iEstates.com

That’s a question we get asked a lot.  So I thought I would blog some updated stats.

In order to answer that question, you have to know what ‘all the domains’ actually is, in other words, you need the denominator for a coverage ratio.  In a world where most ccTLD Registries do not publish zone files, this information is hard to come by.  Fortunately, CENTR, the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries, published this recent report updating rounded current domain counts in the top 20 ccTLDs worldwide.  This data helps DomainTools gauge how good, or poor, our coverage is on certain TLDs, something our enterprise customers are increasingly interested in.

Unfortunately the domain count is not the hard part.  The challenge lies in figuring out which domains actually make up those lists, that is, which domains actually exist in DNS for all ccTLDs.  If you have those lists, you can actually create tools of real value for users, such as DomainTools Brand Monitor which currently follows over 100 ccTLDs, as well as all of the common gTLDs.  To put a finer point on the challenges:  when a user registers a .DE domain, for example, nobody knows but the user, the Registrar and the German Registry DENIC.  How do you find out it just got registered?

This is an ongoing challenge, and one where success is measured as a matter of degrees.  Domain discovery is one of DomainTools’ top engineering priorities, and something we are continually getting better at.  Using a combination of significant amounts of our own internal data, some external data, and a ton of computing horsepower, we’re making noticeable progress.

So with that brief overview, and in the spirit of transparency, here is a snapshot of our recent coverage of the Top 25 TLDs by volume (ccTLDs and gTLDs).  Note that .TK, as a free TLD with extraordinarily high growth and extraordinarily high turnover, is a special case that I will try to address in a future blog post.

            * Recent zone file count, or data supplied by the referenced CENTR report.

As reported on twitter and Hacker News, .IO domains have stopped resolving and apparently new registrations are not going through either. .IO is the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean territory. The TLD is especially popular with startups. According to comments on the post, 5 of 7 nameservers are returning NXDOMAIN (=domain does not exist) for queries for IO domains.

DNN has reached out the registry operators for comment.

[Hat tip to George Kirikos]

Related posts:

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• Zone File Glitch Shuts Down Millions of .DE Domains
• ICANN staff report on IGO domains
• School.com & Box.com Sold In Private Transactions
• 3M Sues Registrars, Webhosts and DNS Hosts for Cybersquatting over Gambling Domains

According to Theage.com.au,  AusRegistry, the company that operates the .Au registry under agreement from auda.org.au, has launched a new service called .AULockdown that allows domain owners to bar automated changes to their domain at  the registrar level.

“Companies with valuable websites can now pay up to $1,000 a year to opt-out of Australia’s automated domain registry system”.

“The lockdown prevents a registrar from using the application protocol interface (API) to AusRegistry’s domain register portal, and allows registrars to automatically update the registry over an authenticated channel.”

“The API is used by 33 accredited Australian domain registrars, such as MelbourneIT, GoDaddy.com and others, to change domain ownership,  server information and other contact information for each domain name.

“AusRegistry is selling .AULockdown as a wholesale product to registrars, which will then sell it to domain owners for between $200 and $1,000 a year”, which we presume is in Australian Dollars (AUD)

“Registrars operating locked-down accounts will need to place a verified call with AusRegistry’s service desk and make a verbal request for the lock be lifted before they can make changes to that domain.”

“To bypass the lockdown restrictions, the attacker would need to spoof the number of the registrar, know the registrar’s AusRegistry service desk login and passcode, and have that person’s digital certificate.”

 …

Beginning May 2013, the Singapore domain registry will require verification of domain name owners. This comes as a result of previous cases of identity theft and fake identities being used when registering .SG domain names.

The new procedure will apply for both second level .SG domains and third level .COM.SG names.

.SG domains are semi-restricted.

While there are no restrictions on the amount and type of names a registrant may apply for, Singapore does require that a local administrative contact is provided.

Please note that this new procedure will not affect existing .SG or .COM.SG domain name registrations.

It will however apply to future owner changes of existing domain names.…

According to the Seroundtable.com, Google has been updating their indexing systems to treat more ccTLDs, country-level top level domains, as generic TLDs.

As we already know some of the favorite ccTLD’s of domainers like .Co, .Me and .Tv made the list.

If your using a ccTLD domain name and if its on the list Google will rank your site as a generic site, .com, .net and .org included.

If you’re using a ccTLD not on the list, then Google is treating the domain in its country code sense and you should not expect to get much traffic or ranking outside the host country

“Some country specific TLDs, ccTLDs, have been used by a large number of webmasters as more generic TLDs. So Google has decided to treat 20 ccTLDs as if they were generic, and thus not weigh too much localization to sites using those ccTLDs in the Google algorithm”.

The list of 20 ccTLDs that Google now treats as generic are:

• .ad
• .as
• .bz
• .cc
• .cd
• .co
• .dj
• .fm
• .gg
• .io
• .la
• .me
• .ms
• .nu
• .sc
• .sr
• .su
• .tv
• .tk
• .ws

Google said that this list “may change over time”.…

According to a press release out today BRS Media, one of the applications for the new gTLD .Radio  “announced the set launch dates for  “The Radio Global Domain Extensions under .Radio.am and .Radio.fm,  will launch the Sunrise Period for trademark owners worldwide on May 28, 2013.”

