• The most important ICANN webpage right now is here--that is the page with links and information about the ongoing IANA Transition implementation work, including this graphic:
See also Friday's CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair Update: ICANN, IANA Transition, Implementation, WS2, CCWG-Accountability | Domain Mondo.
• Take note of ICANN GNSO Working Group Newcomer Open House Session | 5 April at 20:00 UTC - RSVP via this form--remote participation details will be sent on 4 April 2016. Learn how to effectively participate in ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)--"these informal sessions provide an ideal opportunity for participants to ask questions about the GNSO Policy Development Process and the specifics of taking part in a Working Group"--Reading Materials for review in connection with the session: Annex A of the ICANN Bylaws; PDP Manual (pdf); PDP Overview; Consensus Policy; GNSO Working Group Guidelines Summary (pdf); GNSO Working Group Guidelines (pdf).
Here's the GNSO Project List (pdf) (as of March 4, 2016):
See also: http://gnso.icann.org/en/
• The DotConnectAFRICA Trust vs ICANN hearing in U.S. District Court, Los Angeles, on Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction to stop ICANN from further proceeding with delegation of the new gTLD .AFRICA is scheduled for April 4. In the meantime, ICANN has moved to dismiss Plaintiff DotConnectAFRICA Trust's case, which motion is noticed for April 25, 2016. Updates will be posted on Domain Mondo at New gTLD AFRICA: DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN, End of the Line?.
• With the end of Q1 2016, this past week, earnings season has begun. Domain Mondo will provide coverage of a select group of technology and domain name industry companies: Apple, Facebook, Alibaba, Amazon.com, Alphabet (Google), Yahoo, Neustar, Twitter, Verisign, Web.com, Rightside, GoDaddy. The schedule for each earnings release, once announced, will be posted on Domain Mondo's Stock Links page.
• Speaking of end of the first quarter of 2016, Verisign, registry operator of .COM and .NET gTLDs, posted this information on Friday:
.COM & .NET DOMAIN NAME BASE AS OF 04/01/2016
.com 126,596,055
.net 15,858,054
Total 142,454,109
The active zone as of 04/01/2016 contains 125,622,442 .com domain names and 15,654,074 .net domains totaling 141,276,516 domain names.
.COM, still by far the largest Top-level Domain in the world (see chart at left), as of December 31, 2015, had a reported Domain Name Base of 123,998,138, so "net adds" for Q1 2016 were 2.6 million domain names for .COM alone.
Which reminds me that not only are the Chinese still actively registering .COM domain names, but notwithstanding the misinformation spread by ICANN & new gTLD operators, you can still find and register good exact match dot COM domain names--just this past Friday an old friend contacted me for advice concerning a new business he was starting in a highly-regulated industry. He included in his email the name he had in mind for the business. I immediately checked, and the exact match .COM domain name was available for registration, as well as 3 alternative .COM domain names I also suggested he immediately register before proceeding further.
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| Largest Top 20 gTLDs at scale, .COM far left (8.8.2014) |
Which reminds me that not only are the Chinese still actively registering .COM domain names, but notwithstanding the misinformation spread by ICANN & new gTLD operators, you can still find and register good exact match dot COM domain names--just this past Friday an old friend contacted me for advice concerning a new business he was starting in a highly-regulated industry. He included in his email the name he had in mind for the business. I immediately checked, and the exact match .COM domain name was available for registration, as well as 3 alternative .COM domain names I also suggested he immediately register before proceeding further.
This past week's five most popular posts on Domain Mondo (# of pageviews Sun-Sat):
- News Review [March 27]: France Blasts IANA Proposal, Berkman to Assess ICANN
- ISIS and the Internet: Networks, IP Addresses, Domains (videos)
- Ben Horowitz on the Lessons He Learned From Intel's Andy Grove (video)
- Is This The Time For Americans To Invest In Cuba? (videos)
- Domain Names, New gTLDs, Present & Future Perspectives, SSIG Video