Domain Masters : ICANN

Initial Evaluation Results for First Set of gTLDs Released

'Net Features : wm-domains — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:15:00 GMT

New gTLDs are inching closer to becoming a reality, as ICANN has finished the Initial Evaluation for the first set of new gTLD applications and released the results to the general public. According to ICANN, there are three possible outcomes of the Initial Evaluation process: pass, eligible for extended evaluation or ineligible for further review. It is important to note that the first batch of evaluated gTLDs were of non-English language, and among the first applicants to pass the evaluation are Amazon EU, Wal-mart and VeriSign Sarl. ICANN states that it will continue to release Initial Evaluation results in priority order, in increments of 30 per week, with plans to increase to 100 per week. This process will continue until all Initial Evaluation results are completed, which ICANN anticipates will be by the end of August 2013. Furthermore, applications that pass the Initial Evaluation will be eligible to proceed to contracting, with execution of the Registry Agreement, as early as April 23, 2013....(read more)

Saudi Arabia Trying to Ban New gTLD Extensions

'Net Features : wm-domains — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 23:30:00 GMT

The war against porn is still being waged in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the latest casualties are a slew of new generic top-level domains (gTLD) that have been applied for in recent months. Claiming that they will “encourage pornography” Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 – among other complaints Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 – the Saudi government has officially objected to 163 new gTLD applications registered with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Some of the extensions that raised the ire of the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission are .virgin (applied for by Virgin Group) and .baby, which Johnson & Johnson applied for (among others), presumably to market their baby-oriented health care products. Other gTLD strings that made the list were .hot, .sex, .porn (obviously), .sexy and even .dating, because who knows where that may lead. Not every complaint was sex-related, however. The Saudi government took umbrage with any extensions that are related to alcohol or gambling on apparent moral and health-related grounds. This includes .wine, .bar, .vodka, .pub, .casino, .poker and many more. Religious extensions (.bible, .catholic, .islam, etc.) also caused consternation among Saudi officials, as well as the especially grievous .wtf, .sucks and .tattoo. ICANN, for its part, foresaw objections and complaints being a major aspect of the new gTLD expansion process...(read more)

ICANN Completes Bulk Transfer of Domains to NamesBeyond

'Net Features : wm-domains — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:30:00 GMT

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has ordered a bulk transfer of domains from two de-accredited registrars to the still accredited NamesBeyond . The two registrars that were de-accredited were Planet Online and Name For Name...(read more)