  • Three extensions kept loosing registrations (almost) all year long: .MELBOURNE - .SYDNEY and .TAIPEI
  • The .CITY and .TOWN Top-Level Domains have lost registrations since January 2018.
  • Three cities have registered one single domain name since they were delegated: .BCN (for Barcelona) - .HELSINKY and .BUDAPEST
  • The first geographic TLD to have terminated its application is recent, it is the .DOHA Top-Level Domain for the city of the same name (November 2018).
Read the full report (also available in French).

Friday, December 7, 2018

New gTLD registrations: a 7.5 % increase

According to the Verisign report, total new gTLD (ngTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 23.4 million at the end of the third quarter of 2018, an increase of approximately 1.6 million domain name registrations, or 7.5 percent, compared to the second quarter of 2018. ngTLDs increased by approximately 2.3 million
domain name registrations, or 10.9 percent, year over year.

I strongly recommend to read the 2 sections after in the report:
  1. NEW gTLDs AS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL TLDs;
  2. GEOGRAPHICAL NEW gTLDs AS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL CORRESPONDING GEOGRAPHICAL TLDs.
Thank you so much Verisign for demonstrating that the use of new domain names is increasing ;-)

Download the Verisign report (PDF download).

Thursday, December 6, 2018

New gTLD registration volumes on the rise?

New gTLD reports are monthly captures of domain name registration volumes according to specific groups, businesses or industries. On the last day of each month, we capture these registration numbers so our readers can see if these increase or decrease. This method is a good way to see if these domain names meet adoption by consumers or not.these are the figures from November the 30th:
  1. New gTLDs related to POLITICS (.gop - .vote - .republican - .democrat - etc...);
  2. Multiple Registries : registries operating five and more domain name extensions;
  3. New gTLDs related to the MUSIC community (.music - .band - .hiphop - etc...);
  4. New gTLDs related to LUXURY (.rich - .yachts - .chanel - etc...);
  5. New gTLDs related to CATERING (.restaurant - .kitchen - .bar - etc...);
  6. New gTLDs related to PHOTOGRAPHY (.photo - .film - .gallery - etc...);
  7. New gTLDs related to CITIES : these are city names only (.paris - .tokyo - etc...);
  8. New gTLDs related to COMPANIES : new domain name extensions that we believe a company should keep its eyes on;
  9. New gTLDs related to the LAW and LEGAL matters (.legal - .attorney - .lawyer - etc...);
  10. New gTLDs related to FINANCE (.credit - .capital - .finance - etc...);
  11. New gTLDs related to a COLOR (.orange - .pink - .green - etc...);
  12. New gTLDs related to SPORT (.hockey - .basketball - .ski - etc...);
  13. New gTLDs related to ALCOHOL (.beer - .wine - .vodka - etc...);
  14. New gTLDs related to REAL ESTATE (.realestate - .realtor - .villas - etc...);
  15. Singular VS Plural versions of a new gTLD : these are domain name extensions which exist in their singular and plural version (ie: .gift and .gifts);
  16. FRENCH new gTLD applications : applications submitted by French companies only;
  17. New gTLDs related to RELIGION (.catholic - .bible - .church - etc...);
  18. New gTLDs related to CARS (.taxi - .auto - .car - etc...);
  19. New gTLDs related to HEALTH (.health - .doctor - .hospital - etc...);
  20. New gTLDs related to ADULTS (no comment).

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

New gTLDs: IDN Homographic Attacks

I already wrote about the increasing problem of IDN homograph attacks and made a parallel with .BRAND new gTLDs; but this is a "must watch" interview with ICANN’s Andrew McConachie, Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) Chair and Rod Rasmussen discussing the use of Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) homographic attacks.


This problem is not a new one, but the number of these attacks...is increasing with new gTLDs. Banks and other sensitive businesses can considerably reduce the risk of these attacks when operating their own domain name extension: not because they will be able to better control the Top-Level Domain, but just because they will be able to control who registers domain names.

Friday, November 30, 2018

The .AMAZON new gTLD negotiation

Let's just be factual about the .AMAZON negotiation between ICANN (and its representatives) and the Secretary General of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO):
  1. Things were doing "better" after Amazon had offered "Kindles" and other services to the South American Government: the status of the .AMAZON new gTLD had even been changed to "Evaluation Complete": not "delegated" but "completed". In simple words: it was not a definite "no" but a "probably yes";
  2. On the 26 of November, the ACTO wrote to the ICANN (PDF download) expressing concern on how the situation is being solved and the letter says:
    1. You don't answer our questions;
    2. We've not been consulted or have endorsed your proposal;
    3. Let's postpone our meeting (in a previous letter dated 22 of November).
  3. The ICANN CEO wrote to the GAC (PDF download) with a "Unfortunately, at this time, we regret to inform you that this facilitation process has been unsuccessful. The facilitation has not been able to reach its desired conclusion." there's then 4 pages of detailed explanation of the .AMAZON history.
I personally thought that we had a go for the .AMAZON new gTLD (and a few Kindles for the South American Government). Seems not...yet.

Now, can you read between the lines?

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Using a domain name won't hurt business when your Instagram account has been disabled

I am discovering the strange world of Instagram and Twitter users who had their account disabled for whatever reason...and the consequences of having distributed an Instagram URL that does not exist anymore. One will notice that this...doesn't happen when using a personalized domain name as single signature.

A business destroyed in seconds
Twitter, Instagram and probably a few more social networks are very powerful tools: they are famous and many use them. For example, I don't publish daily photos for my work on Instagram but I use Twitter. If that account was disabled for whatever reason, it would irritate me. Of course, my business does not rely on Twitter but some online businesses like modeling do rely...on Instagram. I am referring here to models, professional gamers and other cosplay who run their business using a Twitter or an Instagram account, sometimes both, adding to this other publication platforms with long URLs.

