News From the ICANN Community
Top reported domain name sale of the week (8-14 September) goes to a .de domain name for suchmaschinenoptimierung.de (”search engine optimisation”) according to Ron Jackson’s Domain Name Journal. The domain was sold by Sedo and went for ?84,000 (around US$114,000 today).
Other notable sales for the week were santarosa.com ($75,000 in a private sale) and another [...]
EURid is pleased to announce that Danny Aerts has been appointed as a member of EURid’s board of directors. He is the Managing Director of the Swedish Internet Infrastructure Foundation (IIS), the registry for the .se top-level domain.
A native of the Netherlands, Mr Aerts moved to Sweden in the mid 1990s. In 2006 he [...]
EURid, the European registry for .eu, is pleased to announce that the new EURid Registrar Advisory Board will meet for the first time this week. Representatives from nine accredited .eu registrars from nine different countries make up the new board, which will advise EURid on issues important to the registrar community.
?EURid welcomes the input that [...]
dotMobi is keen to encourage and enable as a first step towards compliance before considering any further necessary action. In our view, site owners should want to deliver a good end-user experience to ensure that they stick around and to capture repeat business.
As mentioned earlier, Domain Convergence will be hosting the first ever Fusu live auction on October 8 at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am PST) during the domain conference in Niagara Falls, Canada. Bidding will take place at the event as well as over the internet at http://dc.fusu.com/. If you’re planning to bid online, make sure [...]
Sedo’s top domain sales for the week are posted after the jump…
Domain
Price
Translation/Other
Type
.COM
quix.com
12,000 EUR
sportwette.com
10,600 EUR
Sport Bets in German
heidou.com
8,100 USD
mobilesign.com
8,000 USD
skireservations.com
7,500 USD
GreatDomains
mry.com
7,100 USD
chinaglobal.com
4,050 USD
italien-urlaub.com
3,500 EUR
aonbenfield.com
3,250 EUR
spotm.com
3,100 USD
openstudy.com
2,800 USD
wavespot.com
2,500 USD
veranstaltung.com
2,450 EUR
Event in German
estilos.com
2,000 USD
Styles in Spanish
ccTLD
brent.us
10,000 USD
spielecke.de
5,000 EUR
“Games Corner” in German
ivillage.in
4,750 USD
play4prizes.co.uk
3,600 USD
firstclass.pl
3,290 EUR
lambent.co.uk
3,000 EUR
grundfoss.at
2,500 EUR
lemondrop.co.uk
2,500 USD
moving.es
2,250 USD
casinoonline.com.es
2,000 EUR
kkr.in
1,958 USD
vouchers.org.uk
1,900 GBP
ölbilder.de
1,383 EUR
“Oil Pictures” in German
immotrade.de
1,100 [...]
A look at some of the more comical domains for sale on eBay.
Every once in a while you find a good domain name for sale on eBay. Not today. Here are some of the more comical offers I found when looking through eBay’s domain name category today.
Item: TheFallofWallStreet.com Historical Domain Name!
Behold! Misery! [...]
The Kentucky hearing into that state's attempt to confiscate 141 gambling related domain names was held today with the judge deciding he would need 7 days to consider the issues before announcing a decision. We have a link to a blow by blow account of today's hearing.
Domain name related companies get pummeled on Wall Street.
Google’s 52 week stock performance(from Yahoo.com)
The stock market is in a free fall, and domain stocks are no exception.
Shares of Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) dropped 12.5% yesterday to close at $8.28. At one point it dropped to $7.75. It’s down 27.5% since the beginning [...]
Morning Folks!!What if I told you that this single post can make you a millionaire many times over? Well it will if you read carefully and fully get your head around this simple message. That's exactly what can happen. I have made a lot of posts in my time, but none are more important than the one you are about to read. So close the door and give me a focused 10 minutes and I think I can share something that will make your journey just a little sweeter and more rewarding. To me it is the difference between a domain being worth $750 and $750,000 or $7.5M. The domain can be the same but the customers needs is different....
The Internet Commerce Association is in Kentucky today, protesting that state's attempt to confiscate 141 domain names from their rightful owners. Elsewhere, Forbes Magazine says the current credit crunch could accelerate the slide of newspapers into oblivion.
Threat of a “run on the bank” scenario at domain registrar exists.
In November 2007 I wrote an article “A Run on the (Domain Name) Bank“. I discussed the potential for rumors about a domain registrar’s demise to cause a panic. Domain registrants would transfer their domains out in droves, further deteriorating the registrar’s [...]
