EuroDNS Blog

The ten millionth domain name ending in .UK has been registered, this landmark occasion indicates the strong growth and trust inspired by the .UK domains. In March 2012, it became the fourth most popular TLD in the world. 

Registration service Nominet filed the domain name swarvemagazine.co.uk for Hampshire based company SN Technologies, a TLD on their registry since 1996 when there were only 26,000 .UK sites. New businesses desperate to get online, buying possibly their first domain name, have encouraged substantial growth of the UK Internet. Nominet, an NPO (Non-Profit-Organization), states that approximately 70% of the domain name addresses are renewed at the end of their two year expiry date, meaning that .UK is the second most popular ccTLD in terms of number of registrations.

The second level domain, .CO.UK, takes prominence in this domain, differing from other countries where the ccTLD is dominant. It is prohibited to register a domain name using the ccTLD .UK, rules set by Nominet. No such restrictions apply with regard second level domains: .CO.UK, .ORG.UK, .ME.UK, these being the most commonly used. 

It is possible to register a domain name with Nominet but it is faster and cheaper to do it via a registrar, such as EuroDNS, who has many options for second level domains for .UK.

Studying the market

Nominet took this opportunity to publish a report analysing the typology of domain names registered with the extension .UK.

Beginning with the 20 most common words in the 1.1 million registered domain names, ordered by popularity: service, home, shop, London, house, solution, group, photo, property, business, sports, school, hotel, media, wedding, centre, electric, training, world, print.

Currently trending words are:

• technology – app increased in 2012 to 50,000, from 3,700 in 2001, an increase due to the introduction of smartphones and their applications;

• e-commerce – shop appears in more than 82,000 domain names registered, increasing from 10,000 in 2001;

• travel – spa is the most popular and its growth is continuing;

• banking &finance – insurance is included in 33,000 domain names, ten times more than in 2000;

• food & drink – cupcake, due to the current fashion, is on the increase, from only two sites in 2001 the figure has now risen to 4,500;

• gambling – poker originally only appearing in 60 domain names ten years ago now appears in 9,000 names, due to the growth in online gambling although this industry has now stabilised and is beginning to show signs of decline;

• sport & leisure – music tops the list, with film, dance and fitness close behind.

Whilst london is listed fourth in the top 20 most common words with 83,343 appearances, 66 cities in the United Kingdom are represented in 400,000 registered domain names, indicating that the Internet is playing an ever increasing role in local businesses. 

This increase in usage has caused a deficit of the popular short names (94.1% of the domain names of three characters are already registered) names in 2012 are now showing 13.84 characters as opposed to 11.67 in 2001. Add to this the desire of the British to use domain names that accurately describe their product or service and longer names become the norm compared to other TLDs.

The letter S is the favourite first character of a domain name with E having the most appearances, followed by A. This is partly due to Eng’s presence in over one million registered domain names.

Conditions of registration in the UK:

• .UK is available to all individuals and companies, regardless of country of origin of the purchaser.

• Duration of registration or renewal of a domain name, originally a two year obligation but from 1 May 2012 this will become one to ten years.

• Domain names can have 1 to 63 characters. Since June 27, 2011 anyone can register a short (1/2 characters) name but this depends on whether the name is still available and the rule is, first come, first served.

• Currently .UK does not accept IDN (Internationalized Domain Names, i.e. accented characters).

This study reveals a very positive situation with huge potential for further growth in the .UK Internet space. United Kingdom businesses appear to be showing a preference for .UK as a TLD wishing to brand themselves as a UK company rather than using the more generic .COM. With peoples’ online buying increasing there is evidence that purchasers feel more confident when they buy from a website with their own country extension, hence Amazon offering different country domain names for each country. 

Will country code domain names become more popular than the generic top level domain names? 

The United States government with the help of a US registrar lays down the law, whilst Big Brother remains vigilant in the United Kingdom. 

When the domain name jotform.com was suspended by the US Secret Service more than 500,000 innocent people paid the price for the crime of a single user. Wednesday, February 15, the US Secret Service ordered the domain name registrar GoDaddy to suspend the domain name jotform.com. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have previously seized domain names without warning for hosting music, live sports streaming, movies or child pornography. What does JotForm offer? It helps customers create online forms to embed in their websites, customers that include web hosting companies, universities, schools, etc. 

David vs GoLiath

Following the order from the US government, the domain name registrar GoDaddy suspended the site for suspected spam and abuse, blocking two million online forms thus creating havoc for over 500,000 JotForm customers and untold damage to JotForm’s reputation. JotForm immediately migrated all files to jotform.net restoring access to their customers. Yes, this new site carries the same ‘dodgy’ content, yet remains live with no threat of suspension. JotForm suspected a user of uploading a phishing form missed by the Bayesian filter they run, 2011 saw 65,000 accounts suspended, but the company remains in the dark having received no information with regard the suspension. 

Unfortunate consequences for GoDaddy are that JotForm has subsequently moved its domain names to a new registrar.

Across the water, Big Brother goes by the name of SOCA!

In the United Kingdom a similar event occurred when in February 2012 SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) seized the domain name rnbxclusive.com, a website offering often unpublished music for download. No court order was issued and it is a domain name registered under the gTLD.com controlled by American registry Verisign, yet SOCA was able to block the .COM domain name and post its own inflammatory page on the website stating, “The individuals behind this website have been arrested for fraud”. 

SOCA claims RnBXclusive made available music files stolen from artists, allegedly 70,000 per day for download, causing the music industry a huge loss of approximately 15 million pounds per year. Be afraid, with SOCA no one escapes, it goes on to threaten users of the site with a possible prison sentence of ten years plus an unlimited fine under UK law. Be very afraid, the original SOCA page displays the user’s IP address, browser name, operating system, and date and time of connection to the site. 

Big Brother is watching, and will catch you.

The original SOCA page has since been replaced with a less menacing message stating simply “SOCA took control of this domain name”, but the threat remains.