When you have thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands followers, you don't want your account to be disabled:
"If your Instagram account was disabled, you’ll see a message telling you when you try to log in. Accounts that don't follow our Community Guidelines or Terms of Use may be disabled without warning."
The message above was extracted from a help page on Instagram entitled: "What can I do if my account has been disabled?" and that's precisely the kind of situation that a long time Instagram user does not want to have to go through: if the URL can't be recovered, the focal point to gather with you and your thousands of followers is just...LOST for two reasons:
  1. The Instagram account you distributed the URL to your thousands of followers does not belong to you, it belongs to Instagram;
  2. Your Instagram followers WON'T have access to your disabled account: how will you tell them about your next newly created account? How will they know where to go to follow you again?
Can't happen with a domain name
Advertising multiple social networks in signatures is common: I do it too. I use Twitter, LinkedIn, I use another URL for my newsletter, and another one for may company; but I wonder if it makes sense to distribute so many information to my readers: why not use just one instead, and one that belongs to me?

Social network users should capitalize on a domain name instead of a free Instagram URL (and a lot of other long social networks long URLs). The reason for this is that in special circumstances such as the one explained above (having your account disabled for whatever reason), followers can keep the link with a user and all of the social networks on which he, or she, is present.

The example below is a good one, I searched for a cosplay model on Instagram and I found this cosplay artist. Can you tell me who is able to remember all of these details and long URLs if that account was to be disabled by Instagram? This model could use a domain name such as www.cosplay.best in its signatures as a single point of reference for all of its activities to avoid any incident: a follower can remember a short domain name, it certainly won't remember all of the details below when an Instagram account is disabled.


The domain name is often purchased at a very small price, it can be shortened to the maximum and it is easily memorable. The difference between advertising long social network addresses and using a domain name where to list all social networks addresses is simple: the domain name belongs to you, whatever happens, an Instagram, Facebook or Twitter URL doesn't.

Would a social network member need to start a new Instagram account, its existing followers would know where to go to find him again. Would they remember a long Instagram URL? I doubt it.

How to
Redirecting a domain name to the Instagram URL is a first step but using a single page where to list all of the social network URLs can help be even better. Some apps exist for this and using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) platform can also be an option. They sometimes comes for free at retail registrars. No coding should be required to do this.

Don't sign with your Instagram address, sign with your domain name.

Monday, November 19, 2018

COM agencies: no ".BRAND" approach?

I strongly believe that .BRAND new gTLDs are an ultra strong branding and communication tool, so as a lonely wolf having my business often ending at agencies with no idea of the real benefit to operate a .BRAND domain name extension, I decided to approach famous communication agencies with that following speech:
Hey: "a .BRAND new gTLD is the strongest branding tool that Internet ever invented: what's your approach when talking to your clients about it?"
(of course, I adapted the level of speech)
Some answers received
I simplified the answers received from some of these agencies with bullet-points:
  • If the subject of creating a personalized domain name extension is something that most have heard about, it is a question that came to them from their clients, not as a suggestion by them.
  • When the subject is on the table, it does not go farther than creating the .BRAND new gTLD through a partner. Basically:
    • The agency says it has knowledge but uses a third party service provider for this;
    • The service offered is to submit an application, no more ("let's see when the TLD will been delegated");
    • One agency tells her client she has knowledge to offering such service, basing her speech on how the .BRAND Top-Level Domain (live today) has evolved long after it was delegated. Today's result is absolutely not what was in the initial offer;
  • If offering to create the .BRAND new gTLD, and I mean by this securing a client and offering to do the follow-up up to the next applicant guidebook, with a lot of "bla, bla", there is no offer to create scenarios to use the extension...when precisely "this" should be the service offered today by a communication agency;
  • Generally speaking, the first person I spoke to didn't understand what I was talking about in terms of branding so I had to explain a lot. In that case, it generated a lot of interest...but Round two is far away...
Familiar with but no offer
Many agencies are familiar with the subject of .BRAND new gTLDs but none that I met with have an internal offer. Basically, it is something that they will consider but still, there is no written content about it: no program, no documentation, no product sheet presenting what a .BRAND domain name extension is, no reference to it in what "communication consultants" talk about when referring to a communication strategy.

I also pinged two consultants from prestigious communication agencies via LinkedIn and asked the question is such "tool" was considered in the branding or communication strategy that they refer to in their profile. They should be my clients.

10 years after
I must be living in a different world because we're almost 10 years after the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program and there are many .BRAND new gTLDs to have launched and operating their own domain name extension. In the financial sector for example, All Finanz, Credit Union, BNP Paribas, Bradesco, Barclays, Discover, Bloomberg and a lot more in other industries are truly using their own domain names, and if the trademarks keep registering more of them, it means that very few are taking the advantage when a lot more could (I am referring here to the .BRAND applicants which are not using the product they acquired years ago).

All communication agencies offer more or less the same and none really differentiates from others. I still don't understand why they are not using this fantastic product to promote their name, offering something different.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Companies related new gTLDs are a good business

Once a month I update the volumes of domain names registered according to a specific subject or category. I allocate a certain number of extensions to each category so such process allows me to see if, in each category, domain name extensions meet with adoption of not. In the category that I created for Companies, it appears that registrants (end users) tend to buy these domain names. Generally speaking, the volume of domain names registered in these extensions does increase.

This report is my personal choice on extensions in which I believe that companies should secure their domain name with and this is what I noticed from the October/November report:
  • There's not so much red in the report compared to other reports:
    • In blue, registration volumes increase significantly;
    • In red, they decrease.
  • Six extensions have more than 100,000 domain names registered and from that list, only .APP kept growing and never saw a decrease in its volume of domains registered. The TLD has now more than 330,000 registrations.
  • I think that the .EMAIL is an absolute "must have" for obvious reasons.
  • The .WORLD new gTLD also exists in its Chinese script, the .世界 Top-Level Domain.
  • The .COMPANY new gTLD also exists in its Chinese script, the .公司 Top-Level Domain (this one stands for "business organization actually".
  • The .BEST new gTLD changed hands recently and its volume of registrations is growing again. I registered jovenet.best.
  • The .APP and .PAGE new gTLDs belong to Google and are growing fast, none lost registrations since they were launched.
  • Some TLDs are confusing: the .WEB is coming but .WEBSITE and .SITE are already here. In total, the .WEBSITE new gTLD gained 2,000+ registrations since January 2018 and I wonder if this is not a bad sign for this registry.
  • The .CONTACT new gTLD sticks to one single domain name registration: I don't understand the strategy for this TLD and I think that "finance" is the issue.
  • Four extensions only have less registrations in November 2018 than what they had in January from the same year.
  • The .COMPANY and .商标 (".trademark") are on the right track and just "keep growing" in numbers.
  • The .集团 (corporate group) lost half of its registrations since January 2018.
  • Note that at the moment you are reading this report, the .ONLINE new gTLD passed the one million domain name registrations.
  • This one is to please Jean Christophe: the .INC new gTLD is launching.
Read the full report. If you believe that a TLD is missing from that report, please contact me.