In an announcement earlier today, Qinetics was awarded the contract to run the .OM registry. DNN contacted the press agent on the matter to follow up with a few question.
Will the registry be opening the registration to a global customer base or will the .OM extension only be available to residents of Oman ?
Will the [...]
SecureWorks, société spécialisée dans la sécurité sur Internet, vient de publier une étude révélant l'origine géographique des cyber-attaques qui ont touchées l'Internet ces dernières années. Les Etats-Unis et la Chine sont en tête de ce classement.
The joint advertising deal between Google and Yahoo, previously discussed (cyberlawg/government-regulation/doj-antitrust-probes-google-yahoo-deal.html) in CyberLawg, is being delayed as the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division continues its review.
Both Yahoo and Google have correctly taken the “we’re happy to help and comply” public line. Still, there is no question that an antitrust review that needs more time is not good news for the potential bedfellows. The Google CEO’s previous suggestion (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100303573.html) that Google and Yahoo would move forward before the DOJ even completed its review looks pretty silly at this point.
Another concern: the Executive Branch will have a new leader come January. Regardless of the winner of the presidential election, it is hard to imagine that it will lead to an administration more likely to pass on comprehensive review than the current administration.
Of course, there is some question as to whether Google and Yahoo ever thought this would truly work or if they were both just looking to cool down the speculation that Yahoo would be acquired by Microsoft or another third party. Even in a circumstance where DOJ does block the deal both online ad firms do receive some benefit by maintaining their status quo as the two dominant online advertising firms even while the review is pending.
The new October Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. Our comprehensive review of the 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference explores why show goers felt so optimistic at a time when the financial world at large was (and still is) on the edge of disaster.
2008-10-06: The SYMM Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0), pronounced "smile." SMIL 3.0 allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. Using SMIL 3.0, an author may describe the temporal behavior of a multimedia presentation, associate hyperlinks with media objects and describe the layout of the presentation on a screen. SMIL 3.0 is a modular XML application: its components may be used in other XML formats. SMIL also defines mobile profiles that incorporate features useful within the industry. Comments are welcome through 6 November. Read more about the Synchronized Multimedia Activity. See also W3C's new Video on the Web Activity. (Permalink)
What is technical and what is political? Some of you may recall various members of the technical community scolding us about how implementation of DNSSEC at the root was a "purely technical issue" and that the world should ignore the governance questions and just "get on with it." This plea of urgency gained steam this summer during the Kaminsky attack episode, with some blaming the Department of Commerce as the " the show-stopper." What some technical experts failed to recognize was the underlying power struggle involving ICANN, the U.S. Commerce Department and VeriSign over the arcane business of how the root zone of the DNS might be signed, an important step in the implementation of DNSSEC. And more importantly, how the US Government is making sure this process unfolds in a way that keeps it in control of the root.
IDN Sales Report Sept. 1, 2008 - Sept. 30, 2008
All sales are over 500 USD
IDN
punycode
language
translation
price*
where
1
????.com
xn--h1aliz
russian
Sochi
21 555
idnchannel
2
??.com
xn--oorp09c
chinese
sofa
9 000
private
3
????.com
xn--9ckxbt7377c
japanese
stock map
8 000
private
4
?.cn
xn--ur0a
chinese
network
7 034
66.cn
5
??.cn
xn--1ctz16i
chinese
wealth
4 430
66.cn
6
??.cn
xn--5eyx16c
chinese
soccer
4 415
66.cn
7
sprüche.com
xn--sprche-5ya
german
sayings
4 337
sedo
8
ölgemälde.de
xn--lgemlde-8wa1n
german
oil paintings
4 320
sedo
9
?????.com
xn--mgbuf0dn
arabic
travel
3 910
snapnames
10
vermögensberatung.com
xn--vermgensberatung-pwb
german
asset advice
3 762
sedo
11
???????.com
xn--mgbagp2a5hwb
arabic
tourism
3 500
snapnames
12
??.cn
xn--h6qx20c
chinese
stationary
3 252
66.cn
13
??.cn
xn--0mzw45b
chinese
car rental
3 250
66.cn
14
??.net
xn--55qx5d
chinese
business
3 000
idnforums
15
??.cn
xn--kdv462b
chinese
wealth
2 193
66.cn
16
ölbilder.de
xn--lbilder-80a
german
oil images
2 000
sedo
17
??.cn
xn--2p1av0a
chinese
vegetables
1 988
66.cn
18
??.cn
xn--7ou343g
chinese
reserve a room
1 875
66.cn
19
??????-????????.com
xn—-dtbdeglbi6acdmca3a
russian
Nizhny Novgorod
1 800
idnchannel
20
????.cn
xn--5nqy50dkhd730c
chinese
anti-virus software
1 554
66.cn
21
??.cn
xn--kpu716f
chinese
wrist watch
1 463
66.cn
22
gartenzubehör.de
xn--gartenzubehr-fjb
german
garden equipment
1 450
sedo
23
??.cn
xn--znxs88f
chinese
lighting
1 320
66.cn
24
??.cn
xn--sps869f
chinese
wallpaper
1 102
66.cn
25
??????.com
xn--igbhh4a2gg
arabic
women
625
snapnames
26
?????.com
xn--mgb0b6abe
arabic
work
616
snapnames
IDN Sales [...]
