Start-up companies are trying to be clever with their choice of name, attempting to stand out from the myriad of new online firms. So, as the Los Angeles Times reports in a recent article, they are choosing names from Abazab to Xoopit.

Apart from attempting to stand out, they also need domain names. Earlier examples of online companies using this method would have to include the companies they are often trying to compete against - Google, Yahoo and EBay. … more

The number of domain names registered globally now totals more than 138 million, according to the second quarter 2007 Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign. The largest TLDs in terms of total base of registrations are .com, .de, .net, .uk, .cn and .org.

A factor in the expansion of domain name registrations in the second quarter was strong growth in ccTLD registrations, such as .cn, .ru and .kr. ccTLDs grew to about 51.5 million by the end of the second quarter, approximately 13 percent more than the first quarter of 2007, and 36 percent more than the same quarter of last year. Other gTLDs saw growth as well, including .com and .net, which grew to 73 million domain name registrations.” … more

DotAsia Organisation announced a landmark partnership with ICANNWiki, a grassroots domain collaborative website and industry resource for ICANN stakeholders, that will leverage the Web 2.0 web-based communities to expand online community participation for DotAsia’s .Asia Pioneer Domains Program. … more

In his weekly wrap of the previous week’s domain name sales, Ron Jackson reports LI.COM was the biggest seller last week, selling for US$500,000. Other six-figure sales were supernatural.com ($125,000) and Passover.com ($100,000). Ron also notes Sedo was responsible for “27 of the 50 highest sales including the top two and seven of the first ten.” In the ccTLD sales, reviews.co.uk sold for £38,000 while baby.org sold for €47,234 and Pay.mobi for $50,000. An interesting sale was home.gr for €21,000, the 20th biggest sale for the week. … more

The world’s 500 biggest companies have all fallen victim to typosquatting according to OUT-LAW research. Their research found that the fast-growing trend of making ad money from web domains similar to famous brands affects all the world’s biggest firms. … more

“A working group set up by [ICANN] to thrash out differences over proposed privacy changes to the WHOIS database stopped work last week with little real agreement on how or even whether to implement the reforms” reports ComputerWorld.

The lack of agreement centres around the “group’s failure to come up with a proposal that could have been accepted by ICANN continues a long-standing stalemate on proposed reforms to the way WHOIS data is handled.” … more

Online gamblers have been in a bit of a pickle this week with trouble at Bodog due to a dispute over the ownership of the domain name bodog.com, causing the website to be temporarily out of action. It’s back up and running now at a new address. … more

At the end of last week, Mr. Laurent Schütz of the City of Lucerne’s fire brigade registered the one-millionth domain name with the ending .ch. The holder of the one millionth domain name is Laurent Schütz and comes from Lucerne. EZ14 stands for “Einsatzzug 14″ (Engine 14) of the City of Lucerne’s fire brigade. Laurent Schütz had the idea of setting up the website a few days before he registered the domain name. He intends to use the website to post photos of joint excursions for his colleagues. … more

Eighteen months after its official launch, there are now more than 2.5 million .eu domain names. While most registrants continue to use their gTLD or ccTLD address as their default domain name, there are a number of companies and organisations using their .eu domain, most multinational or pan-European companies still use the .com or .org address as the default. … more

There will be more than 24,000 .cat registrations after its first year in operation according to reports in Noticiasdot.com. Currently there are over 23,600 registrations. The executive director of Punt.Cat, Jordi Iparaguirre, describes this as a ‘notable’ achievement. … more

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and MYNIC Berhad, the .my domain name registrar will be presenting MCMC-MYNIC Seminar & Exhibition - Southern Corridor Roadshow 2007 on 6th September 2007 (Thursday) at Persada Johor International Convention Centre in Johor Bahru with the theme “Get Online: Empower Yourself on the Internet”. … more

The international Honeynet Project has used honeypot technology developed at New Zealand’s Victoria University to track web-based security attacks reports ComputerWorld.

The article notes “Even seemingly safe web addresses are rife with attack code aiming at vulnerable clients, according to the Honeynet Project study based on the technology. The authors say that methods such as blacklists can be surprisingly successful in stopping client-side attacks.” … more

Last week’s story from Canada’s Globe and Mail on Canada’s and Register.com’s contribution to terrorism is put in its place by Professor Michael Geist. Geist makes four points ridiculing the Globe’s position. … more

“The figure behind controversial business schemes, Stephen Cleeve, has failed in his bid to gain control of the .com domain name consisting of his name. A site that criticises his activities has been allowed to keep the name. In arguments before the [WIPO] … arbitration panel, Australian body Consumer Protection described Cleeve as a con man.” … more

What are the biggest challenges facing the internet’s growth and stability, and how should they be tackled? How will the rapid rise of video affect internet infrastructure and drive the net neutrality debate? Will the pursuit of ever more personal information by companies such as Google be welcomed by users? The Financial Times asks these questions, but they want your questions. Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, the FT’s Media Editor, will put a selection of readers’ questions to Vint Cerf in a video interview that will go live on Thursday August 30. … more