“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” Chinese proverb

Choosing a domain name is one of the most important and hardest decisions your business will have to make. It’s your electronic business card displaying your brand, product and activities to the world. It’s with you for life, you may make many changes to your business but you cannot change the name. Ok, technically you can change it but all that work that went into SEO will be lost, along with clients and backlinks. An important fact to remember is search engine ranking is influenced by domain name age, so always trust your elders.

If it’s easy to remember, it’s easy to recommend.

Your domain name is as important to your business as your company name so it’s worth taking advice from people who know, companies recognising this have been known to change their name to match the website domain name. Building a professional online presence is primary in the race with your competitors. Make it memorable, people may love your site but are unable to find it a second time.

Short and sweet

A short name is generally better, for clients it’s memorable and it’s the preference of search engines, several search engines (i.e. Google) may penalize too lengthy URLs. It should be a relevant combination of characters and not too difficult to spell. Relevance to website content is essential and if possible, the name should be exclusive to your business, using keywords if possible to improve the ranking, thus improving traffic.  Beware of acronyms – they may be dangerous, don’t keep it short just for the sake of keeping it short, random letters are easily forgotten. In general, names can be two to 67 characters in length but, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Hyphens, camels and human beings

Domain names without hyphens look more professional, although names with targeted keywords of no more than three words work well with search engine spiders. But, users often forget to type the hyphen, or ignore it when relating your web address, unwittingly directing a prospective customer to a competitors’ website. It is commonly accepted that a domain name with multiple words does not contain hyphens but with the availability of names decreasing the hyphenated option may be your only choice. A popular workaround is using CamelCase, although the domain name is registered in all lowercase when written the words are differentiated, e.g. FedEx, YouTube.

It is worth noting that human beings are fallible and when typing your website address they may misspell your name, or mishear over the phone. Explaining abbreviations, special characters, etc., takes time and increases the possibility of error, consider this when purchasing your domain name. If available you could do bulk domain registrations to include possible variations to your company name, incorporating possible misspellings, plural/singular forms etc.

.COM, .BIZ, .ORG, .CO.UK ?

When choosing a suitable extension for your domain name you should consider your targeted audience, nature of your business and country of operation. Recent SEO studies have indicated that ccTLDs may suffer in the ranking stakes when competing with gTLDs.  So, .COM and .NET are the most common and therefore the most trustworthy, but it’s not always possible to obtain these highly desirable extensions.

.COM could be anywhere

If your business only caters to the local community it makes commercial sense to register with a country specific domain name, i.e. a taxi company based in the UK would benefit from the extension .CO.UK as customers will recognize they are viewing a local business. Triumph Motorcycles’ main portal is triumph.co.uk, it is using a ccTLD for advertising reasons as it is a trusted brand always associated with its country of origin, the UK.

Only .COM will do?

When a user types a domain name without an extension the browser will primarily search for .COM, not so good for your ccTLD, so make it a rule that you always promote your business or website with its full domain name. More and more countries have released their country code TLDs hence allowing international registration, a clever example of exploiting this would be Del.icio.us, or consider Italy’s .IT domain with purchase.it.

Avoiding the long arm of the law

Ensure your chosen domain name does not infringe on the trademark of another company. The responsibility lies with you, the domain name registrant, as the laws applying to hard copy also apply on the Internet.

Is it safe?

You will purchase your domain name through a registrar. Selecting your registrar is an important decision as they will be responsible for the security of your personal and business information, and domain name. It must be reliable, offer maximum uptime and provide add-ons such as free email hosting. In February 2011 a change to Google’s search results ranking algorithm was released under the name Google Panda, this release rates the quality of your registrar when ranking your websites. Domain names are no longer in abundance, using the above suggestions will help you find the perfect name for your website. But don’t leave it too late, another business is about to find your name!

EuroDNS, the world of domain names

EuroDNS is a domain registrar specialized in international domain extensions, offering a host of complementary solutions and services. With customers around the globe and hundreds of domain name extensions on offer, we are one of the market leaders in the domain name industry and have established accreditation with more than 70 registries worldwide.

We currently offer email and collaboration on the cloud, monitoring and recovering of domain names, provision of an anycast DNS network through ProDNS, issuing of SSL certificates and a domain research service. We have a large portfolio of generic (gTLDs) and country code (ccTLDs) extensions, along with premium domains in the secondary market, for you to choose from.

Looking for help with your domain requirements? Please visit the EuroDNS website or speak to one of our sales representatives at sales@eurodns.com.

A dozen .xxx sites terminated, and they won't be back

In February 2012 the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), exclusively administering the Rapid Evaluation Service (RES), ordered 12 .XXX domains to shut down. 

The RES has dealt with 15 complaints since December 2011 and February 2012 saw it publish the results of the 15 cases handled since the .XXX domain went live. 

• 14 of the 15 complaints were from trademark owners;

• Non-compliances saw two rejected;

• 12 cases won by the complainants, of which 11 were trademark owners. The 12 domains suspended forever.

facts&figures.xxx

The .XXX domain was designed to be a trusted brand for the adult entertainment industry. Recognized globally, it is a tool for people wanting to provide and access pornographic material on the Internet, and for those who want to prevent access, e.g. children, workplaces.

Initial figures:

• The first domain name purchased during .XXX general availability was IOwn.xxx.

• During the first 24 hours of general availability, the ICM sold 55,367 domains.

• Including the sunrise and landrush periods bringing this total to 160,000.

• On the first day ICM brought in approximately $3.3 million in revenue.

• The highest priced .XXX domain name so far is gay.xxx, sold in October 2011 for $500,000.


RES to evict squatters

The ICM Registry (the operator behind .XXX) launched RES with its anti-cybersquatting policy, in August 2011, to assist trademark holders with complaints when they have been associated with a .XXX domain name, against their wishes. The complainant, employing RES, has the power to get a registered domain name suspended in under a week, following which it will be terminated.