2008-10-03: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Working Draft of XMLHttpRequest Level 2. The specification enhances XMLHttpRequest with new features, such as cross-site requests, progress events, and the handling of byte streams for both sending and receiving. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
Our friends at Fabulous are working on the new Traffic show, Traffic Down Under. The projections I hear are over 250 attendees. As .Com.Au is a hot domain extension these days (the Australian government recently made some chances to the .AU registry) I expect many local businesses to attend as well.
Unfortunately I may not be able to attend however RMG CEO Darren Cleveland as well as RMG Co-founder/CTO Jeff Bhavnanie will.
This show is more than a domain show, it is more than a “domainers’ gathering”. This show is the excuse you’ve been waiting for to visit beautiful Australia.
Have a great day,
Sahar
"... we urge you not to rush into a new, broad Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that may have significant impact on intellectual property protection at home and abroad..."
The IDNC WG recommended that as part of the implementation plan of the IDN ccTLD “fast-track” process a request for information (RFI) is sent out to all territories to gain an understanding of the interest of individual territories to participate in the Fast Track process. Participation in the RFI is not be mandatory to be [...]
Traverse Legal?s lawyers constantly monitor the latest information on the World Wide Web concerning cybersquatting and domain name issues. Here is this week?s cybersquatting and domain name dispute round-up: CADNA's Atlanta Forum: Global Brands Come Together at CNN Center Earthtimes... 
We've made it!
For some it has been a four year labour of love, for others, less. In any case, an important step has just been taken by the team, of whom I am ever more proud: our Cloud Infrastructure is now operational. Yes, we are pleased to announce the grand opening of our Gandi Hosting service!
This wild dream is fuelled behind the scenes by the desire of a team to create something truly different, that will provide a unique combination of flexibility and transparency - two crucial elements often missing in the market. The desire to see people only consume what they really need, to provide them with the ability to migrate their resources from one location to another when needed, to move about freely...in short, everything that we dreamt about as customers ourselves.
The entire industry, all the players in this market, know very well that this technology will replace shared hosting, and possibly even dedicated hosting. The advantages for customers are too great to be ignored, which is why the traditional players, having down played this new type of hosting, are using buzzwords around virtualization in order to continue to sell to customers who are insufficiently informed.
It is our mission: to explain, again and again, why everyone needs flexible and dedicated resources, and those that accept this are turning to these solutions. Today we are talking about web hosting, but the infrastructure is really based on and can be used for "Cloud Computing". In other words, the rental of 'super computer' processing power which can be accessed from anywhere in the world for needs as diverse as 3D rendering, gigantic databases, etc...
To get back to hosting, our choice has been to offer a product with the following components:
- a technology that allows a degree of flexibility and security that is unrivalled among current web hosts/discounters,
- a price that is within reach of the largest number of people, maintaining one of the the core values of Gandi,
- a service that is worthy of being called such, or even more! Our mission is to serve you individually as best we possibly can, not to create an enormous mass of faceless customers.
I sincerely believe that, every day that has gone by and is yet to come, every effort is being made to meet our objectives, whether they are technical or personal.
Of course, the miracle solution, the one with the biggest pipes, the most massive machines etc.. that many players in the market are bragging about, does not exist. No technology will ever be flawless and we would not be providing you with an honest service if we made that claim.
