Recently in Domains Category

There's been a lot of media attention on the new TLD process in the last few days, which is a good thing. Unfortunately most of it is badly written, misleading or simply misinformed.

Let's look at the reality.

To start with, there are currently 20 gTLDs ie. "global" top level domains (extensions). (21 if you include arpa) These are:

1. com
2. net
3. org
4. info
5. biz
6. mobi
7. name
8. museum
9. pro
10. cat
11. aero
12. asia
13. coop
14. jobs
15. tel
16. travel
17. edu
    
18. gov
19. mil
20. int

There are a further 248 ccTLDs (country codes, such as "ie", "im" etc) - I won't list them here!
 
During the ICANN meeting in Paris the new TLD process was officially started (based on community feedback ie. it didn't come out of nowhere).

What that means in plain English is that ICANN said "let's do this", but they didn't say "how", "when" or "how much".

In reality what has happened so far is that there has been a LOT of discussion and debate and disagreement. There will be more to come in the coming weeks and months as the process moves forward.

First off ...

Can anyone get a TLD?

No.
In order to get a TLD you would need to meet criteria on multiple levels, both financial and technical.
A lot of the media coverage seems to suggest that just about anyone who wants to can run their own domain extension - the reality is that they can't.

How much will it cost?

The application fee is currently set at $185k, however you would really need to have a couple of million in the coffers if you wanted to actually launch a TLD. (As was pointed out to me the costs would be lower for a non-commercial TLD)
The application fee does not cover any legal costs, backend costs, marketing, staff, PR etc., Depending on the TLD you are interested in setting up you might also need to have lobbyists working with you..

When will the new TLDs be available?

At the moment there is no exact date.
ICANN are pushing for opening the application process in Q1 of 2010.
Bearing in mind that applications won't be accepted immediately and that any new TLD operator would need a "ramp up" period, I doubt if there would be any launched until 2011 at the earliest.

What about trademark holders? Will people be able to "squat" on brand names easily?

Trademark holders have been engaged in the process and the IRT report was published recently. In essence TM holders' concerns will need to be addressed as part of the process, though other parties rights should not be ignored.

Who is planning on launching new TLDs?

Nobody knows exactly who will be applying, as some people are in "stealth" mode, but there is a partial list of possible TLDs here.

The applicants fall into several categories:

• cultural / special interest groups - like the Basques or Breton
  
• city domains - New York, Berlin, Paris are all pitching for their own tlds (.nyc, .berlin, .paris)
  
• commercial - too many to even begin naming
  
• other - single registrant type applications for example if BMW were to get .bmw
  

How much will registering one of these new domains cost?

The cost for registering a domain name will depend on the registry operator.

What about IDNs?

Some organisations are trying to launch IDN TLDs (ie. domain extensions that not only support non-Latin characters, but are actually made up of non-Latin characters)

Should small businesses owners be concerned?

In short - no.

Without knowing which new TLDs will launch it's impossible to give sage advice to small business owners at the moment, I would, however, encourage them to "keep an eye open". If a New York based business doesn't register the corresponding .nyc domain, for example, they could end up missing out on a fantastic opportunity. However the same business wouldn't gain much from registering a .paris ...

What about privacy?

This is still a matter that is being debated. If new registry operators were to adopt a whois policy similar to that of .tel (Telnic) which protects private individuals it would be ideal.

What about spam? What about phishing?

Nobody is going to be able to setup a TLD for the sole purpose of abuse. Anyone who tells you otherwise is seriously misinformed. Spam and phishing isn't a TLD specific problem anyway.

If anyone has any other questions or queries they feel need addressing please let us know via the comments and I will do my best to respond.

Blacknight Solutions, Ireland's leading internet services company, is proud to announce it is now the largest domain name registrar for .eu domain names in Ireland.


"A .eu domain name is a great way not just for Irish businesses, but all Europeans, to promote themselves throughout Europe and the wider world," said Michele Neylon, CEO of Blacknight Solutions. "Ireland is one of Europe's leading export economies, and Blacknight strongly encourage Europeans to register .eu domains as a great way to express European identity."


"With domain name registrations continuing to defy the global financial crisis, Blacknight is encouraging people thinking of registering a .eu domain name to not delay. Especially as it only costs €5.95 per year."