RES is based on the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) with several differences, the key one being that unless you are filing to protect a personal name, RES is for nationally registered, current trademarks only.  

In February 2012 Richard Branson won control of the domain name richardbranson.xxx when NAF ruled that the name had been registered ‘in bad faith’.

NAF, the only organization authorized to deal with RES cases, can name its price and currently charges $1,300 per domain, with each new domain name invoiced as a separate entity. Although the complainant won’t get control of the domain name, they don’t have to pay renewal fees. Once the domain name is down, it stays down.

Gone in the blink of an eye

The 12 cases won by NAF earlier this year took, on average, 12 days from initial complaint to domain name shutdown. Two working days from the issue of complaint for administration, registrants then have ten days to respond before judgement is passed. If the registrant defaults for any reason they still have three months to launch an appeal. 

The complainant must prove:

• The registered domain name under dispute is identical or confusingly similar to a registered trademark of national effect that the complainant owns and uses.

• The registrant/defendant has no rights over or legitimate interest in the domain name.

• The disputed domain name was registered and is either being used in ‘bad faith’ or, if unused, cannot be used in ‘good faith’.

To protect the identity of the complainant the ICM, NAF and RES, unlike UDRP, will not be publishing cases, only releasing accumulated statistics. Therefore there is no way of judging the fairness or accuracy of these decisions, which may lead to concern in the .XXX TLD world. 

Britney and Beyonce placed under ICM protection

To avoid the possibility of legal action, thousands of celebrity names were placed on permanent reserve lists by the ICM Registry. The lists contain approximately 15,000 names; including britneyspears.xxx, beyonce.xxx, elvis.xxx, marilynmonroe.xxx. Names have also been included on cultural grounds: the world’s capital cities, culturally sensitive affiliations such as several spellings of Mohammed and osamabinladen.xxx, and numerous premium names intended for auction.

The reserve lists thwart any plans cybersquatters or unscrupulous porn webmasters may have had to register a celebrity domain name purely to drive traffic to their site.ICM will not be publishing its list of protected names nor will it reveal its criteria for inclusion. Suffice to say, if your name is not protected but becomes affiliated with .XXX, you would be well advised to contact the RES.

Let’s talk about .XXX

EuroDNS became one of the first domain registrars officially accredited by ICM, allowing private individuals and companies the right to apply for .XXX domain names. When you choose to register your .XXX domain name you will appreciate many benefits, namely your website will be scanned daily by McAfee for Malware. The .XXX domain has created such a buzz around the world that it brings its own publicity to your site. Your web address becomes unique, promoting your profile and corporate image, enabling you to communicate with audiences in the online adult entertainment industry.

EuroDNS has announced an exceptional promotion on .XXX domain extensions. Register your .XXX domain name today with EuroDNS at an unbeatable price of €49.99, using the promo code NLXXX12C, this promotion will remain valid until the end of April. It’s too good to miss, so hurry! 

To register your .XXX domain name at this ‘special offer’ price, visit the EuroDNS website now!

Joining Paddy’s day and its celebration of Irish culture, EuroDNS goes green with a special limited time offer on .IE domain names. With promo code PRIE12A everyone can now wear their shamrock and expand their profile in Ireland for only €18,99 till March 27th, 2012.

No matter whether Irish or not, with a .IE domain name any business or individual will be able to join the parade. A .IE extension identifies oneself as being Irish or having a presence in Ireland; it helps reach and communicate with an Irish audience, maximizing your local footprint. .IE also enables companies to protect their business online, a .IE domain making one’s web address unique and easy to memorize.

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.“ This famous quote by Irish writer, Oscar Wilde, is even more applicable to today’s competitive economy. “Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck; however at EuroDNS, we decided not to dye rivers or streams green but to follow Oscar Wilde’s saying. Offering the .IE at €18,99 for the next two weeks gives anyone with an interest in the Emerald Isle, the opportunity to be “talked about” by securing a local presence," said Daniel Eisenhut, Chief Sales Officer, EuroDNS. "With this fantastic deal we wish all our customers a happy Paddy’s day!” Daniel continued.

So turn your business into Irish green during the next two weeks for only €18,99 with EuroDNS special offer. All that is needed is to use voucher PRIE12A till 27/03/2012 to register or transfer existing domain at this unbeatable price. Visit the .IE ccTLD page at http://www.eurodns.com/top-level-domain/Ireland/Ie and enter promo code PRIE12A. The IE Domain Registry policies apply to every registration and all applicants must provide the necessary supporting information or documentation within 30 days of their order in order for their application to be accepted. To find out what documents need to be provided go to http://www.eurodns.com/top-level-domain/Ireland/Ie

Check out the offers page on our website to find out more promotions offered by EuroDNS: http://www.eurodns.com/offers/

To be informed of the latest promo codes and receive our new deals on domain extension directly into your mailbox, subscribe to our newsletter here: http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/

In addition to domain registration, EuroDNS also provide services such as email and collaboration in the cloud, domain monitoring and domain recovery to mention but a few.

Stay up-to-date on what is happening in the DNS industry, join us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/eurodns) and follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/EuroDNS)

About EuroDNS:EuroDNS is a Domain name Registrar specialized in International Domain extensions. Based in Luxembourg with branch offices in Europe, the USA and Asia with AsiaDNS, EuroDNS serves a large variety of clients ranging from SMEs to some of the world’s largest Domain Investors and offers dedicated naming solutions to Trademark holders. By strongly participating in leading industry forums including ICANN and the International Trademark Association, EuroDNS seeks to promote e-Commerce and wider Internet adoption. http://www.eurodns.com

EuroDNS is a Platinum Sponsor of WHD.global 2012

EuroDNS, a Domain Name Registrar specialized in International Domain extensions, will be exhibiting at WorldHostingDays Global - WHD.global - as Platinum Sponsor along with its partner LuxCloud, a market leading provider of cloud computing services, and Datacenter Luxembourg, an independent datacenter service provider.

