Google Loses Domain Arbitration To Canadian Start-Up

Announced today, the National Arbitration Forum has dismissed Google’s complaint that it was entitled to the domain name, Groovle.com.

Young Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, launched the web site in 2007, to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page.

Jacob Fuller stated “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google.”

auDA Puts Domain In Pending Delete & Goes On Holidays

On the afternoon of Thu 17th, 2009 SAPIA Pty Ltd registered the domain name “stephenconroy.com.au” as a satirical platform on which to air grievances and promote debate about the Australian governments proposed mandatory Internet filtering scheme. By 5pm the next day, the website was forcibly taken offline by auDA.

SAPIA was given merely 3 hours to issue a response which is an unusually short period of time for domain eligibility complaints to be arbitrated. A request for additional time was denied personally by auDA’s CEO shortly before the domain was taken offline.

The domain name stephenconroy.com.au is now in PendingDelete and the auDA office is closed for the holiday season – Merry Christmas.

Meanwhile, Electronic Frontiers Australia has expressed its surprise and concern:

“This incident reflects worrying concerns about the power that private domain
name regulators have to silence critical political speech without going
through legitimate legal channels.”

SAPIA Pty Ltd appears to have re-established the site (out of the range of auDA’s jurisdiction / claws) at stephen-conroy.com (no more .au).

Just in case you don’t know what the fuss is all about regarding Internet censorship in Australia, have a look at this video:

More information is available at: PRWeb, Open Letters & EFA.

Burger King Delayed In Russia After Domain Name Dispute

Burger King has delayed the launch of its Russian expansion until 2010 after failing to register the domain name burgerking.ru.

A Scandinavian company registered the domain name and Burger King Corporation (who registered its trademark in Russia back in 1994) doesn’t want to pay for it.

It appears that this dispute is headed for the Russian courts.

Source: Kommersant (Written in Russian).

Pamela Anderson In Crazy Domain Name Video!

This company has obviously been influenced by the Bob Parsons school of highly effective commercials. Warning to our “straight” female readers, you may find this objectionable.

Since watching this commercial, I’ve decided to quit domaining and apply for a job with this organisation.

Twitter DNS Records Compromised By Iranian Cyber Army

It appears that Twitters DNS Records have been compromised and people going to Twitter.com are being redirected to another website.

There is an obvious lesson to be learned about keeping your credentials safe! This isn’t the first Twitter security incident – a few months ago their web admin password was “password” !

If I was a betting man, I’d say that’s probably gonna be easy for the kids to guess.

In a blog post a few minutes ago, Twitter stated:

“Twitter’s DNS records were temporarily compromised tonight but have now been fixed. As some noticed, Twitter.com was redirected for a while but API and platform applications were working. We will update with more information and details once we’ve investigated more fully.”

The question is, how many ID’s and Passwords does the Iranian Cyber Army now have? After all, they could have easily started capturing them if they redirected the DNS records. I’m sure more details will come to light about exactly what happened. Watch this space!

VeriSign Increases Domain Name Fees In 2010

The thieves at Verisign announced today that effective July 1, 2010 there will be an increase in domain name fees for .com and .net.

The registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.86 to $7.34 and the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $4.23 to $4.65.

In a release to the market today, the organisation appeared to justify the increase saying:

“Over the last decade, the volume of Internet traffic and domain name system (DNS) queries on VeriSign’s global infrastructure has increased from an average of approximately 2 billion queries per day in the year 2000 to more than 50 billion queries per day today..”

To save you some maths, the industry is looking at a .com increase of 48 cents and .net increase of 42 cents. Happy New Year!

ICANN Report Says Domain Tasting Down 99.7%

ICANN has released the second update to the GNSO Council on the implementation of its recommendations for the Add Grace Period (AGP) Limits Policy.

Since April 2009 (when ICANN implemented policy to interfere with a free market), “the number of AGP deletes across all TLDs has held steady at around 55-65k names per month approximately 0.3% of what it once was”.

China Wants Your ID For .CN

Chinese State-Run Media is reporting that CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) is requesting that applicants must submit written applications to the registration agents.

The written materials must include an application form with an official seal, an enterprise business license and the registrant’s ID card.

Liu Zhijiang, vice director of CNNIC confirmed the news saying that the administration was determined to screen the applicant’s qualifications strictly to stop individuals obtaining domain names using fake information.

Its been reported that the announcement came after a report by China Central Television (CCTV) which critisized the registration process and linked it to the prevalence of pornographic websites.

Source: Global Times & China Daily.

Six Namecheap Coupons – Just In Time For Christmas

In any domainers portfolio there are always a handful of domains that expire towards the end of the year. I’ve just renewed my last three domains and in doing this I spent some time researching NameCheap coupons.

As such, I thought I’d post them up here for the benefit of others. By the way, its good to renew your domains for multiple years (at least 2). That way it keeps the administration overhead down.

NameCheap Christmas Coupons
1. snowneedle – Gives you $8.88 gTLDs.

2. switch2nc – $6.99 transfers (when you move your domain to Namecheap)

3. xmastree gives you 25% off shared/reseller hosting

4. santa gives you 50% off VPS for the first month

5. snowstorm gives you 10% discount for hosting packages

Remember, NameCheap gives you FREE whois privacy for the first year. I’ve personally found this valuable in keeping away spammers and others who spy on you.

6. WGSPECIAL – If you are renewing WhoisGuard (Privacy Protection) then use this coupon. It gives you Privacy Protection for just $0.99 instead of $2.88. If you do it now (I just tested it) you get a FREE PositiveSSL certificate.

If you have found these useful or if they have saved you $$$, please post a comment and let me know.

White House Dinner Party Crashers Miss Out On Domain Name

Tareq Salahi appears to have missed out on the domain name TareqSalahi.com after it was registered on November 26 to an individual in Palm Beach Florida.

It appears that Tareq registered michaelesalahi.com on June 15, but forgot to register his own name!

He and his wife Michaele gained national attention in November 2009 by allegedly crashing a White House state dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Michaele Salahi has been filmed as one of the housewives for Bravo’s upcoming The Real Housewives of DC, and sources say cameramen for the show filmed their preparations for the dinner and followed the couple to the White House.