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Issue #11 Summer 2009
Webnames.ca's Corporate Domain Management News
Here’s to the beginning of a wonderful summer season. Read our recap of domain industry news from the past few months below. You can also follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/webnames.
In this Issue:
DNS Advantage – A new DNS offering from Webnames.ca
DNS Advantage is a new suite of DNS services that will launch early next month.
A new easy-to-use interface has been designed and functionality has been added for: Date Last Modified and Time-to-Live (TTL) settings, SV and Authority SOA records. Secondary DNS users can now enter up to a maximum of 5 DNS (previously, only one primary name server could be listed).
Advanced DNS, IP Pointing and Secondary DNS services will cover all your DNS needs.
For clients already signed up for DNS Advantage, you will automatically have access to the new functionality when you login to your account. To purchase DNS Advantage, please visit our website after our launch date or contact your account representative at corporate@webnames.ca.
Bulk Tools - increased efficiency for volume accounts
Webnames.ca has recently updated the Bulk Tools interface for our volume accounts. The new interface allows for global updates for up to 50 domains at one time in your account, freeing up your valuable time. You can now use Bulk Tools for New Registrations, Domain Forwarding, Renewals, Auto Renewals, DNS changes and Domain Lock.
Contact your account representative at corporate@webnames.ca to have this functionality enabled in your account.
Hornet, Webnames.ca’s .TEL Blackberry® app now launched
Webnames.ca has developed the “Hornet”, a free .TEL application for the Blackberry® that allows you to search, store and use .TEL names quickly and effectively. Simply download the application and enter a name like Webnames.tel and contact information is instantly pulled into your mobile device.
For more information go to www.hornethub.com or download directly onto your Blackberry® at www.hornet.tel.
Third level .ca domain names.
Third level .ca names (eg. yourname.bc.ca or yourname.on.ca) and fourth level .ca names (eg. yourname.vancouver.bc.ca or yourname.toronto.on.ca) block the second level name (eg. yourname.ca) from being registered. So if you register a third level domain for your .ca with a renewal date one or more months from the renewal date of your second level domain you can be sure that even if your second level name expires you will never lose it because it will not be made available to a third party.
Besides added security, third and fourth level domains also provide advantages from an SEO perspective. Since the geographical location is right in the domain name, this will help with search engine optimization, in particular for local search.
Let your account representative know if you would like to know more about getting third level domain protection for your .ca portfolio.
Recent domain disputes & resolutions
United Business Media LLC loses a dispute over xchangecanada.ca.
Handi Foods Ltd. wins a dispute over mrpita.ca and handifoods.ca.
The Governing Council of the University of Toronto wins a dispute over utorontohousing.ca.
JTH Tax, Inc. wins a dispute over libertytax.ca.
LPG Systems S.A. wins a dispute over wellbox.ca.
Domain names in these difficult financial times
Most domain names continue to increase in value over time so they should be considered as not only part of your intellectual property portfolio but also part of your corporate assets.
If you need to prioritize the domain names in your portfolio it may help to ask yourself:
- How active are the websites built on your domain names?
- Is the domain name derived from your products, services, brands, and/or trademarks?
- Am I using the domain name to its full potential i.e. is it active and hosted, does it have an email address associated to it, is it being forward to one of my other websites?
- If I let the domain name expire could it be used by someone else in such a way to disrupt my business or undermine my brands?
- Can I save money by renewing at a discounted rate for longer terms?
- Can I save money by coupling my domain names with other products and services?
Contact your account representative to have an account review completed for you and we will help you maximize the potential of your domain portfolio.
Domain Industry News
The meetings
of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are taking place this week in Sydney, Australia. As usual, there is a very diverse collection of participants and topics. Of particular interest is the prospect of the creation of a large number of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Several organizations have booths promoting registry services to prospective TLD applicants, and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is in town launching a bid for .food, and possibly for .restaurant and .wine as well.
There are many other topics on the agenda:
- the forthcoming expiry of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and the U.S. government
- the fast-tracking of country-code domain names using international (non-Latin) character sets
- a tribute to outgoing ICANN President and CEO Paul Twomey and the anticipated announcement of his replacemen
- many technical and security-oriented items, including the prospect of scaling up the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS), secure DNS, and the need for internationalizing WHOIS registration data
Worldwide Domain Name Count Tops 180 Million – VeriSign’s Q1 2009 industry brief issued in early June states that there are more than 180 million domain names registered. This is a 12% increase over Q1 2008. Registrations from the ccTLDs rose to 74.1 million, an annual increase of 18%. .com remained the most popular extension, with country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) remaining strong with .cn (China) and .de (Germany) being the next most popular domain extensions after .com in terms of growth. Historically, the first quarter of the year is very strong for domain registrations.
Lawsuit Against VeriSign Reinstated - A U.S. appeals court has reinstated an antitrust lawsuit by the Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) concerning VeriSign's agreement with ICANN to operate the .com and .net domain registries. The appeals court reversed an earlier district court ruling.
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