WorldHostingDays is the world's largest hosting event. This four-day conference and trade fair takes place in Europa Park (Rust, Germany) on March 20 – 23, 2012. WHD is an event from the industry for the industry and as such a great networking opportunity. It delivers information and impulses directly from the source to targeted businesses. The event unites all important decision makers of the leading hosting related companies from Europe, America and Asia.

EuroDNS is a leading Domain name Registrar specialized in International Domain extensions. Based in Luxembourg with branch offices in Europe, the USA and Asia with AsiaDNS, EuroDNS serves a large variety of clients ranging from SMEs to some of the world’s largest Domain Investors and offers dedicated naming solutions to Trademark holders. By strongly participating in leading industry forums including ICANN and the International Trademark Association, EuroDNS seeks to promote e-Commerce and wider Internet adoption. 

WHD will also be the opportunity to hear the latest news from the industry including that of our partner LuxCloud. Lorenz Meis, COO of LuxCloud, will talk on  "Cloud Automation as a Service (CAaaS) or how to instantly increase sales to your existing customer base". The presentation will take place on Wednesday, March 21 at 09.15 in the main.FORUM.  

Join us at WHD.global 2012 and discover how our solutions can assist you with your domain names related needs.

If you are interested to meet us and discuss partnerships, promotion, advertising or more, please contact sales@eurodns.com 

EuroDNS announces special limited time offer on the .FR domain name extensions now at an exclusive price of just € 4.99 valid for new registrations and transfers. Benefit from this unique offer and register .FR today by using promo code PRFR12A available for two weeks only!

The .FR domain can be easily identified by general public and is appropriate for companies and individuals having a connection with France. As of 6 December 2011, AFNIC the Registry for the .FR extension has extended the eligibility to register .FR domain names to residents and legal entities throughout the European Union. Previously domain holders needed a local presence to be able to register .FR names. Now anyone can register .FR domain names; the process is easy and immediate. 

France being one of the largest countries in Europe makes the .FR Namespace a prospective one. .FR is therefore particularly useful for individuals, companies, and organizations located in France. It's also a great idea to register .FR domains if one wants to reach French customers. 

Daniel Eisenhut, Chief Sales Officer, EuroDNS said, ‘‘we are back with yet another exciting promotion for our customers offering a fantastic discount on the .FR domain extension.’’ He continued, ‘‘We are very happy with the response we received for the .NL and the .LU extensions and continue to aim to do our best to ensure that our customers are satisfied with our exclusive prices’’ Daniel also added, ‘‘we would like to take this opportunity and remind our customers that we do a lot more than just registering domain names. Besides the large portfolio of generic (gtlds) as well as country code (cctlds) we offer Local presence services for many TLDs. Additionally we offer various complementary solutions and services such as email and collaboration on the cloud; monitoring and recovering of domain names. We also provide an anycast DNS network through ProDNS, issue SSL certificates and offer domain research services.’’ To assist you with your domain requirements please visit www.eurodns.com  or speak to one of our sales representatives at sale@eurodns.com

The .FR ccTLD (country code top-level domain) is a popular extension with accented characters and is a very well known suffix for domains globally. To register or transfer an existing .FR domain at an unbeatable offer price of € 4.99 with EuroDNS use promo code PRFR12A valid till 13/03/2012. For the registration process please visit our website here http://www.eurodns.com/top-level-domain/France/Fr/?promo=PRFR12A  

To discover more promotions on domain extensions currently offered by EuroDNS check out the offers page of our website here http://www.eurodns.com/offers/.

In addition please note that EuroDNS releases new promo codes as part of its monthly newsletter. There will be more deals on domain extensions in the February edition of our newsletter, so don’t forget to subscribe with us here http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/ to receive our newsletters directly to your inbox. 

AFNIC will shortly be opening the registration of IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) to their ccTLD portfolio. All those who already are owners of .FR domain names or wish to register new ones will benefit from this feature. Starting May 2012, web site owners will be able to buy domain names with accents and special characters.

On February 3, Afnic, the organization that manages French domain names, announced the introduction of special characters in web addresses ending with .FR (France), .RE (La Réunion), .TF (French Southern and Antarctic Lands), .WF (Wallis and Futuna), .PM (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon) and .YT (Mayotte).

A total of 30 new characters will be introduced, including almost all accented vowels (à, é, è, î, ô, ù ...), also the "i" and some consonants like "ñ" or "ß" (double "s" in German). Prior to this, domain names were restricted to numbers and Latin letters without accents.

The AFNIC will implement the launch of IDNs (internationalized Domain Names), in two stages;

• 3 May 2012: Launch of the IDN sunrise period with the "Grandfathering" rule.
• 3 July 2012: Opening with IDN attribution according to the "first come, first served" rule.

Between May 3 and July 3, 2012, the owners of a domain name will be given the opportunity to buy different versions of their name with special characters. For example, societe.fr will be the only buyer who can purchase société.fr. However, after this two-month period, purchase of domain names will be open to all buyers. No privilege will be given to domain owners with the equivalent name without the special characters and a domain name will be sold to the first person who wants to buy it.  So it is essential that one secures their web addresses and protect individual brand names before someone else does.

The "sunrise" or the "Grandfathering" is designed to protect the acquired rights of existing domain owners. The name requested should be the exact equivalent of the name previously held. The requested name is registered in the same extension as the name filed initially in the ASCII (the code that allows only unaccented characters). For .e.g. the owner of "societe.fr" may save "société.fr" but not "société.re". On the other hand the holder of a name such as "Muller-strasse.fr" may choose three possible variants of this name, namely "Müller-straße.fr", "Muller-straße.fr" and "Müller- strasse.fr "or only one of them. Registering one of these options will retain his rights for a possible subsequent registration because the accents do not induce any change in meaning of the name in ASCII.

