NIC México has announced the .MX country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) reached 300,000 registered domain names recently, with the number of registrations today standing at 309,112. Of these, 58,000 domain names registered in 2009 alone showing a rapid growth for the ccTLD. … more

In a move to allow domain names to be registered and accessible to as many people in the European Union as possible, the European Commission has announced speakers of Bulgarian and Greek will soon be able to have .eu websites in their own languages. … more

As the result of the recent de-accreditation of registrar Maxim Internet, Inc., ICANN is seeking expressions of interest from ICANN-accredited registrars that might wish to assume sponsorship of the gTLD names that were previously managed by Maxim Internet. This request for expressions of interest is made pursuant to the De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure posted at icann.org/processes/registrars/de-accredited-registrar-transition-procedure-01oct08.pdf. … more

ICANN sent a notice of breach [PDF, 80K] to ICANN-accredited registrar Lead Networks Domains Pvt. Ltd. based on Lead Networks Domains Pvt. Ltd.’s failure to comply with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (”UDRP”) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (”RAA”). … more

Nic.ec, the .EC registry, has announced a promotion where .EC domain names cost just US$10 to register, with options for up to ten years for registrations seemingly available. The promotion for new registrations only runs from June 10 to 30. … more

There are now almost 183 million domain names registered around the world across all Top Level Domains according to the latest 2009 Domain Name Industry Brief from VeriSign. This represents a 17 per cent increase year-on-year and a four per cent increase over the fourth quarter of 2008. Registrations increased twelve per cent over the same quarter from last year while ccTLD registrations continued to increase at a faster rate than gTLDs. … more

A wide range of amendments have been approved to the contract that defines the rules for the retail level of the Internet’s domain name system.

The set of 17 amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) were agreed to unanimously by the ICANN Board on 21 May 2009 and follow an extensive consultation that engaged all interested elements of the Internet community including governments, individual Internet users, and gTLD registrars. … more

Melbourne IT has experienced slower growth than in previous years, but in 2008 the company still saw the number of domain names managed rise by eight per cent to 5.9 million. … more

Pool.com and Quintaris have received around 300,000 pre-orders for registrations with new gTLDs despite no new gTLDs having been confirmed as of yet and not likely until 2010 at the earliest.

Since Pool.com and Quintaris began allowing consumers to pre-order domain names in what they consider likely new registries, the total number “spoken for” has averaged 10,000 per day. … more

Nominet is running a consultation that is giving those interested in the future of .UK the opportunity to have their say about potential changes to the self-regulation model of the domain name industry in the UK.

Nominet wants to hear opinions about the recommendations made by Professor Garratt and Mutuo on their recent independent governance review. Nominet says now is the time to act to ensure that self-regulation continues and to avoid the potential increased costs, slower pace of change and possible fines for non-compliance that could become a part of everyday life if the industry were to be regulated. … more

Domain name holders in the .AR ccTLD will no longer be able to have more than 200 domain names, a move that appears aimed at domainers. The change in policy to limit the number of domain registrations sees each entity limited to a maximum of 200 COM.AR or ORG.AR domain names. … more

The .ME Registry announced this week the ccTLD has reached 250,000 domains registered. Montenegro’s .ME Registry has seen significant growth since it launched the domain extension worldwide just over one year ago. … more

Telnic, the .TEL registry operator, have announced there are now over 200,000 .TEL domain names registered, the milestone being achieved within the first two months of General Availability. … more

Customers of registrar OnlineNIC who had problems with previous transfer requests should now be able to transfer their domains to a different registrar if they wish. … more

The Irish registry, IE Domain Registry (IEDR), reported this week that the first quarter of 2009 saw the highest number of .IE domain name registrations for any quarter to date and defying the global financial crisis. … more