Identity Digital is to take over the running of .ai, following a deal with the Government of Anguilla announced today. The two parties said they “plan to build a world-class registry management program that prioritizes quality domains and instills trust in .AI domain names for years to come”. It looks like a back-end deal. There’s […] The post Identity Digital to take over .ai first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

The Internet Commerce Association and WIPO are jointly chairing an off-the-books review of the UDRP, ahead of a likely ICANN review of the anti-cybersquatting policy next year. WIPO said today that the review is being coordinated by Brian Beckham of WIPO and Zak Muscovitch of the ICA, and comprises another 16 participants, mostly UDRP lawyers, […] The post ICA teams up with WIPO on UDRP reform first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

ICANN’s response to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former long-serving employee was “inadequate” and failed to address “pervasive and obvious problems” women experience in the community, some veteran community members have said. In a letter to chair Tripti Sinha, 15 people, not exclusively female, also say that previous responses to reports of harassment […] The post Response to sex harassment lawsuit “inadequate”, say ICANN vets first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

Unstoppable Domains says it has now registered over four million names on its collection of blockchain-based alternative naming systems. The volume appears to spread across multiple extensions. Unstoppable runs names such as .crypto, .x, .wallet and .nft, as well as dozens of more obscure branded strings, such as .pudgy and .bald, with its partners. If […] The post Unstoppable tops four million names first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

Amazon appears to be dusting off two of its long-dormant gTLDs, targeting the books and fashion industries ahead of launch next year. But it’s probably not worth getting too excited about if you only speak English. The TLDs are .ファッション (.xn--bck1b9a5dre4c), which is Japanese for “fashion” and .書籍 (.xn--rovu88b), which is Chinese for “books”. Updated […] The post Amazon readying fashion and book gTLDs first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

With the future of .io coming into question this week, with the news that the UK will return sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, I thought it would be a good time to see how ICANN has treated disappearing countries and territories in the past. As far as I can tell, ccTLDs […] The post Five times ICANN deleted a ccTLD, and what it means for .io first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

The future of the .io ccTLD is up in the air today with the announcement that the UK is to hand over the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to Mauritius. The two governments announced today that they will sign a treaty agreeing “that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago”. […] The post Future of .io domains uncertain as UK hands over Chagos islands first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

Anguilla’s .ai ccTLD added 54,372 domain names in the last quarter, according to the registry’s web site. The total today is 533,068 domains, compared to 478,696 on July 1, according to an update posted this afternoon. The .ai domains under management number was 306,861 about a year ago. .ai now has about as many registered […] The post .ai now has over half a million names first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

The ccTLD registries for UK and Israel cut their funding to ICANN by the largest amounts in the Org’s last financial year, according to the latest numbers. ICANN received mostly voluntary ccTLD contributions totaling $2,135,937 in its fiscal 2024, which ended June 30, according to its report, which was published (pdf) a couple weeks ago. […] The post UK and Israel cut ICANN funding first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more

Twitter appears to have dragged itself into the 2020s with the linkification function of its service, after years of complaints. On the web version of its service at least, Twitter now correctly makes domains in all the newest TLDs into clickable links automatically, with no http:// prefix required. This means users are able to share […] The post Twitter now up-to-date on linkification first appeared on Domain Incite ..read more