Remember this opening of IDNs only concerns 30 new characters: ß, to, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ, ç, è, é, ê, ë, ì, í, î, ï, ñ, ò, ó, ô, õ, ö, ù, ú, û, ü, ý, ÿ, ow. Cyrillic and Arabic characters are not accepted at this time.

For more information on IDNs and/or to register .FR domain names please do not hesitate to contact our sales team at sales@eurodns.com

According to ICANN’s renewed emphasis on its already existing policy, it is important for all domain owners to observe the practice of maintaining updated contact information for their domain names in the WHOIS database, an online directory where the general public can look up domain names using the WHOIS search tool.

WHOIS is an Internet database that contains information on domain names including the name servers associated with the domain name, the domain registrar and the administrative, billing and technical contacts with postal and email addresses. Each domain registrar maintains a WHOIS database with all contact information for the domain names hosted on their servers.

As a registrant it is essential to keep personal information such as a working contact email address for your domain updated in the WHOIS database through your ICANN accredited Registrars. A registrar may contact the e-mail address on file to notify the domain name owner of domain expiration, transfer attempts, and general domain management information. In case the information is not updated or accurate the registrars have the authority to delete the domain name, allowing someone else to register the same domain name.

ICANN’s policy requires registrars to maintain the accuracy of the domain name owners’ contact details in the WHOIS database. Domain expiration for registrants can be troublesome. ICANN provides for a redemption period, during which the registrar temporarily deactivates the expired domain name. But reactivating the domain name during this period requires a reactivation fee of $250 USD. More importantly, one can lose important incoming e-mails and experience unavailability of the related website. Domain name expiration can seriously impact the business of the domain name owner.

By implementing this policy, ICANN is taking measures to reduce the number of “unreachable” WHOIS registrations by 50% within 12 months.

By practicing good domain name management one can avoid expiration of their domains. The process is easy and just takes a few minutes to implement. To update information and maintain the accuracy of one’s WHOIS entry, a registrant needs to flourish accurate information to their registrars who in turn will have to log into the domain control panel and enter the most recent contact details for the domain name. It is recommended that all registrants update their complete record, including phone, address, e-mail and company information.  A notification will be sent by the registrars at least once a year and/or 120 days prior to the expiration of a domain requesting the owner to verify his/her details. This will help ensure that one receives notices about renewals, transfers and domain management.

If you need any further assistance with updating your contact details please do not hesitate to contact our sales team at sales@eurodns.com

ICANN introduces Trademark Clearinghouse for protecting new gTLDs

Following ICANN’s recent announcement that from January 12 until April 12, 2012, any legal entity can file an application with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers) for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), ICANN has notified that it will hire a third party to implement a Trademark Clearinghouse. The Trademark Clearinghouse will help keep a database of registered trademarks for all new gTLD registries that will connect their systems to it and will also act as a central storehouse of trademark information. 

The trademark clearinghouse that ICANN is in the process of establishing will be required to provide two primary functions:

• Authentication and validation of the trademarks in the Clearinghouse
• Serving as a database to provide information to the new gTLD registries to support pre-launch Sunrise or Trademark Claims Services

In today's online world there are 22 different generic top-level domains (gTLDs). This list which includes .com, .net, .org, .gov, .biz and the recently launched .xxx are the most popular extensions. As per the new gTLD program, unlimited gTLDs will be released and anyone can apply for new website domains specific to their businesses. For the first time generic TLDs will be able to include words in non-Latin languages, such as Cyrillic, Chinese or Arabic and can also be specific to a business or product. For e.g. .cars, .cola, .watches, .nike, .football, .nokia, .starbucks, etc. 

ICANN plans to have the Trademark Clearinghouse for new gTLDs up and running by October 2012, giving companies three months to submit their trademarks to the Clearinghouse before the first new gTLDs go live in early 2013.

Being listed in this Trademark Clearinghouse is important for the protection of one’s brand. Entering a registered trademark into the Trademark Clearinghouse database will allow trademark owners to obtain some important protections that would otherwise not be available. Registries will give owners of trademarks entered in the Trademark Clearinghouse the right to register a domain name consisting of the trademark before registration is available to the general public.  For example, the registry that owns .coffee will offer Starbucks the right to purchase starbucks.coffee before it is available to the public.  Also, those attempting to register a domain name that is in the Trademark Clearinghouse will be notified that the proposed domain name is a trademark while owners of those trademarks, and if entered in the Trademark Clearinghouse, will receive notifications when someone tries to register a domain name that is identical to their trademarks. 

In addition, brand owners will benefit from the introduction of the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS). The URS is designed to provide an expedited procedure for addressing clear cases of infringement against trademarks. The URS would exist alongside the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which also addresses matters of trademark infringement in domain names. While the UDRP provides for transfer of a contested domain name to the rights holder, the URS is intended to provide a faster (and less expensive) means to stop the operation of an abusive site.

Help is available to make the complex topic of new gTLDs and related Trademark Clearinghouse easier to understand. Providers such as EuroDNS’ partner OpenRegistry.com offers all the necessary tools and expertise to prepare for a successful gTLD application and operate the extension for the next ten years on their state-of-the-art infrastructure.

This will be a revolution in the world of domain names. EuroDNS plans to offer the most exciting extensions as soon as they are available, in the meantime don’t hesitate to get in touch to see how we and our partners can help!

sales@eurodns.com
info@openregistry.com

.XXX unsuccessful domain names from the sunrise launch period available for registration

The ICM Registry, the registry for the .XXX domain extension, announced on February 14th, 2012, that all failed Sunrise A and B applications will become available for registration starting at 16:00 UCT the same day and will be available for registration on a first-come, first-serve basis like any other unregistered .XXX domain.

.XXX is the only top-level domain (TLD) designed exclusively for adult entertainment content, making it attractive to both consumers and domain investors. The launch of .XXX opened up a world of possibilities with domain names that were previously unavailable in other extensions.