Monday, November 12, 2018

A .BRAND new gTLD Round in October 2019?

I just attended the IGF ICANN Open Forum from 12 November 2018 in Paris. I was "intrigued" by a publication that I read on CircleId a few months ago and wanted to ask the ICANN Board the question myself.

A new gTLD service provider proposed the ICANN an indicative application period for .BRAND new gTLDs starting 1 October 2019 and ending 12 January 2020.

That's early, but if such date is suggested, I strongly believe that it is feasible. So I asked the ICANN Board the question, and Avri Doria answered me.

Friday, November 9, 2018

The Automotive new gTLD business is exciting

I recently updated the Automotive new gTLD report for the month of October/November 2018 and I am excited to note that:
  • There are 60 new gTLDs dedicated to the automotive industry.
  • Lots of Trademarks have applied for their own string and major luxury car manufacturers have created their .BRAND new gTLD:
    • Lamborghini;
    • Bentley;
    • Jaguar;
    • Bugatti;
    • Lexus;
    • Maserati;
    • Ferrari.
  • Surprisingly, some Trademarks are missing: Porsche, Tesla, Mercedez-Benz, Peugeot, and Renault (and probably a few others) but I would not be surprise that they submit their .BRAND new gTLD application in the future.
  • 38 "known" car Trademarks have applied for their .BRAND
  • 5 of Car Trademarks new gTLD applications were withdrawn.
  • After 6 years in limbo, it is still unknown if the .RAM new gTLD will ever see the day.
  • Some Car trademarks register a lot of domain names:
    • AUDI created 1,386 domain names ending in ".audi" for its personal use;
    • MINI created 653;
    • SEAT created 651;
    • LAMBORGHINI created 200;
    • And BMW created 117 domain names.
  • Tires: 1,144 domain names ending in ".tires" have been created!
  • Lots of domain names from automotive businesses are being registered at the moment in the .BEST domain name extension (they cost less than $10 per year until January 2019 at some accredited registrars).
  • Unless I missed something, Volkswagen is the only Trademark to have created an IDN: it's the .大众汽车 and its stands for Volkswagen in Chinese.
  • Update: there seems to be a limited interest in generic TLDs offering a plural AND a singular version of the extension:
    • .AUTO (423 domain name registrations in total) and .AUTOS new gTLDs (62 registrations);
    • .CAR (362 registrations) and .CARS (321 registrations) new gTLDs.
  • The new gTLD with the highest number of domain name registered is one dedicated to selling domains to the general public: the .TAXI new gTLD and it has 6,263 domain names created.
Read the full report.

Less than $10 at Gandi.net ;-)


Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Law Enforcement Agencies, Authority, and new gTLDs

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union:
Competent authorities should be able to request any relevant information from any public authority, body or agency within their Member State, or from any natural person or legal person, including, for example, payment service providers, internet service providers, telecommunication operators, domain registries and registrars, and hosting service providers, for the purpose of establishing whether an infringement covered by this Regulation has occurred or is occurring.
Read my publication on CircleId.

Monday, November 5, 2018

The .ING new gTLD is a crazy idea

Please see no offence in that Title because this new gTLD could be an innovation.

Reading the newsletter from Corporate Registrar CSC, I noted that the .INC new gTLD is about launch (in January 2019, the 16th). For the note, the .INC Top-Level Domain "the definitive domain ending for business".

Not alone
There are many TLDs for the business and I listed them in the new gTLD report dedicated to Companies, but another interesting thing to me is that the TLD is similar to two others: the .INK (for writers to tattooists, to print shops), and the .ING new gTLDs also exist.The .IN country code Top-Level Domain (for India) is a pretty close one too. I wrote the list of similar Top-Level Domains here for those interested.

The .ING new gTLD is a surprise
First I thought that the .ING was the .BRAND new gTLD from the same Bank: you know..."ING", but it's not. It is an extension created by Google and its description is rather surprising. The application explaining the project says:
The proposed gTLD will provide the marketplace with direct association to the term, ʺing,ʺ a common suffix utilized to denote the gerund form of a verb (singing, sleeping). The mission of this gTLD, .ing, is to provide a dedicated domain space in which registrants can enact second-level domains that provide content related to the registrantsʹ usage of the term ʺing.ʺ Charleston Road Registry expects these uses may include but are not limited to offering content that is centralized around a second-level domain name, such as sail.ing or cook.ing.
What a strange idea to develop a new Top-Level Domain. I admit innovation here and I also see the possibility to shorten domain names more. Now...will that work and catch the attention of the public?