These are subdomains of a ccTLD that are being sold off of Radio.FM & Radio.AM  and should not be confused with the new gTLD .radio which BRS Media has also applied for.

BRS Media also operates the .Fm and .Am ccTLD

“TM.Biz will operate the Sunrise Period for the Radio.am and Radio.fm Global Domains, and TM.Biz will validate both trademark applications as well as Signed-Mark-Data (SMD) files from ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH). ”

“The rules and procedures for the Radio Global Domain Sunrise Period will follow the same rules published by ICANN for the validation of trademarks into the Trademark Clearinghouse. In addition, the sunrise will offer an Industry first, flat rate application fee with validation block on both GLDs. This sunrise fee, to accredited registrars, will cover the trademark application, and upon validation a full 10 year block awarded in both Radio.am & Radio.fm Global Domain Extensions.

“Most leading brand management Registrars like Corporation Service Company (CSC), Encirca, IP Mirror, ComLaude, Lexsynergy, 1API GmbH, 101Domain and more, will be accepting .Radio.am and .Radio.fm sunrise registrations.”

“The Radio Global Domain Extensions under .Radio.am and .Radio.fm are designed for Bootstrap Start-Ups, Small Office/Home Offices (SOHO) Entrepreneurs, Social Media Ventures, Streaming Enterprises and Traditional Broadcasters worldwide, while at the same time encouraging originality in expanding the RADIO global domain space. Radio GLDs Information and additional details are available at http://Radio.am & http://Radio.fm.”

The Radio Global Domains Phased Roll-Out Plan TimeTable:

Phase 1: Sunrise – 18:00 GMT, 28th May, 2013 to 23:59 GMT, 28th June, 2013
Phase 2: Landrush – 18:00 GMT, 1st July to 23:59 GMT, 31st July, 2013
Phase 3: General Availability – 18:00 GMT, 3rd August, 2013

“Registrars can easily add .RADIO.AM & .RADIO.FM to their current .FM Registry account, utilizing the same EPP registry solution, by contacting BRS Media directly at: 1.888.DOT.AMFM (1.888.368.2636)

The New Registrar and Resellers Accreditation is still open and interested registrars and domain resellers can get information at http://Radio.fm/Launch/

About BRS Media Inc:
Based in the South of Market district (SoMa) of San Francisco CA, BRS Media (http://brsmedia.fm) is listed as one of the fastest growing privately held companies by the SF Business Times and Inc.…

According to BrandShelter.com, the .An registry is being phased out with the the .An ccTLD being removed from the root server by October 2014.

I know a lot of unsophisticated domain investors may get caught up buying one of these domain names with great keyword which maybe offered with cheap pricing , so buyer beware.

Here is the announcement:

“”The University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA), the administrator of .AN domains, will start the removal of .AN domain names from their databases and systems on October 31, 2013.”

“Exactly one year later, on October 31, 2014, .AN will be excluded from the DNS root server.”

.AN is the ccTLD of the former Netherlands Antilles which have been dissolved in 2010 into the two new, autonomous countries Curacao and St. Maarten.

The operation of the .AN TLD, that exists since 1993, is being phased down.

The UNA advises to move .AN domain names to the .CW Zone. .CW is the ccTLD of Curaçao.…

According to BrandShelter.com, the .An registry is being phased out with the the .An ccTLD being removed from the root server by October 2014.

I know a lot of unsophisticated domain investors may get caught up buying one of these domain names with great keyword which maybe offered with cheap pricing , so buyer beware.

Here is the announcement:

“”The University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA), the administrator of .AN domains, will start the removal of .AN domain names from their databases and systems on October 31, 2013.”

“Exactly one year later, on October 31, 2014, .AN will be excluded from the DNS root server.”

.AN is the ccTLD of the former Netherlands Antilles which have been dissolved in 2010 into the two new, autonomous countries Curacao and St. Maarten.

The operation of the .AN TLD, that exists since 1993, is being phased down.

The UNA advises to move .AN domain names to the .CW Zone. .CW is the ccTLD of Curaçao.…

While a large part of the domain industry gathers at the 46th ICANN meeting in Beijing this week, big news are being made in the country of Mali in Africa. As reported by The Guardian, .ML domains will be available for free in July 2013. The registry will be operated by Freedom Registry, the same company that currently operated .TK (ccTLD for Tokelau). .TK currently has over 16 million active domain names according to the registry operator.

Sunrise starts on the 1st of May 2013 and will last for one month until May 31st. Landrush will begin the following day and will end on July 14th 2013. General Availability starts on July 15th at the ICANN meeting in Durban, South Africa.  There will be no restrictions to registrations of free domains and anyone can register their own .ML domain. Free .ML domains work exactly like any other extension and can be renewed each registration period at no charge.

[via The Guardian, Press Release (PDF)]

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