Dollars.com is currently the domain name on the Sedo auction list that is poised to be a big sale with there currently being only being one bid of €302,500, already meeting its reserve bid. … more

Following the relaunch of the .pro TLD with expanded registration guidelines approved by ICANN, Registry.pro has announced a five-fold increase in registrations since September 2008. … more

As part of the DOMAINfest Global conference currently underway in Hollywood, there will also be a Moniker live and extended online auction. … more

ICANN has launched the seventh round of fellowship program applications for its 35th International Public Meeting to be held in Sydney, Australia from 21-26 June 2009. … more

In accordance with ICANN’s commitment to continuous improvement in the management of meetings, and in response to requests for advanced planning, ICANN today posts a call for Expressions of Interest to host the meeting to be held in Europe on 17-23 October 2010. The objective is to routinely provide advice on locations for meetings 12 months ahead of schedule. … more

A public comment period opens today for 20 days on an Initial Report on Fast Flux Hosting.

In May 2008, the GNSO Council initiated a Policy Development Process (PDP) and called for the creation of a working group on fast flux. The working group was asked to consider the following questions: … more

“The controversy over whether keywords sold by search engines can infringe trade marks has intensified, after the Dutch Supreme Court referred five questions on the subject to the European Court of Justice (’ECJ’),” says Law-Now, an online publication of the law firm CMS Cameron McKenna LLP. … more

The German IPv6 Council initiated a contest for ideas pertaining to the next generation of the internet. The council invites submissions of applications which are based on the new internet standard of IPv6. This way the transition to the new rules of data traffic on the internet should take place in an efficient manner and on a large scale. … more

In the first full week of 2009, it appears domain name buyers have gone on holidays suggests the latest analysis of domain names sales by Ron Jackson in his Domain Name Journal. The biggest sale for the week was an inconsequential US$43,222 for 288.com sold by Sedo followed by dubai.info which sold for $35,000, also sold by Sedo. … more

The new gTLD proposals have made it to the Australian press with an article in The Australian that begins saying there will be a slowdown in domain name registration growth in the current financial climate. The article quotes research from MAP Research that says there will be almost 300 million domain name registrations by 2011, but that “growth will fall to an average of 13.6 per cent over the three-year period, with new activity concentrated in developing markets such as China”, according to MAP director Marco Marcou, with the majority of growth coming in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries. … more

With a little over three days left of the Sedo auction, top.com has a highest bid so far of €101,000 with its reserve already met. … more

Another gTLD proposal has launched, with .Music the latest one to catch our attention. .Music is aiming to give musicians, artists, bands, industry professionals and music organisations their own unique extension suffix on the web. … more

Abstract: Although ICANN technically does not regulate Internet content, its day-to-day decisions consistently influence not only the structure of the Internet, but its content as well. ICANN policies concerning the approval of Top Level Domains and Internationalized Domain Names, maintenance of the WHOIS database, treatment of common vehicles for abuse, and requirements governing speech, for example, have far-reaching implications. Among the ramifications are the potential for protecting children online now or in the future, stopping the flow of child pornography, thwarting predators and sex traffickers, and maintaining legitimate free speech policy. … more

Telnic Limited announced that universities on both sides of the Atlantic are registering their .tel domains.

The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom were successful in securing OXFORD.TEL as well as UNIVERSITYOFOXFORD.TEL, whilst the President and Fellows of Harvard College were also front of the queue in securing HARVARD.TEL. … more

SIDN organised the Domain Name Debate 2008 at Zeist Castle on 13 November. On 25 November, SIDNublished a draft report on the debate on this website, in response to which a number of participants submitted feedback. A finalised version of the report, revised to take account of the feedback, is now available. … more