Friday, November 2, 2018

The Real Estate new gTLD business is average

I just finished the update of the Real Estate new gTLD report and noticed a few things:

  • Real Estate Trademarks are not present in this business and very few applied for their personalized .BRAND new gTLD.
  • Only Fresenius uses its domain names ending in ".fresenius", with 40 domain names registered in October 2018.
  • The .REALTOR grows in number and is the highest in this category in terms of domain name registered with a total of 45,566 this month.
  • All new gTLDs dedicated to Real Estate, but the .REALESTATE new gTLD, have lost registrations - at least once - since January from a month to the other. Note that it does not mean that their registrations have decreased since then (I excluded TLDs with less than 100 domains registered for this calculation).
  • 7 of these Top-Level Domains have less domain names registered in October 2018 than what they had in January : this is a bad sign to me.
  • One TLD had more than 55,000 registrations in January, it now has a little more than 2,000 (...)
  • Would I buy a .MAISON domain name if I sold houses in French: an innovative business model should be invented just for this TLD ;-)
  • The .LOFT and .MLS new gTLDs stick to one single domain name registration but were delegated in August and April 2016.
  • I just noticed that none of the .HOME applications (11 of them) passed and were either withdrawn or not approved so I'll definitely change them to "withdrawn" in the monthly report.
  • There are more .VILLAS than there are .HOMES domain names (...)
Check the full report here.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Another reason to register "jean.best"

I went to my registrar and tried to register my first name for my blog but unfortunately, my name is short and it appears that I won't be reach enough. The .BEST Registry is launching a promotion and I just grabbed jean.best for €9 instead of more than €93,000.00 for the same name ending in ".blog".

It cost me €9 to register jean.best at https://www.dynadot.com


This is a promotion so I registered for 2 years. Later I explain why ;-)

Monday, October 29, 2018

Law Enforcement Agencies WILL have authority on Registrars and Registries

This one is for European Law Enforcement Agencies only, and no matter what the GDPR says (this article was first published on CircleId).

Introduction
Accessing Whois information and acting on a litigious domain name is becoming a nightmare for law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies must have an access to the information provided by registrants in the Whois database and, in specific cases, have authority to act FAST on a domain name. The EU has a solution for this and it's coming in 2020. Is this mechanism welcome now the GDPR is causing problems to law enforcement agencies trying to do their job? I'd say...yes it is.

What it is
The Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004. It is directly applicable in all Member States.

What it does say
A few things that I extracted from the regulation:
  • Competent authorities should be able to request any relevant information from any public authority, body or agency within their Member State, or from any natural person or legal person, including, for example, payment service providers, internet service providers, telecommunication operators, domain registries and registrars, and hosting service providers, for the purpose of establishing whether an infringement covered by this Regulation has occurred or is occurring.
  • Where no other effective means are available to bring about the cessation or the prohibition of the infringement covered by this Regulation and in order to avoid the risk of serious harm to the collective interests of consumers: where appropriate, the power to order domain registries or registrars to delete a fully qualified domain name and to allow the competent authority concerned to register it.
Coming in 2020
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It shall apply from 17 January 2020.

The regulation is available here.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Update on .AMAZON : "Will Not Proceed" status is removed

Lots of whereas in this adopted board resolution by the ICANN Board but it appears that the .AMAZON new gTLD could be on its way to delegation.

Extracted from the Adopted Board Resolutions from the 25 Oct 2018 Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board:
  1. The Board directs the President and CEO, or his designee(s), to remove the "Will Not Proceed" status and resume processing of the .AMAZON applications according to the policies and procedures governing the 2012 round of the New gTLD Program. This includes the publication of the Public Interest Commitments, as proposed by the Amazon Corporation, according to the established procedures of the New gTLD program.
  2. The Board directs the President and CEO, or his designee(s), to provide regular updates to the Board on the status of the .AMAZON applications.
Check the resolution.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

The .NEW new gTLD is here

The .AMAZON new gTLD

Extracted from the "just published" ICANN63 Barcelona GAC Communiqué:
Colombia provided an update regarding the letter sent by the ACTO secretariat on 5 September 2018 in which the 8-countries Organization expressed its concerns on a possible assignment of the domain to the corporation Amazon Inc. without taking into consideration the cultural, economic, social and environmental interests of a sensitive region as is the Amazonia, while reiterating that ACTO countries have the right to participate in the governance of the domain name ".AMAZON"; including the participation in the establishment of public policies. A decision without proper consent in a multi-stakeholder approach framework, would be considered disadvantageous, and far from their interest over the Amazonian region. Colombia also informed of a note of concern addressed to the ICANN CEO by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the ITs Minister in which the Government expressed its concern regarding a possible .amazon delegation without consent by the ACTO members.
Read the full Barcelona communiqué.

Monday, October 22, 2018

Trademark Clearinghouse: Stats


Check the figures on the TMCH website.

Friday, October 19, 2018

The .BEST price drop

Not so many people are using domain names ending in “.best” yet. The reason for this is its price at the registrar: up to €112 per year at some registrars when a “.com” often costs below €10. The Registry recently changed hands and is adapting, offering a serious price drop.

Registration Price will be divided by 10
This promotion, effective 1st November for 3 months, is a good news: many users have been requesting the registrars to lower its price and this is just about to happen. The .Best registry, in its wish to go to the market, has decided to offer a promotion for “.best” domain names. The price will be:
  1. Divided by 10 (wholesale registration price)
  2. Lower than a “.com”
  3. Available for multi year registrations: it means that it will be possible to register the domain name at this special price for up to 10 years at some registrars.
.BEST in SEO and SEM
At the moment, my Registrar wants to charge me €88 for a single year of registration but such price, even if already low compared to other registrars, is still too high for me and I want to register a “.best” domain name for the simple reason that “best” is a very strong keyword when it comes to promoting a business, and also because it benefits the SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Moreover, according to a study from GlobeRunner, .Best domains beats .com domains in SEM (Search Engine Marketing) having a Better CTR (Click-Through Rate) and a Lower CPC (Cost Per Click).


All .BEST Names are “still” available
What is great with this promotion is that .BEST has actually a low volume of domain names on the market (around 3,000 domains in total). This makes “.best” domain names a fantastic opportunity for Registrars, Trademarks and domain name investors. For example, many industries are covered with generic keywords available for registration: consulting.best, umbrella.best, perfumes.best, teeshirt.best, skirt.best, cards.best, sunglasses.best, expo.best, desk.best, equity.best, cryptocurrencies.best, homeloans.best … As a wine fan and producer, I will probably be looking for short names in that direction.

Note that such price will only be available during the promotion period starting 1st November of 2018 and ending in 31st January of 2019 (right after the Namescon 2019).

