Verisign and the .xyz registry operator XYZ.com have both come off looking a little stupid following a recent court case whereby the .com and .net registry operator took XYZ.com saying they both looked a bit dodgy, according to a recent Domain Incite report.

“Explaining his dismissal of Verisign’s false advertising lawsuit against .xyz registry XYZ.com, Virginia judge Claude Hilton today said that XYZ.com’s statements about its registration numbers were ‘verifiably true’.”

“At the same time, he confirmed that they came about as a result of a bullshit deal with Network Solutions to bolster .xyz’s launch numbers.”

“That bogus deal enabled XYZ to report big reg volume numbers without actually, legally, lying.”

He may have a bit of bias since he’s the Managing Director of fTLD Registry Services, the operator of .bank, but Craig Schwartz argues on The DNA blog that domain names are increasingly becoming more relevant, not less.

Schwartz argues in part that “in many ways, a website’s domain name is a critical component of the [customer] introduction.”

“As we are painfully aware, cybersecurity breaches have increased significantly in the past decade, causing financial and perhaps even reputational, losses for brands that are not at the forefront of anti-cyber attack practices (and even some which are). Yet consumers across the globe still continue to conduct business online. As such, they are looking for brands to take the lead in ensuring a safe virtual experience.”

Schwartz then concludes “yet the foundational structure for a brand will always harken back to a website, anchored by a relevant domain name.”

Who should be using new gTLDs and when? That was a question the European Domain Name Centre asked of various industry participants recently. Reasons given include the ability to get a good domain, memorable name that isn’t available in often preferred TLDs, a regional gTLD can tell website visitors that you are providing services to that particular region, regional gTLDs can assist with targeting a wider customer base, underline a local heritage such as with the .wales and cymru gTLDs, assist with search rankings in local geo-gTLDs.