Applicants who could not successfully procure .XXX domains during the Sunrise phase can now attempt to register active and blocked domain names from the Sunrise period. These domain names can be minimum three to 63 characters in length. They can contain English-language letters A through Z, digits 0 through 9, and hyphens (except at the beginning, end, or in both the third and fourth position of the domain name). Internationalized domain names (IDNs), spaces, and special characters (such as !, $, and &) are not allowed.

Members of the Sponsored Community who did not qualify for the Sunrise period can also apply for registering these highly sought after domain names.

One must complete the ICM Registry's free membership application process before their domain names can resolve to the internet. You will receive an email from the registry within 24 hours of purchasing a .XXX domain name and will be provided further information on completing the process. The registry might request additional documentation to validate the membership. After the registry validates the membership, one needs to submit their membership credentials (ID) to the registry.

Applicants outside the sponsored adult entertainment community can purchase defensive registrations to block domain names from becoming .xxx domain names on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants with defensive registrations must pay a time fee of € 63.53 to register the domain names but are not required to complete the ICM Registry's membership application process. Instead, the registry places those domain names on non-resolving nameservers.

For more information on registering .XXX domain names please do not hesitate to contact EuroDNS sales team at sales @eurodns.com

Happy Registration!

As part of EuroDNS special limited time promotion on domain name extensions the .LU domain name is now on offer at an exclusive price of just €12.49. Benefit from this unique offer and register .LU today by using promo code PRLU12A, valid for the next two weeks only.

The .LU domain can be easily identified by the general public and is appropriate for companies and individuals having a connection with Luxembourg. Anyone can register a .LU domain name; the process is easy and fast.

Luxembourg is one of Europe's largest financial centers. It is located at the heart of Europe and IT giants such as Amazon, iTunes, Microsoft, eBay, PayPal and Skype have their European headquarters established here. Furthermore, it is part of the Benelux region together with the Netherlands and Belgium and a member state of the European Union (EU). In fact Luxembourg’s location, competitive environment and infrastructure provide an ideal platform for a flourishing business.

Daniel Eisenhut, the Chief Sales Officer of EuroDNS said, "It is that time again when we are able to offer an exceptional discount on a specific extension for our valued customers. Following the success of the .NL promotion, it is our pleasure to announce this unique offer on the .LU domain name, and we aim to continue doing our best to ensure that our customers are able to take advantage of market leading prices." Daniel also added, "We would like to take this opportunity and remind our customers that we do a lot more than just registering domain names. We have a large portfolio of generic (gtlds) as well as country code (cctlds) extensions to offer along with premium domains on the secondary market. Additionally, we offer various complementary solutions and services such as email and collaboration on the cloud, monitoring and recovering of domain names. We also provide an anycast DNS network through ProDNS, issue SSL certificates and offer domain research services." To assist you with your domain requirements please visit http://www.eurodns.com or speak to one of our sales representatives at sales@eurodns.com

The .LU ccTLD (country code top-level domain) is a popular extension which supports the registration of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) with accented characters. To register .LU at an unbeatable offer price of € 12.49 with EuroDNS use promo code PRLU12A. For the registration process please visit EuroDNS's website here http://www.eurodns.com/top-level-domain/Luxembourg/Lu

To discover more promotions on domain extensions currently offered by EuroDNS check out the offers here: http://www.eurodns.com/offers/.

In addition please note that EuroDNS releases new promo codes in its monthly newsletter. There will be more deals on domain extensions in the newsletter's February edition, so don’t forget to subscribe with EuroDNS here http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/ to receive our newsletters directly to your inbox.

Meet EuroDNS & LuxCloud at Parallels Summit 2012 in Orlando, Florida on Feb 14th-16th EuroDNS and LuxCloud part of the well known DCL Group are Silver sponsors of Parallels Summit 2012 and will be exhibiting at the conference taking place on February 14-16, in Orlando, Florida.

Parallels Summit is the place to gain exclusive and comprehensive insight into the lucrative business opportunities with SMBs in 2012. This is the premier conference for service providers and web designers looking to rapidly and profitably deliver the widest range of integrated, easy-to-use Cloud services that small businesses are eager to acquire.

EuroDNS is a Domain name Registrar specialized in International Domain extensions. EuroDNS serves a large variety of clients ranging from SMEs to some of the world’s largest Domain Investors and offers dedicated naming solutions to trademark holders. By strongly participating in leading industry forums including ICANN and the International Trademark Association, EuroDNS seeks to promote e-commerce and wider internet adoption. 

LuxCloud is a market leading provider of cloud computing services, allowing companies to quickly launch and profitably deliver the cloud services demanded by small- and medium-sized businesses. LuxCloud is a SaaS delivery platform that automates billing and provisioning of SaaS services. The platform is open to ISPs and VARs that want to benefit from an increasing demand for Hosted Services.

Parallels Summit 2012 will be the opportunity to hear the latest news from the industry with Lorenz Meis, COO, LuxCloud, speaking on the topic ‘’Get to market quickly with no upfront costs’’ on Wednesday, 15th February at 2.45pm.

Parallels Summit 2012 will be a great networking opportunity as it will give you a chance to meet over 1200 industry influencers. Get together with industry peers from Cloud service providers, hosters, ISVs and other industry influencers, to build relationships while you share and learn best practices that can help you improve your business.

For more information on the date or the program check out http://www.parallels.com/summit/2012/

If you are interested to meet us to discuss partnerships, promotion, advertising or more, please contact sales@eurodns.com or sales@luxcloud.com

We look forward to meeting you at the Parallels Summit 2012, taking place on the 14th-16th of February in Orlando, Florida.

EuroDNS announces special promotion on .NL domain extension. Register .NL domain name today with EuroDNS at an unbeatable price of € 3.99. Use promo code PRNL2012B valid for two weeks only!

A domain with .NL makes a web address unique and easy to memorize. It enables individuals and organizations to protect their businesses online and to reach and communicate with audiences in the Netherlands. .NL is one of the most popular country code domains in the world helping companies with local and international opportunities. Any company can maximize their revenues by registering a Dutch domain name which will provide relevant and localized information about their product and services.