Thursday, October 18, 2018

The ".IDN" new gTLD to change to ".INTERNET" ?

An application for a .IDN new gTLD was submitted to the ICANN in the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program. It appears that this Indian company, named Nameshop, had the ICANN applicant support to result with a "did not meet all criteria" so it can't be delegated. It then requested the ICANN to change its string to .INTERNET to allow the creation of domain names ending in ".internet" (instead of ".com" for example).

What the application says
The application says that "the purpose of the proposed gTLD is to offer a bridge for the Internationalized Domain Name Registrant to connect to users beyond their own language communities. This gTLD would be of help in furthering the Internet Communityʹs efforts to preserve the Internet as a unified, Global space". Right.

Changing a TLD to another?
I personally do not understand how domain names ending in ".idn" will help offering a bridge for the Internationalized Domain Name Registrants to connect to users beyond their own language communities, but as long as the string does not belong to the strings ineligible for delegation (2.2.1.2.3 of the Applicant Guidebook (AGB)) or the list of reserved names (2.2.1.2.1 of the AGB) ...why not. Unfortunately, "IDN" is an alpha-3 code listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard and the AGB says that applications for strings that are country or territory names will not be approved if a string sis considered to be a country or territory name (2.2.1.4.1 of the AGB): "IDN" stands for Indonesia.


For me the story ends here with this application because another applicants applied for an alpha 3 code string in the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program and I don't remember that he was offered the opportunity to discus changing his string to another. I also read the applicant guidebook many times and did not find anything about the possibility to modify a string. To me this demonstrates one thing: ICANN is flexible.

Is the .INTERNET new gTLD coming?
I personally doubt it but Nameshop asked the ICANN for a meeting (PDF download) to discuss this in the next ICANN meeting in Barcelona this coming week: "to request that the GDD and ICANN Leadership continue to actively consider delegation of .INTERNET and keep in mind the usefulness and value of .INTERNET -- operated in tune with Nameshop’s Public Interest Commitments".

The ICANN Vice President of gTLD Operations seem to have confirmed this meeting (PDF download) to discuss this application.

Do you imagine domain names ending in ".internet" offered to the general public?

Schedule of Working Group and new gTLD Work Track 5 Meetings

ICANN63: Schedule of New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP Working Group and Related Meetings.


Working Group and Work Track 5 Meetings:
  1. GNSO - New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Work Track 5 (Geographic Names)
    9:00 - 13:15, Sat, Oct 20, 2018 -- 117 GAC)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901599
    Agenda wiki page: https://community.icann.org/x/shVpBQ
  2. GNSO - New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (1 of 3)
    13:30 - 15:00, Sat, Oct 20, 2018 – 114 (ccNSO)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901662
    Agenda wiki page: https://community.icann.org/x/IBZpBQ
  3. GNSO - New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (2 of 3)
    15:15 - 16:45, Sat, Oct 20, 2018 – 114 (ccNSO)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901663
    Agenda wiki page: https://community.icann.org/x/IBZpBQ
  4. GNSO - New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (3 of 3)
    17:00 - 18:30, Sat, Oct 20, 2018 – 114 (ccNSO)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901664
    Agenda wiki page: https://community.icann.org/x/IBZpBQ
Related Meetings:
  1. GAC: New gTLDs Work Tracks 1 - 4
    9:30 - 10:15, Sun, Oct 21, 2018 -- 117 (GAC)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901602
  2. GAC: Geographic Names WG/WT5 Discussion Meeting
    17:00 - 17:45, Sun, Oct 21, 2018 -- 117 (GAC)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901610
  3. Middle East Space - Applicant Support Program for the new gTLD Subsequent Procedure
    10:30 - 11:45, Mon, Oct 22, 2018 -- 116 (ALAC)
    Remote Participation: https://63.schedule.icann.org/meetings/901573

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Meet with the Trademark Clearinghouse

Friday, October 12, 2018

People don't have .FAITH but still go to .CHURCH (with their .BIBLE)

Church-goers dont't have .FAITH so much anymore and .CHRISTMAS does not seem important; but they like a good .WEDDING and still go to .CHURCH with their .BIBLE. See no offence here but today, a .CATHOLIC has an advantage on .ISLAM and the Muslim moral (the .HALAL new gTLD) in the new gTLD world.

The Vatican
The Vatican was pretty much present in the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program: it applied for four Top-Level Domains: .CATHOLIC plus 3 others in 3 different scripts which also mean "catholic": .天主教 - .католик and the .كاثوليك new gTLD.
A use was found for the .CATHOLIC Top-Level Domain and 13 domain names were created (October 2018). Note that no website is visible nor indexed on Google yet using domain names ending in ".catholic" or any of the 3 other scripts. Only websites such as https://whois.nic.catholic/ can be accessed at the moment.

Islam and Halal
Very recently, an Independent Review Process (Asia Green IT System vs ICANN) declared, in accordance with Article IV, section 3.21 of the applicable version of the Bylaws, that the Board directs the President and CEO, or his designee(s), that the pending application for .HALAL and the pending application for .ISLAM not proceed. There are domain names ending in ".catholic" but there won't be domain names ending in ".islam".

A few figures
The .FAITH Top-Level domain lost 3,000 registrations in one month but it still has almost 10,000 more domains - for a total of 63,271 registrations - than what it had in the beginning of the year, in January 2018.

Two TLDs keep growing in numbers: the .WEDDING and .CHURCH new gTLDs never lost registrations since January 2018:
  1. 26,700 domain names for .WEDDING
  2. 23,300 for .CHURCH
Is Christmas coming?
The .CHRISTMAS Top-Level Domain lost nearly half of its total registrations since January 2018 and dropped to 1,660 domain names. Will that change in December?

Mormonism
The MORMONs and their .MORMON new gTLD still have not created any www.directory.mormon or www.temple.mormon domain names and stick to one single registration. It is the same for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church) and its .LDS new gTLD: there is still no use. Wouldn't a www.church.lds be welcome?

