Should Scotland Have Its Own TLD?

Ahh Scotland. The top bit of that big island known as the UK. You know the place: William Wallace, Braveheart, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Well it appears that they are a little bit irritated by “sharing” .uk and now they want their own TLD. Hmmm.. cant think of any reason why a Scotsman wouldn’t like the English.

Apparently the First Minister Alex Salmond visited the Spanish region of Catalonia and found this thing called the Internet. It turns out that Catalonia has .cat and so he wants .sco – just don’t tell him about SCO Unix. By the way – pussy.cat is taken.

“It is not only for Scots who live in Scotland but for our extensive Diaspora and it will be particularly appropriate for a bid to be made during the 2009 Year of Homecoming” Salmond said. I’m wondering if that means that all the Scots are leaving us to go home now its the new year?

It might come as no surprise that there is strong support for dot scot; according to the UK Press Association “Two government surveys showed support among Scots organisations running at 58% and in an international poll, the figure rose to 82%”. Scotland’s governing party, the SNP has got together a working group and is preparing for the submission to ICANN (assuming .anything-goes).

Word also has it that Groundskeeper Willie wants bigwillie.scot. So what do you think? Should Scotland have it’s own TLD or be made to share with those lovely English folk for a little while longer?

Calling For Nominations – 2008 Internet Marketing Awards

If you’re involved in Internet marketing as well as domaining, Kikabink News is calling for nominations for its 2008 Internet Marketing Awards.

Just fill in the nomination form (totally  anonymous, no need to optin, etc).

Cameroon Offers Second Level .CM Domains

NETCOM.cm SARL, the official registry operator for the Republic of Cameroon has announced the launch of second level CM domain names.

Kids – come and get your .COM.CM, .NET.CM, and .CO.CM.

Applications must be made through an accredited registrar. You can also get some great bedtime reading flicking through the rules and registration policies.

Here are the launch details:

• Sunrise Period Opens – 15 Oct 2008 (10.00 UTC) – Registered trademarks to apply
• Sunrise period closes – 31 Oct 2008
• Sunrise challenge period – 1 Nov 2008 – to 14 Nov 208
• General Registrations – 15 November 2008 (10.00 UTC) on a first-come-first-served basis

Here comes the next gold mine, revolution, never to be repeated land rush, land grab, extravoganza to get all those names you just need to have.

So who will be the first registrar to spam the hell out of me with this crap send me opt-in advertising for related services?

Network Solutions Backflip On Front Running

Network Solutions has tried the good old “Jedi Mind Trick” – and its FAILED big time.

These aren’t the domains your looking for…. move along… move along.

The company has issued a press release saying:

“Network Solutions has long called for a fee-based solution to eliminate the related abuses of domain name “tasting” and “front running.”

Umm… guys… just in case you DIDNT actually know…. YOU were the morons people who were sprung big time registering other peoples domain names without their knowledge engaging in this practice! Hello!!!!! Your magical jedi powers don’t extend to rewriting history. Now you write a press release saying that “these practices are abusive”.

What you guys need to do is, get a dictionary, now lookup the word hypocrisy [hip-ok-rass-ee]. Just in case you are too busy counting the great big piles of cash you are making from your monopoly (I’m sure you know the meaning of that word) – hypocrisy means “the practice of claiming to have standards or beliefs that are contrary to one’s real character or actual behaviour”.

Thanks to the guys at TechCrunch for bringing this to light. By the way Network Solutions, your so called “explanation” is not credible. Why do it in the first instance? What steps are you taking internally to ensure that you (as a company) don’t condone and/or engage in such unethical business practices in the future?

Godaddy Sponsors A Truck Driver?

Godaddy is well known for its eye candy sponsorship deal with Indy Racing League star Danica Patrick. Well now its the guys turn; Godaddy has just announced that it will sponsor 18 year old rookie Landon Cassill in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

“This is very cool,” said Cassill shortly after the GoDaddy.com deal was signed. “I love what Go Daddy has done with Dale and Danica. I think Go Daddy has really made a big impact in the racing world with their sponsorships. It will be awesome to work with them!”

“We see big things for this young rookie,” said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “The way he raced go-karts just like Danica is fun, but the fact he and his family have been GoDaddy.com customers since they started using the Web is just the icing on the cake.”

“I love all the racy GoDaddy.com commercials, but my favorite ad has to be the KART commercial with Danica. It tells the story of how everyone can chase their dreams,” Cassill said.

Cassill will be vying for his first checkered flag in a NASCAR race Friday at the helm of the GoDaddy.com No. 46 Chevrolet.