By registering a .eu domain name, it demonstrates your product or service's European identity. A .eu domain name assists in showcasing products and services to the 500 million Europeans in 27 European countries and out into the wider world.


There are almost three million .eu domain names registered by European businesses and individuals, with any company or organisation based in the European Union and any person living in the EU eligible to register a .eu domain name.


"By offering .eu domain names is part of being able to offer our clients a full range of domain name services, from registration to hosting, making Blacknight a one-stop shop for all a businesses' or individual's requirements."


Blacknight offers advice on domain name and webhosting requirements, with domain name registration services available for all major European countries and further afield throughout the world.


About Blacknight Solutions

Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd is a 100% Irish-owned company specialising in serving the hosting and co-location needs of businesses, both large and small. Its servers are based in Ireland's leading datacenters: The Data Electronics Group in Clondalkin, Dublin and Interxion, also in Dublin. By partnering with innovative companies, like Parallels and Comodo, Blacknight brings best-of-breed technologies to the Irish market, while maintaining an aggressive pricing model. Blacknight are members of the IIA, ISPAI, RIPE, INEX and Nominet.  Blacknight are an ICANN accredited registrar. See www.blacknight.com for more information.

I am a strong advocate of the new TLD process that is currently ongoing in the ICANN community and it is something that will be central to the discussions in the upcoming meeting in Sydney.

One of the areas that I feel particularly strong about is privacy for registrants.

If you register a co.uk domain or a .eu domain as a private individual you can choose to hide your contact information in whois. What that means is that your contact details remain private, as long as you are a private individual. If you are a business user, then you should be displaying your contact information, as is mandated by various EU directives (it also makes sense for consumers to know who is behind a website).

Unfortunately in the gTLD world (ie. com/net/org/info/biz) the whois data is not private, so any information you supply during domain registration will be viewable.

Enter .tel.

With the launch of .tel the landscape for gTLDs changed slightly and it is now possible for a private individual to "opt out" of whois when they register .tel domains.

Great news!

So what of the new TLDs? Will they be able to offer private registrants that same level of privacy?

I would have liked to think that they would be able to, especially as several of the new TLD projects are aimed at providing domain name services for cultural and ethnic groups, such as the Basques, Scots and Bretons (to name a few).

Unfortunately the intellectual property advocates would appear to hold their rights to be of greater importance than those of private citizens' right to privacy.

As part of the new TLD process the IRT report, which was published a couple of days ago, looked at the issue of registrant privacy, but basically swept it under the carpet, as it did not fit with their view of how whois should work.

Hopefully the ICANN board and other actors will have the foresight to see past their blinkered recommendations and allow new registry operators to give domain registrants the same rights to privacy as the cctld operators already do.

There is currently a public comment period open on this very subject, so I would urge people to take a few minutes to submit their views.

For a longer rant on why I personally feel that the IRT report is fundamentally flawed see my post here .

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• ICANN IRT Report Open For Comment With Short Timeframe (isquattedyour.eu)
• Blacknight Goes Down Under (blacknight.com)

Milestones are great, especially when you least expect them.

Earlier today I logged into our Eurid account to check some figures and saw this:



We're now the largest Eurid accredited registrar in Ireland and climbing up the overall charts steadily (we've still got a long way to go globally!)

As some people were asking I'm making available the slides from the session this afternoon on online brand protection.

As you can see my slides aren't particularly long or detailed, but hopefully people will get some idea of what I was talking about

Questions / comments welcome as always.

domains-iia-blacknight-2009.ppt

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• Protect Your Brand Globally - IIA Congress 2009 (blacknight.com)

As part of the IIA Congress this week I'll be involved in one of the afternoon "breakout" sessions:

Protect Your Brand Globally

The session, which is sponsored by Eurid, will involve registry operators (Eurid), registrars (Blacknight) and the legal profession (Matheson Ormsby Prentice).

What will we be talking about?

In broad terms it's all about domains, registering domains, protecting your brand online and related topics.

The upcoming launch of new top level domains, for example, is a topic that brand owners should be aware of.

I haven't finalised my slides for it yet, so if anyone wants a particular topic covered feel free to leave a comment below and I'll try to facilitate it.


So if you're at the IIA Congress why not drop by, as the session will be run a few times in the afternoon.