The Christian Broadcasting Network
Same here with one single domain name registration. The .CBS Top-Level Domain has a lot of potential to me: the front page shows generic strings such as "shows", "news", "living", "video", "radio", "kids" and "ministries". I would certainly dig in that direction.

Read the report here.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Car Manufacturers use .BRAND new gTLDs

I first wanted to entitle this post "Cars and new gTLDs: volumes" but generally speaking, domain name registration volumes from this group are not very exciting BUT for a few car Trademarks. This publication is based on figures from the September/October CARS new gTLD report from Jovenet Consulting.

One .BRAND created 1,300 domains
This is the list of Trademarks (specification 13 new gTLD applications) to have created between 100 to 1,300 domain names for their own use. The .BRAND new gTLDs concerned are:
  1. .AUDI created 1,300 domain names;
  2. .SEAT created 628 domains;
  3. .MINI created 326 domains;
  4. .LAMBORGHINI created 197 domains;
  5. .BMW created 117 domains (I really like that one).
If all of these domain names are truly paid by these Trademarks, but not sold to the public, they are used for SEO strategies and to improve the company's brand value.

Singular VS Plural Car new gTLDs
Some new gTLDs allowing domain names to be sold to the public exist in two versions: the singular and the plural one. The extensions concerned are:
  1. The .AUTO and .AUTOS new gTLDs
  2. The .CAR and .CARS new gTLDs
It just DOES NOT WORK in terms of number of creations and the main reason for this is their ultra high price, also, one of them still has restrictions. Try at your Registrar and see. Note that a Registry with a low volume of domain names can be profitable if you add to this the number of Premium domain names registered. My personal thought is that you create a niche Registry because you want an entire industry to use your domain name, not just a portion of it. Three out of four of these TLDs lost registrations since January 2018.

.TIRES and .LIMO
This is one figure that I don't understand: there si a market for domain names ending in ".tires". Domain name registrations have increased up to 1,130 creations for this TLD since January 2018 when they've kept decreasing for .LIMO for the past 6 months.

Read the report here.

Monday, October 8, 2018

The end of .ISLAM

These resolutions on 3 new gTLDs were just approved by the ICANN board during a Special Meeting.
  • On .PERSIANGULF: the Board adopts the portion of the IRP Panel's recommendation that the application for .PERSIANGULF submitted in the current new gTLD round not proceed and directs the President and CEO, or his designee(s), to take all steps necessary to implement this decision.
  • On .HALAL and .ISLAM: the Board directs the President and CEO, or his designee(s), that the pending application for .HALAL and the pending application for .ISLAM not proceed.
In simple words, such recommendations mean that the 3 applications listed above should be ended and not see the day in the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program. Note that such applications could be submitted again in future rounds.

Catholics have 4 new gTLDs
There are many new gTLD applications dedicated to religious Top-Level Domains and Catholics, for example, have four extensions in four different scripts which all mean "catholic".

Read the resolutions here.

Friday, October 5, 2018

Companies and new gTLDs: volumes

The Companies new gTLD report is an interesting one: it focuses on new domain name extensions that we believe companies should secure their domain name, and/or trademark(s) with. These new gTLDs make sense for companies since most are generic and could represent the company on Internet, using a domain name extensions that offers more precision than ".com". Some extensions listed are words often used for business like the .BLOG or .EMAIL new gTLDs.

Four IDNs
4 IDNs (domain name extensions using a different alphabet or with accents) are listed for the words "trademark", "company" (also available in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange and in English), "corporate group" and "world" (also available in ASCII and in English).

Growing or not?
The first thing that I like to have a look at, is if registration volumes grow from a month to the other and also, if they've grown since the beginning of the year. Surprisingly, many have lost registrations since January 2018 but the one after grow in a conservative way: .BLOG - .EMAIL - .GROUP - .COMPANY - .GLOBAL - .EXPERT - .INTERNATIONAL - .商标 (".trademark") and .SUPPORT.

Figures
On this list of 22 extensions, 6 have more than 100,000 registrations and one should pass the million by the end of the year. 3 kept gaining registrations since January 2018: .COMPANY - .INTERNATIONAL and .商标 (".trademark").

Trademarks
An interesting extension is the .TRADEMARK new gTLD, available in its Chinese script only: the .商标 Top-Level Domain has a lot of successus and registration figures don't drop: trademarks are concerned here. Now: what use can you have of a domain name ending in .商标 but to protect yourself? I don't know.

.WEB - .SITE or .WEBSITE ?
If the awaited .WEB new gTLD has not launched yet, .SITE and .WEBSITE seem to be gaining a lot of traction in October 2018. They don't if you look at the month of January 2018: they now have less registrations than in January 2018. I feel that these domain name endings all look alike and that's a problem when you launch a website: you don't want the exact same second level domain name to be registered in an extension that has almost the same meaning as the one for your website. I consider these TLDs confusing.

Impressive
The .ONLINE new gTLD is about to pass the 1 million domain name registrations: this is a lot. I find that it is very close to .WEB - .SITE and .WEBSITE so I am not buying but I agree that a Trademark, with the financial capacity to secure its assets, should secure its name in these extensions: just in case.

Similar but in different languages
Three extensions are available in English and in Chinese: .WORLD and .世界 (Chinese) - .GROUP and .集团 (Chinese) - .COMPANY and .公司 (Chinese). All have their volume of domain names to increase in their English ASCII version but all loose registrations in the Chinese one, when comparing starting the month of January. Are end users ready for IDN new gTLDs?

Focus on .BEST
If registration figures are not impressive in this TLD and its 2,682 registrations in total, Companies should be informed that the extension is relaunching, adding to its business model a social network based on reviews, and a seriously innovative cryptocurrency to reward reviewers. Registration figures should increase in 2019 since this TLD is changing hands with a complete different approach to selling domain names. Trademarks are concerned here too. The new social network is set to launch in 2019.

Legacy TLDs
I had to add the .PRO and .COM legacy TLDs since they are professional domain name extensions that I would recommend, not to use, but to secure and use as a redirection to a new domain name.

