The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased new domain registrations as well as median growth rates, the latter something which has been seldom seen over the last decade, a CENTR report out this week has found. As businesses of all sizes get online for the first time, develop new ideas and even cybercriminals, new domain names have been registered, particularly in ccTLDs.
Amendments to the .ee domain name regulations, the registrar contract and the rules of the Domain Disputes Committee (DVK) will come into force on 1 July the Estonian Internet Foundation announced last week.
Donuts announced this week their .place new gTLD will become a generic top-level domain on 1 June, dropping the current eligibility restrictions.
Some of the world’s most recognised brands – Amazon, Apple, Beyoncé – have scored their .dealer domain name during the launch of the new gTLD’s Sunrise period that began on 25 March, while General Availability commences on 24 June.
Registrations are now open for the ICANN68 Policy Forum scheduled for 22-25 June 2020. Originally to be held physically in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic it has now been held as a virtual meeting instead.
Continue reading Registrations Now Open For Virtual ICANN68 In June
Over 64,000 previously unregistered .PR domain names were released on Monday, Puerto Rico Top Level Domain has announced. The domains released are a mix of words and terms in Spanish and English as well as numerical strings.
Continue reading .PR Releases 64,000 Premium Domains
The .gay team at Top Level Design announced Tuesday that they made a $34,400 donation to support vital LGBTQ community services at GLAAD and CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers!
.gay is currently open to trademark holders and brands, but will become available to the general public in the northern hemisphere’s autumn of 2020. Through .gay‘s business model of giving to LGBTQ causes, they have already raised $17,200 for GLAAD and $17,200 for CenterLink during their first .gay Sunrise Phase, which kicked off in February and just ended last week.
In addition to creating a completely new medium for LGBTQ visibility, .gay has made this industry-first commitment of donating 20% of all new registration revenue to its LGBTQ nonprofit partners, which will help address key issues facing these communities. All registrars are also encouraged to match the .gay donation at the retail level or make their own pledges in support for LGBTQ people. This first $34,400 donation is the first of many more to come as the .gay brand launches and grows.
Beyond increasing visibility for LGBTQ communities and directly supporting organisations through charitable giving, the brand is centred around rejecting the status quo and creating a safer internet for LGBTQ people through its “.gay Rights Protections” policy, which ensures that registrars and domains will represent LGBTQ people appropriately and respond to reported instances of hate or harassment on all .gay sites. The registry is committed to setting a higher industry standard by taking steps to ensure that all .gay domain names remain free of harassment, hate speech, and anti-LGBTQ content, as well as providing specific remedies for domains that do not uphold these standards.
.gay is also directly supporting broader LGBTQ communities between April and August of this year by providing early access to a limited number of .gay names free of charge. Any LGBTQ organisation, community group, individual, or small business looking to foster digital pride and connection in advance of the official .gay launch this fall can fill out this form to begin the process of securing their .gay name at no cost to them: https://www.ohhey.gay/gay-giveaway
[news release] GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs, today announced that over 30 brands, including American Express, Nextdoor, PayPal, Salesforce, and Slack, have joined the company’s growing #OpenWeStand movement. These companies are contributing resources, tools and insights to help sustain entrepreneurs and the small and microbusinesses they operate during this challenging time.
Brands joining #OpenWeStand include: Acronis, American Express, Association for Enterprise Opportunity, Avetta, BrandCrowd, Brex, ChowNow, Digital Air Strike, Evite, Gift Up!, GoFundMe, Hello Alice, Inc. Media, Kabbage, Keap, Keysight Technologies, Moneypenny, Next Insurance, Next Street, Nextdoor, PayPal, Rocket Lawyer, Ruby, Salesforce, Seed Spot, ServiceTitan, Shaw Academy, Slack, SurveyMonkey, and Zenefits.
“We’re all in uncharted territory and standing together is how we’ll emerge stronger,” said Brad Armstrong, Vice President Business Development & Corporate Development, Slack. “Together with GoDaddy, we’re proud to do our part in helping small businesses stay connected and productive no matter where they’re working from.”
The #OpenWeStand website has become a communal gathering place for entrepreneurs to learn, ask questions, lend advice, and utilize resources available to them. #OpenWeStand partners are pledging to support small businesses by contributing resources (including how-to articles and videos, webinars and virtual consultations), and discounted product/service offerings, and other relief to help them navigate the crisis.
As part of #OpenWeStand, GoDaddy has signed a corporate pledge in support of small businesses, including funneling its purchasing power to small businesses whenever possible and committing to no company layoffs for at least 90 days as the global community endures this turbulent time. Giving GoDaddy employees job security will enable them to continue to help customers while feeling safe.
“The needs and dreams of everyday entrepreneurs are at the very heart of everything we do as a company,” said GoDaddy CMO Fara Howard. “We have a duty to provide entrepreneurs with access to the resources and community spirit they crucially need today. We’ve been encouraged by the initial response to #OpenWeStand and are excited to continue to grow this movement in the weeks and months ahead.”
#OpenWeStand was created to help entrepreneurs such as Patti Curtis, owner of Fogue Studios, an open studio/art gallery for older artists in her community in Seattle, WA. When Ms. Curtis was forced to close Fogue Studios’ doors following the shelter in place order, she quickly expanded her website to make artwork that was previously only available in her gallery available for sale online. She even set up a YouTube channel that includes video tours and interviews with artists to bring her customers close to the experience they would have previously had visiting her gallery in-person.
“The past several weeks have put my creativity, flexibility and resiliency to the test,” said Ms. Curtis. “I’m proud of how I’ve been able to quickly evolve my studio and am looking forward to connecting with other entrepreneurs to share lessons learned as others seek to adapt their businesses in response to our current crisis.”
To learn more about how to contribute to the #OpenWeStand movement or join the community please visit: https://www.openwestand.org/.
About GoDaddy
GoDaddy is empowering everyday entrepreneurs around the world by providing all of the help and tools to succeed online. With 19 million customers worldwide, GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers and manage their work. Our mission is to give our customers the tools, insights and the people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success. To learn more about the company visit www.GoDaddy.com.
This GoDaddy news release was sourced from: https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2020/GoDaddy-Builds-Coalition-of-Companies-Including-American-Express-Nextdoor-PayPal-Salesforce-and-Slack-to-Help-Small-Businesses-Weather-COVID-19/default.aspx
Registrants of domain names in gTLDs have been given relief by ICANN should they be facing hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes concerns about the ability of registrants to renew their domain names in a timely manner given current circumstances.
To ease the burden, ICANN announced in a blog post last week they will be invoking section 3.7.5.1 of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement for the second time. This clause permits registrars to temporarily forebear from cancelling domain name registrations that were unable to be renewed as a result of a natural disaster.
The post by Russ Weinstein, Senior Director, gTLD Accounts and Services, notes “the COVID-19 pandemic once again highlights the potential need for a policy initiative to protect registrants when they are unable to renew their domains as a result of natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances. In the interim, we encourage contracted parties to take these circumstances into consideration when reviewing renewal delinquencies.”
EURid is warning of a website that is infringing on their trademarks, illegitimately ripping off their website even including the EURid announcement that they’re… ripping off their website.
The website, http://aim-search.info, is illegally using EURid’s trademark without authorisation and has copied the content and the lay-out of our official website. They even link to the legitimate EURid social media accounts.
EURid, the registry for .eu, .ею (Cyrillic) and .ευ (Greek) top-level domains, has said this constitutes infringement of their intellectual property rights and misleads consumers into believing that EURid is somehow associated with this website. EURid has taken legal action against its holder.