But we do believe that:
Our role as a partner in your online presence (which is far more than simply hosting of your website), includes knowing that we need to help you see that you must use common sense in all situations, for example, the prominent mention in our hosting contract of the necessity to perform regular backups of your data.
We have months, or even years ahead of us to adapt our service to meet your needs, to perfect it so that it increasingly becomes one that cannot be ignored.
We are asking for the thing that is most important in our eyes, your confidence, to show you the way to go, not to hide from you all that we are doing, and to ensure that the service is as good as it can be. In our mind, this is achieved by proving the quality of our products to you.
When you entrust your online presence with us, we must be responsive if things go wrong (and this, even if I obviously do not want it to occur, does happen), be transparent with regards to what is taking place, and to do everything in our power to fix it, and of course to back this up with a commercial gesture.
All of this is clearly mentioned in our contract with you.
I do not know what you, our customers, will do with this service. Judging from the thousands of you that have joined us, even before the grand opening, it has already been a huge success, and one that all of us here wish to continue!
Despite the length of this entry, please allow me to warmly thank all the beta testers that have been with us these last nine months, without whom we would not have been able to make the right choices. I hope that by keeping the current rates for a few more months, and that the various rate schemes will encourage you to stay with us. As a side note, our American customers find that our offer is quite inexpensive for this type of service, compared to other offers of the same type.
As a conclusion, I just wanted, before totally delivering this service, to say to my team that they did a simply fabulous job, and that this can never be taken away from them. Simply put, we have suffered, but this is one of those things that can be remembered for ever with pride.Thanks to all that have contributed to this project!.
If I have been smiling in recent weeks - while I should have been more "stressed" due to the accumulated "delays" - it has been for this very reason: we are doing something long-term, and I am very proud of this, given all that we have achieved.
PS: The hardest part is just beginning, hang in there!
Stephan
Nous y sommes !
Pour certains, cela fera près de quatre années, pour d'autres moins, mais pour tous il s'agit d'une étape importante qui vient d'être atteinte par l'équipe, dont je suis plus fier que jamais : notre infrastructure en nuage ("cloud infrastructure" est le mot adéquat pour la décrire) est aujourd'hui opérationnelle. Oui, sous cette dénomination, nous sommes heureux d'annoncer la sortie de notre offre Gandi Hébergement !
Derrière ce rêve un peu fou se cache l'envie d'une équipe de créer quelque chose de différent, qui permette une flexibilité et une transparence encore très peu répandues. L'envie de voir les gens consommer ce dont ils ont réellement besoin, de leur offrir la possibilité de migrer leurs ressources d'un endroit à un autre en cas de besoin, d'être libres de leurs mouvements ... bref ce dont nous rêvions en tant que clients.
Toute l'industrie, tous les acteurs de ce marché savent très bien que cette technologie va remplacer l'hébergement mutualisé, voire même dédié de masse. Les avantages clients sont trop importants pour être ignorés, raison pour laquelle les acteurs traditionnels, après l'avoir dénigré, utilisent tous les mots clefs autour de la virtualisation pour continuer à se vendre à des clients encore insuffisamment informés.
C'est là l'un des enjeux qui est le nôtre : vous expliquer, encore et encore, pourquoi de toute façon toutes les personnes qui ont des besoins de flexibilité et de ressources technologiques se tourneront vers ces solutions. Aujourd'hui nous parlons d'hébergement, mais demain ce sera du "cloud computing", autrement dit de la location de ressources pour des besoins aussi divers que le rendu 3D, des bases de données géantes etc ...
Pour en revenir à l'hébergement, notre choix a été de proposer un produit avec les composantes suivantes :
- une technologie permettant une flexibilité et une sécurité sans comparaison avec ce qui existe chez les hébergeurs/discounters actuels,
- un prix abordable pour le plus grand nombre, honorant en cela ce qui fait l'ADN de Gandi,
- un service client digne de ce nom, voire plus. Là encore, chacun son métier. Le nôtre est de vous servir au mieux, pas de vous accumuler dans des colonnes.
Je crois sincèrement que tout est mis en oeuvre pour, tous les jours qui ont passé ou passeront, atteindre notre objectif, que ce soit techniquement et/ou humainement.
Alors bien sûr, la solution miracle, celle avec les plus gros tuyaux, les plus grosses machines etc ... que vantent nombre d'acteurs de ce marché, n'existe pas. Aucune technologie ne sera jamais infaillible et ce n'est certainement pas vous rendre service que vous servir ces inepties.
