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.