Read the report here.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Sports and new gTLDs: volumes

I count 29 new domain name extensions dedicated to sport. On that list, I added Esport service providers likes the .XBOX and .PLAYSTATION new gTLDs: they are game console Trademarks. 8 Trademarks are listed in this monthly report and the rest are generic new gTLDs, which domain names are dedicated to be sold to the general public.

Famous Four Media and GRS
Two extensions, previously operated by multiple registry Famous Four Media, the .RACING and .CRICKET new gTLDs, are now in the hand of GRS (Global Registry Services Limited): a disagreement on the strategy resulted in a court battle and it's quite possible that volumes of domain names registered for these two extensions keep dropping. When looking at the volumes of the .RACING Top-Level Domain and its 82,000 registrations, compared to .FOOTBALL which has 5,300 only, one might be tempted to wonder why would the market of Racing work so much better than the market of Football. The marketing technique maybe.

Endurance
On some other new gTLD reports, I sometimes notice that some extensions have the exact same increase of domain name registrations each month. Of course, I would certainly not think that a registry would inflate his numbers but when it is so obvious, I would be tempted to think that something is wrong in the method. Of course, this is not the case with the .FITNESS and .DANCE new gTLDs (with .RUN and .YOGA?): these two extensions have been growing slowly since January 2018 and never lost registrations. I call this "meeting with adoption". Note that I unlisted the .FIT new gTLD from this report since I find it unclear about what it means exactly: Google offers 24 more translations for the word "fit" but its registration volumes were doing very good in 2017 (see in the report).

The Ryder Cup and .GOLF
Domain name registration volumes of the .GOLF new gTLD are decreasing but the Ryder Cup might change this. the problem is that the official website is still using a ".com" and the similar ".golf" domain name does not even redirect to it, when I believe that it should be the opposite: redirect the ".com" to the ".golf" and make that one the official website. Such initiatives can make a difference in terms of promotion. The FIBA (Basketball) recently made the change to a .BASKETBALL domain name and I believe that the FIFA (Football) might be tempted too with a .FOOTBALL (I was also told that the FIFA won't move until it has its hands on the .FOOTBALL new gTLD.

Slow start for the .RUGBY new gTLD
The World Rugby (formerly the International Rugby Board) changed to a .RUGBY domain name. The Top-Level Domain launched with a Sunrise Period in November 2017, went through 3 "limited registration periods", then through a "qualified launch program" which ended in January 2018. Nine months after, the number of domain names created has increased to 211. For a reason that I misunderstand, the registry website offers an "Invitation Only phase" which runs until 26 April 2019 and General Availability (when anyone can buy) starts in July 2019, the first. With such a low volume of domain names on the market, why make it so difficult to register a domain name?

The technique about restrictive TLDs
Restricting a TLD is a way to give the advantage of domain name registrations to a specific group or community: they can be "community applications" or a wording in the registration policy that has to be validated during the registration process and which makes the registrant (the buyer) think that he is a true member of this community and accepted by it. In reality, it a risk for the buyer since very few people read registration policies before buying a domain name. The risk is even increased since the registry, for whatever reason, can decide that the registrant does not comply with its registration policy and take down a domain name. Let's be frank about restricting a TLD...isn't it a technique used by "new gTLD experts" people like me to make a client think that he will have a better control over his TLD? On the paper it is. In reality, restricted TLD registration volumes show that it is the best technique to fail the launching of an extension. It is already difficult to sell domain names without restrictions like it is the case for .FOOTBALL, so adding restrictions certainly will not help give a TLD the chance to exist and deploy. Figures talk.

Confident about the future
Sport TLDs are the future of sport websites, no matter how long it takes and no matter how much they cost: generally speaking all volumes of sport domain names have increased since January 2018 so this can only be a positive sign for the future. Another reason for this is just "common sense", it is the same for existing niche TLDs: they offer more precision and trust. Wait for the Winbledon® website to use a .TENNIS domain name and for organizations like the World Surf League to use a .SURF: Rip Curl®, O'Neil® and Quiksilver® will follow.

Read the report here.

Looking for (new gTLD) Sponsors

I publish about new gTLDs "only" and I don't do write much, but I can ensure that what is said about your company will be read by your next potential clients and the entire new gTLD community.

I am the product
I publish a lot about new gTLDs and .BRANDs "only" and I do that because, when working as a consultant, I just have to. I once read that when doing that for free, I was the product, and this is actually why I look for sponsors. I am fine with being a product :-)

It's over here
Following up with all that is said about new gTLDs is rather easy, I'd suggest to select a communication channel at www.gtld.today, hit the subscribe button and you're set.

My future sponsors
On the list of sponsors that I look forward to have are:
  1. One Backend Registry;
  2. One Escrow service provider;
  3. ICANN;
  4. One Registrar (Retail or Corporate);
  5. Registries;
  6. One law firm offering services "related" to new gTLDs;
  7. Trademarks are welcome too.
My offers
My promotion offers are available at Jovenet Consulting, in English and in French, but I am happy to work on something different, according to specific needs.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Real Estate and new gTLDs: volumes

I just updated the monthly report dedicated to domain name registration volumes from the Real Estate industry. In more simple words, the report refers to extensions such as ".forsale", ".apartments", ".loft", etc...

A snapshot
This report is a monthly snapshot which allows to see if Real Estate businesses use these new domain names and which extension catches the attention of buyers. The report is updated at the end of each month and two kind of new gTLDs can be found in this report:
  1. DotBrand domain name registration volumes dedicated to Real Estate Trademarks (also called ".BRANDs"). Note that these domain names cannot be sold through the network of accredited registrars: the .FRESENIUS new gTLD for example;
  2. Real Estate domain name volumes dedicated to be sold to the general public: the .HOUSE new gTLD for example.
September - October 2018
This month, 31 new gTLDs are listed and 6 of them are Trademarks. The most successful new gTLD, in volume of domain name registered, is the .REALTOR new gTLD with a total of 45,479 creations (this Top-Level Domain is exclusively for REALTORS®). The interesting thing about this number is that it has gained 4,000 registrations in one month: that's a lot.
Another interesting progression is the .REALESTATE new gTLD which seems to be gaining a lot of registrations with an increase of 12,300 domain names creations.
Note that these two extensions belong to the same owner.