Notre rôle, comme partenaire de votre présence en ligne (qui comprend bien plus que le simple hébergement), est de savoir vous expliquer que vous devez faire preuve de bon sens en toutes situations, avec par exemple la mention en bonne place dans notre contrat d'hébergement de la nécessité de faire des sauvegardes régulières de vos données.
En vous expliquant également que nous avons encore des mois, voire des années devant nous pour adapter notre service à vos besoins, à le parfaire pour le rendre de plus en plus incontournable.
Parce que nous demandons de vous la plus importante des choses à nos yeux, votre confiance, à nous de vous montrer la voie, de ne rien vous cacher de ce que nous faisons pour que le service soit le meilleur possible. Dans notre conception des choses, c'est en faisant preuve de qualité dans nos produits bien sûr, mais pas seulement.
Lorsque vous nous confiez votre présence en ligne, nous devons être réactifs si les choses vont mal (et cela, même si je ne le souhaite évidemment pas, arrivera), faire preuve de transparence sur ce qu'il se passe et ce que nous faisons pour y remédier, et bien sûr que nous assumions derrière en termes de geste commercial.
Tout ceci figure en bonne et due place dans notre contrat avec vous.
Je ne sais pas ce que vous, clients, ferez de ce service. A en juger par les milliers d'entre vous qui nous ont déjà rejoint avant même la sortie finale, il rencontrera peut être un grand succès, en tout cas nous le souhaitons tous ici.
Malgré la longueur de ce billet, permettez-moi ici de remercier chaleureusement tous les beta testeurs de ces neuf derniers mois, sans lesquels nous n'aurions pas pu faire les bons choix. J'espère que le maintien du prix actuel pour les quelques mois qui viennent et les diverses grilles tarifaires vous pousseront à continuer avec nous. En remarque, nos clients américains nous trouvent très peu chers pour ce type de service, qu'ils comparent justement aux autres offres de même type (et qui ne sont pas du mutualisé ou du dédié discount).
Pour finir, je voulais seulement, avant de vous livrer totalement ce service, dire à mon équipe que ce qu'ils ont fait est simplement fabuleux, et que personne ne pourra jamais nous l'enlever. Sans vouloir tomber dans l'emphase, nous avons souffert mais c'est une des choses qui méritent d'être gardées en mémoire avec fierté. Merci donc à tous ceux qui ont contribué à ce projet.
Si j'avais le sourire ces dernières semaines - alors qu'avec les "retards" accumulés j'aurais dû être plus "tendu" - ce fut pour cette raison précise : nous faisons quelque chose sur la durée, et j'en suis très fier, surtout par les temps qui courent.
PS : Le plus dur commence, tenez bon.
2008-10-02: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
It’s been a month since I last updated the blog. During that month I mainly rested, focused on reading, as well as visited the Traffic show in New York City. The show I felt was a success, the food was great, Rick and Howard once again delivered on their promise, that is, bringing the best in the industry together. While I missed most of the panels due to meetings I had a chance to catch a couple, and I truly enjoyed those.
I participated on one panel and talked about the dynamics around the world that work against us. In short, I talked about why everybody hates us (domainers), and what we should do about it.
A quick Bido update, we are still testing the site, added new features, spent way too much on new hardware. We expect to bring Bido back in about 2-4 weeks. Our other offerings, portfolio management software DNZoom and PortfolioHelp are up and running and doing great. PortfolioHelp, since introduction, helped a number of top domainers move around to better solutions (making more money). If not for NDA I would post those here, however, as you all know, domainers do like their privacy, and we of course must respect that.
I’m still on a break for another month or two, will try to update the blog possibly in between.
Have a great day!
Sahar
Garant de stabilité de l'Internet et acteur vigilant du nommage, l'ICANN a fêté hier ses 10 ans d'existence.
The Czech Arbitration Court is finalizing the implementation of its new on-line UDRP platform. It will start accepting UDRP cases as of 1 January 2009.
After it received more than 200 applications, the Court selected 37 persons to become the first UDRP Panelists. The list of the panelists is published here (I am one of them). 
Overview
? Prepared DNS emulation environment
locally ? the environment includes:
? Root DNS server, JP DNS server, ?Nippon? DNS
server, other authoritative DNS server and
Cache DNS server
? Evaluated the followings:
(1) Functionality: Verification of name resolution of
?Nippon? TLD
(2) Performance: Measurement of impact on
Root/JP/Cache DNS | |
