domains

ICANN adopts new Web site naming rules

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted Thursday to relax rules for naming Web sites.

At its meeting in Paris, ICANN, a not-for-profit organization that oversees the naming scheme for Web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in whatever they like.

So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its Web site with .nyc.

The new naming process will begin in 2009. The first suffixes will … Read more

ICANN to vote on new Internet domain names

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is getting ready to vote later this week to open up the Internet naming convention to allow more options.

On Thursday at its meeting in Paris, ICANN, the not-for-profit organization charged with overseeing the Internet's naming scheme, will vote on a proposal that would allow companies to purchase new generic top-level domains ending in almost anything they want. So instead of being limited to .com, .org or .co.uk as the last letters of their Web addresses, companies or organizations could add their company name to the end of their URL. … Read more

Park your page in style with LaunchSplash

Just bought a domain and don't know what to do with it? Maybe you need to set up a blog, or are in the midst of hiring a designer. Don't just let it sit there while you get your act together--get a page to let people know what's going on. A service called LaunchSplash is offering a simple tool that does this for you.

All you have to do to get started is drop in a simple headline and description. The site provides an RSS feed people can subscribe to in order to get updates, or a … Read more

How to register a domain name

On this quick tip, I show you how to register a domain name. Watch the video, then come back here for the details.

First, a quick look at how domain names work. When you type in a domain name, a request goes out to find out what server has that site.

The domain name is changed into a set of numbers that identifies that machine. The register table that tells what domain names go with what numbers is a registry. So to get a domain name you need to find a registrar.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers … Read more

Can you trust the Wall Street Journal's domains?

Last week I wrote that skepticism may be the most important thing you bring with you when dealing with the Internet. A few days later in the Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg said basically the same thing - "...the most insidious Internet security problems today rely on human gullibility, not tricky software."

His article, How to Avoid Cons That Can Lead to Identity Theft, included this advice "Don't click on links to offers for free software or goods that you receive in an email, especially from a sender or company you've never heard of." … Read more

Pizza.com domain name fetches millions

Who would've thought a generic domain name would still have the capacity to pull in big bucks? Chris Clark, the seller of "Pizza.com," seemed a bit in shock after he managed to rake in $2.6 million from the auction of the domain name.

"It's crazy, it's just crazy," he told the Baltimore Sun after the close of the auction on Thursday.

Clark, who owns a software company, registered the Pizza.com domain name 14 years ago for just $20. Nothing fruitful ever really came of the domain, so he sat on … Read more

What's in a domain name?

While Google bombs and sites that operate as giant search engine optimization hacks can make it difficult to find what you're looking for on some search engines, sometimes it's even harder to get to the page of a product or service you saw a promotion for while out and about.

The sad truth is that nearly all of the good domain names are taken. We see it in the products we look at every day that have slight misspellings, missing vowels, or letters tacked on before, after, or sometimes in between regular words. These names can be incredibly … Read more

Porn-friendly .xxx domain backer loses suit against federal agencies

The company behind the proposed .xxx top-level domain, which was rejected after the Bush administration intervened, has been trying to dig up embarrassing government documents through a federal lawsuit.

Make that "was trying." A federal judge on March 12 granted summary judgment to the Bush administration in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the ICM Registry.

By way of background, ICM Registry had proposed the porn-friendly .xxx domain in 2004 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, four years after ICANN rejected the idea the first time. In June 2005, ICANN approved .xxx--but … Read more

Go Daddy shuts down police-rating Web site

Domain hoster Go Daddy has shut down a Web site that lets people criticize individual police officers, saying it was using too much bandwidth. But the site owner says he is being censored after police complained.

Up until Tuesday, visitors to RateMyCop.com were able to post comments and ratings on specific police officers. The site disclosed officer names and badge numbers, which is public information.

Late last week, KGO TV in San Francisco ran a news story saying that police officers wanted the site shut down, claiming it puts them at risk by revealing their information.

On Wednesday, the … Read more