Good to know, the .HOMES new gTLD just announced that it is dropping its restrictions and lowering its price as early as January 2019. The extension was delegated in May 2014 and in November 2017, the Registry submitted a Registry Service Evaluation Process request to remove eligibility verification of registrants for the .HOMES Top-Level Domain. With an actual total of 416 domain names registered since its launch, we are confident that this change of position regarding restrictions will significantly change the number of domain names created.

Read the report here.

The .PAGE and .FAN Sunrise Periods

  1. The .PAGE Sunrise Period ends today: Monday, 1 October, 2018 - 16:00.
  2. The .FAN Sunrise Period starts tomorrow: Tuesday, 2 October, 2018 - 16:00.
Check the Trademark Clearinghouse calendar for more.


Note about the .PAGE "EAP"
The Early Access Program is a 7 day period in advance of General Availability (GA) during which domains can be registered immediately with five different price tiers, starting with the highest tier and decreasing each day. The "real" General Availability period with no more additional one-time fee starts October the 9th (16:00 UTC).
Learn more here.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

In English shall we?

This is a complete interview from Andrew Allemann (from Domain Name Wire) giving full details on the .BEST new gTLD project.

Innovation
Again, and for the first time in the history of domain names, an innovation is brought here since we're not talking about domains only: the acquisition of the .BEST registry adds cryptocurrency and the development of a new kind of social network to this acquisition.

Questions answered
Andrew Allemann comes with targeted questions and gets answers on how the project is funded and by who, why it is so important to have a "decentralized" social network, what the reviews are going to be and how they will be rewarded, Cyril Fremont also gives market figures and explains why this new business model makes sense today.

An example, based on figures,  comparing Facebook to this new social network is also given in this interview.

In English this time: listen to the podcast.

Monday, September 24, 2018

The .BEST new gTLD: more details are given

This is a one hour podcast giving all details about what the .BEST social network is going to be and how users will be able to generate an income from it. Note that this publication was already posted on CircleId.

100,000,000 users
Yes, you read that correctly, we're talking about a potential of 100,000,000 million users by 2022, and that means millions of ".best" domain names. In this major project, two ventures are identified: the .BEST registry itself, which comes as the tool to develop an innovative social network.

Details are given
Cyril Fremont gives lots of details on how his social network, focusing on reviews, is going to be different from Google Reviews, Facebook, Yelp and TripAdvisors. If one would be tempted to think that ... well, "that's just going to be another social network", then, I strongly suggest to listen carefully the part of the interview on the decentralization of this network. I already interviewed Cyril Fremont in July 2018 and did not pay attention to this but the fact that this social network is decentralized answers a very important legal question: registrant's data will be hosted in their country of residence. GDPR, are you listening?

Unexpected questions
Another interesting aspect of this interview is that Cyril Fremont met with 6 high-tech experts on several subjects from different industries: questions were not written in advance and these specialists hit him with unexpected questions such as:
  • How will you pay people?
  • How will you ensure that reviews won't be fake?
  • How will you have users to come to that network?
  • How do you finance such a project? And you will learn about:
    • An ongoing $10,000,000 operation to finance the bootstrap of the social network;
    • An ICO of $20,000,000 to finance the next stage of the social network).
  • How is the team built around this innovative project and… a few names are given.
I suggest to listen to his answers in this podcast (in French). The social network will be launched in January 2019.

Update: another interview was recently given in English.

Friday, September 21, 2018

A dotBrand Email is a Seal

In August the 14th of 2018, we relayed the information that Canon email addresses would use a ".canon" domain name ending. Changing the domain name extension for websites is one thing but changing emails...is something else.


A ".brand" domain name is seal
We've already explained the benefit of using a personalized domain name, ending in the name of a trademark for a website: it clarifies things and a user can be certain that he has reached the right website and no copy, or competitor or squatter, of it. Due to the prohibitive new gTLD application fee of $185,000, it makes it hard for squatters to follow.

A good example to show would that website from Gucci (the famous luxury Trademark): https://www.diventafornitore.gucci/. The domain name extensions ending in ".gucci" is the seal since there's no mistake, nor doubt, about where the consumer has reached out to: it is the Gucci Trademark.

If some Trademarks, to have applied for their own domain name extension, start to use their dotBrand new gTLD for their websites, only one has announced its intention to change all of its emails: the Canon Trademark just did that.

A ".brand" email is a seal
It is possible to fake an email: I receive spam coming from my own personalized email sometimes and my spam filter just knows it and does the rest. It means that any spammer with a little knowledge knows how to fake an email but the purpose of using such method is just to send emails for spam, not get a response so we're not really concerned here since the real benefit of using a ".brand" email is to send AND receive emails.

Spammers also often use typos in domain names (they also now use homoglyphs more and more) but they can do that creating second level domains only (what comes right before the extension), not first domains (the extension) and that's where the huge difference is.

When receiving an email from a domain name ending in ".com" (for example), anything that comes before the ".com" extension could have been created by anyone; and so the email could come from...anyone, unless the receiver is certain that it comes from the right person AND that it is not an homoglyph. The truth is that this does not happen very often but it happens and it could happen to you. Banks and other major Trademarks from all industries face such spam sent to their clients daily.

When receiving an email ending in the name of a Trademark like Canon just announced it, no one can create a domain name ending in that same Trademark but the Trademark itself which applied for it at the ICANN as a .BRAND new gTLD (specification 13). It then blocks instantly hackers and squatters from the possibility to do the same. Canon explains:
"Because ".canon" can only be used by Canon Group companies and services as well as related organizations, visitors to sites that use the TLD can easily confirm their authenticity and be assured that the information they contain is reliable."
Welcome to the future of secured email.

Hey wait...
What if an entrepreneur applied for a Trademark similar to the Canon one and decided to sell these domain names to the public? Good question...have a look here then ;-)

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