The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy that depends heavily on foreign trade. The economy is also noted for stable industrial relations, moderate unemployment and inflation, a sizable current account surplus, and an important role as a European transportation hub.

.NL was the first ccTLD ever to be registered. SIDN (Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland) is the registry for the .NL tld and is responsible for issuing and managing the use of .NL domain names. What’s more? There are no restrictions on registering a .NL domain name. All companies and individuals that have a connection with The Netherlands would benefit from the extension and so will any organization willing to secure their online presence globally.

.NL domain name helps expand ones web profile and corporate image. To register a .NL domain name at a special offer price of just € 3.99, visit EuroDNS here; http://www.eurodns.com/top-level-domain/Netherlands/Nl

‘’Our aim is to provide our customers with the best price in the market, hence we have come up with great value limited time offers on specific domain extensions, to be announced every two weeks’’ said Daniel Eisenhut, Chief Sales Officer, EuroDNS. ‘’Now our customers can get their choice of domain names at a price that they have always wanted.’’ He also added, ‘’we would like to take this opportunity and remind our customers that we do a lot more than just registering domain names. We have a large portfolio of generic (gtlds) as well as country code (cctlds) extensions to offer along with premium domains on the secondary market. Additionally we offer various complementary solutions and services such as email and collaboration on the cloud; monitoring and recovering of domain names. We also provide an anycast DNS network through ProDNS, issue SSL certificates and offer domain research services.’’ To assist you with your domain requirements please visit our website or speak to one of our sales representative at sales@eurodns.com

To discover more promotions on domain extensions currently offered at EuroDNS check out the offers page of our website here; http://www.eurodns.com/offers/.

In addition please note that EuroDNS releases new promo codes as part of its monthly newsletter.Check deals on domain extensions such as .LU, .NET, .TV, .INFO, .COM, .NET, in the January’s edition of our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe with us here http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/ to receive the February issue of our newsletter directly in your inbox.

About EuroDNS
EuroDNS is a Domain name Registrar specialized in International Domain extensions. Based in Luxembourg with branch offices in Europe, the USA and Asia with AsiaDNS, EuroDNS serves a large variety of clients ranging from SMEs to some of the world’s largest Domain Investors and offers dedicated naming solutions to Trademark holders. By strongly participating in leading industry forums including ICANN and the International Trademark Association, EuroDNS seeks to promote e-Commerce and wider Internet adoption. http://www.eurodns.com

EuroDNS, a leading Domain name Registrar specialized in International Domain extensions, will be present at Domainfest Global in Santa Monica, CA, on January 31st to February 2nd 2012.

DomainFest Global is a conference held for online marketers, publishers and domain investors to share insights uncover emerging trends and discuss the ongoing industry practices. This conference also ensures unmatched networking opportunities with over 700 internet professionals from 30 countries.

EuroDNS serves a large variety of clients ranging from SMEs to some of the world’s largest Domain Investors and offers dedicated naming solutions to trademark holders. By strongly participating in leading industry forums including ICANN and the International Trademark Association, EuroDNS seeks to promote e-commerce and wider internet adoption.

If you are interested to meet and discuss opportunities with our expert on location, Daniel Eisenhut, Chief Sales Officer, EuroDNS, please contact our sales team at sales@eurodns.com to arrange a meeting.

We look forward to meeting you at DomainFest Global 2012 in Santa Monica, CA, on the January 31st – February 2nd.

Since January 12th until April 12th 2012, every candidate with a custom extension is able to file an application with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers) to obtain a new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

In today's online world there are 22 different generic top-level domains (gTLDs). This list which includes .com, .net, .gov and the recently launched .xxx plus all the 18 other gTLDs will soon be expanded to include all types of words in many different languages. For the first time generic TLDs will be able to include words in non-Latin languages, such as Cyrillic, Chinese or Arabic.

Now any legal entity can apply for its own new gTLD, however, application process is expected to be thorough and exacting. To be awarded a new gTLD, applicants will need to provide a secure and reliable technical infrastructure, as well as demonstrate a long-term ability to enforce policy for and administer the domain. This prerequisite will help reinforce ICANN’s primary mission of maintaining DNS stability and security.

Help is available to make it easier. However, providers such as EuroDNS’ partner OpenRegistry.com offer all the necessary tools and expertise to prepare for a successful gTLD application and operate the extension for the next ten years on their state-of-the-art infrastructure.

As ICANN has begun accepting applications for new gTLDs on January 12th, hundreds of new extensions may be introduced until April 12th, 2012. It is expected that registrations in the new gTLD could be available as early as 2013.The new gTLDs will likely fall into the following categories:

• Brands - Brand owners, such as corporations, sports teams, and other high-profile entities, can protect their brands and trademarks, enhance brand trust, and create new ways to extend their brand and services to partners, resellers, and customers.
• Communities - Groups of like-minded organizations that share common missions, goals, and challenges can promote commercial or non-commercial offerings to better promote, protect, guide, and serve their communities.
• Cities or Regions (Geographic) - Cities and regions can promote greater recognition of their areas, generate additional revenue, and better serve constituents.
• Generic Terms - This category covers terms that do not fall under the previous three categories. Forward-thinking organizations and innovative entrepreneurs could pursue new business opportunities or build their online presence.

By March 29th, 2012, applicants must subscribe into the TLD Application System (TAS) to be able to submit their application. April 12th, 2012 will be the final day for submitting all applications.

This will be a revolution in the world of domain names. EuroDNS plans to offer the most exciting extensions as soon as they are available, in the meantime don’t hesitate to get in touch to see how we and our partners can help!

sales@eurodns.com
info@openregistry.com

ICANN, (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) authorized the principal registries of the .COM, and the .NET. to increase their prices in 2007. Since the revised contract was signed between Verisign and ICANN to maintain and manage the .COM registry in 2006, the price for the most popular TLD in the world has increased consistently over the past few years and on January 14th, 2012, .COM prices were hiked once again.

