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.mobi Premium Names
A number of .mobi
Premium Names will shortly be made available for purchase. The
application process for these names is separate from the Sunrise and General
Registration periods which have been covered by N3Lite previously
and are detailed on our specialist domain site,
www.gtld.com.
mTLD, the .mobi
registry operator, has set aside a number of .mobi domains made up
of generic terms and phrases. To see the list, please visit
http://pc.mtld.mobi/switched/premium.html. Qualified trademark
owners will be able to apply for .mobi premium names that match
their marks from 15 September. There are clearly defined
requirements which must be met by applicants and the cost of
application is much higher than for other .mobi registrations.
Platinum
Service clients who are trademark holders and wish to apply for a
premium name
should contact their Account Manager now. Other trademark holders
can email support@netnames.com in order to find out the procedure.
From 13
October, any names on the premium list that are still available will
be made available to all, in batches using both
auction and Request for Tender (RFT) processes.
NetNames
Platinum Service is trusted by many of the world's top corporations,
including one third of the FTSE 100, to manage and protect their
domain names. To find out more,
click here.
Launch of .kr (Korea) at second level using
ASCII characters
For the last few years the second-level .kr domains have only
been available if the name included at least one IDN (Korean
Hangeul) character. IDN stands for Internationalised Domain Name and
is a means by which non-ASCII language characters can be translated
into a standard ASCII domain name.
Registration of second-level .kr domains using all ASCII
characters will shortly be made possible for the very first time.
The schedule for this phased release is as follows:
18 Sep - 20 Nov 2006
Phase I – Korean government organisations only can apply
21 Nov - 27 Mar 2007
Phase II - Grandfathering allocation and submission
‘Grandfathering’ is when existing registrants of .kr at the THIRD
level are given an opportunity to secure the equivalent second level
domain.
28 Mar - 18 Apr 2007
Phase III - Landrush
19 Apr 2007
Phase IV - General Registration (Fully opened for registrations)
Platinum Service clients interested in securing second level .kr
domains composed of ASCII characters should contact their Account
Manager now. Other clients should visit
www.netnames.com.
.mobi site emulator
This clever tool allows one to see what a particular site would
look like on a mobile device -
http://emulator.mtld.mobi
Those wishing to make their websites accessible to mobile
browsers should look into the new .mobi domain, which is currently
in Sunrise. Through a combination of style guidelines and mandatory
rules relating to .mobi websites, it is hoped that mobile browsing
will become a much more rewarding experience.
For more information on .mobi, please visit NetNames’ specialist
site, www.gtld.com.
ASA
closes down Home Office advertising campaign
The
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently took action after
receiving a complaint against a radio advertising campaign by the
Home Office and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
(CEOP), intended to promote safer web-browsing for minors. The focus
of the campaign was a website behind the domain name thinkuknow.com.
The issue which was clearly not considered was that, if heard over
the radio, the spelling of the domain name could be interpreted
differently as thinkyouknow.com, which had not been registered as
part of the campaign.
Visitors to the website at thinkyouknow.com found a paid
advertising landing page, from which it was possible to click
through to adult material. The ASA ruled that the radio campaign could not
continue in its current form.
Domain names have passed the 100 million mark
Recently published figures indicate that the total number of
domain names registered in the world passed 100 million for the very
first time in 2006, ending the second quarter at 105 million.
The domain name industry continues to exhibit strong growth, with
the second quarter out-performing the first by 8%, and 2006 as a
whole displaying 27% growth compared to the equivalent period of the previous year. Over 10
million new domains were registered during the second quarter of
2006.
Country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) were especially strong,
showing 10% growth in the second quarter. This was due somewhat to
the introduction of the new European TLD .eu, which surpassed 2
million registrations in only a few months and accumulates several
thousand new registrations per day.
Spain and France’s recent liberalisation of policies with regard
to registration requirements led to particularly strong growth in
these ccTLDs – 400% and 93% respectively, compared to the
previous year.
Microsoft takes action against cybersquatters
Microsoft recently filed three lawsuits against cyber and typosquatters who have allegedly been trying to profit from its
online Intellectual Property. Domain names infringing Microsoft's
trademarks are being used to direct visitors to pages displaying
pay-per-click advertising. Examples of such domains are
microsoftrebate.com, xbox36com.com
and msnfinance.com. Typosquatting is the practice of
registering domains which are close to or misspellings of marks.
Microsoft claims that thousands of such infringements are being
registered every single day.
©
Copyright NetNames 2006. All rights reserved.
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