With this raised contract, Verisign has the authority to increase .COM prices by 7% every year with a 6 month notice to its Registrars. Furthermore, a similar contract signed in June last year for the .NET allows registries to increase their prices by 10%. These price increases indicate that every registrar most probably will have to increase their prices for .COM and .NET.

In these past six years, however, EuroDNS has never increased their prices for the .COM and the.NET and to remain consistent with our prices we offer to our customers, we do not intend to increase the prices in the near future either. As always we only promise to serve you better with the best we can.

What’s more?  EuroDNS is running a special promotion this month on the .NET! So hurry and take advantage of the special offer and book your favorite .NET domain name today for only €5.99 use promo code NLNET12A.

That’s not all; we have many more attractive offers on various other extensions for you. To view our current offers please visit http://www.eurodns.com/offers/

2011 was an eventful year for EuroDNS as we participated in many tradeshows and events taking place all over the world.


The year started with EuroDNS being present at Domain pulse which took place in Vienna, Austria on February 17-18, 2011. Domain pulse is the most important event in the German-speaking world for current topics and trends associated with domain names. The event was hosted by the Austrian Registry nic.at.

On February 22-24, 2011, EuroDNS along with its partner LuxCloud, a market leading provider of cloud computing services, took part in Parallels Summit 2011 as Silver sponsors of the event, which took place in Orlando, FL. Parallels Summit was the place to gain exclusive and comprehensive insight into the lucrative business opportunities with SMBs in 2011.

Concurrently on February 23-25 2011, EuroDNS was Platinum sponsor of Punta 2011, the 3rd International Internet Marketing & Domaining Conference held in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. The conference provided a great opportunity to make new businesses, improve the performance of activities, network with other domainers and helped in updating one's knowledge in all areas of this market.

Shortly after, EuroDNS took part in Domain Roundtable as Gold Sponsors of the event was hosted in the Bahamas on March 1-4, 2011.  Domain Roundtable is an annual conference focusing on domain names and new products, technologies and companies in the domain marketplace.

EuroDNS was also Gold sponsors at WorldHostingDays along with its partner LuxCloud. The event took place in Rust, Germany on March 22 – 25, 2011. WorldHostingDays  – formerly known as WebHostingDays - is the world's largest hosting event.

More recently, EuroDNS exhibited at DomainvermarkterForum in Hamburg on September 8-9, 2011. The show was an opportunity for EuroDNS to introduce brand new domain name related portals including domainAPI and domainReseller.
• DomainAPI offers cloud based webservices that regroup all major lookup, data and transaction functions of the domain name industry.
• DomainReseller offers a single point entry to domain name registration.

That same month EuroDNS was Gold sponsor of Domain Meeting which took place in Warsaw on September 22, 2011. DomainMeeting.pl is the largest domain industry conference in Poland, which targets a wide audience, including entrepreneurs, investors and owners of websites.

Finally on October 14, 2011 EuroDNS was Silver sponsor of the fifth edition of MeetDomainers, a domain investors meeting, which was held in Warsaw, Poland. Indeed MeetDomainers is the perfect place for buying and selling domains, signing contracts and observing new technologies.

After an exciting year of travel, networking and business opportunities, EuroDNS looks forward to a promising 2012. Always a key factor in the domain name industry is keeping abreast with the latest developments, be it the release of new extensions or the latest technologies available, we make sure to do our best to be able to serve you better.

Stay tuned to know more about upcoming events and shows. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here; http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/

EuroDNS wishes everyone a very happy new year 2012.

2011 was a busy year for EuroDNS and we would like to share our highlights.

Last year EuroDNS customers witnessed the launch of ProDNS, had new extensions on offer like the much talked about .XXX and saw the deployment of Afternic’s Domain Listing Service. Our IT department has been busy working on improving our platform, resulting in the first upgrade being released this week. We also participated in 8 tradeshows around the world, using the opportunity to gather feedback and ideas for 2012. The EuroDNS team also saw internal improvements with a senior management re-organization with the exciting mission to take the company to the next level of success in 2012.

Early last year EuroDNS proudly announced its partnership with ProDNS. ProDNS is built on a Distributed Anycast platform, which ensures maximum uptime and resilience.As an Authorised Value-Added Reseller of ProDNS, EuroDNS is now offering its customers the enhanced service of ProDNS unique multiple AnyCast networks!

You may have noticed we carried out an upgrade to our platform on Monday 16th of January, 2012. This was to ensure the system is capable of supporting our customers for the future and give us more flexibility to enhance the product range, flexibility and usability of our systems. Over the next 12 months you will notice similar changes on other part of our systems and product ranges. The new interface  (internally referred to as ‘v3’) will bring a lot of constructive changes for the EuroDNS website. To name a few that are immediately visible; we now display prices in your preferred currency; USD and British Pounds in addition to Euros and have also integrated payment options by PayPal. You can now make use of our Namemedia API and Domain API and can now also use/benefit from our DomainRecovery services.

In 2012 we will continue to improve our systems, website and products. If there is something you’d like to see us offer, please feel free to email your suggestions to feedback@eurodns.com  and we will take that into account in our future plans.

The year was also filled with exciting promotions and offers on domain extensions. Some popular ones from the year 2011 were .ME, .FR, .DE, .EU, .NL, .BE, .INFO, and .AT amongst others. In addition to the .XXX, the COM.DE (Centralnic.) was also introduced.

In November 2011 EuroDNS observed two important events. First the company saw a top management re-org where Xavier Buck, former CEO of EuroDNS, stepped up to become the new President and Chairman of the Board while Lutz Berneke took over as EuroDNS CEO. The next important event was the integration of Premium Domain Marketplacein the EuroDNS API, through Afternic DLS. As part of this, EuroDNS deployed Afternic’s unique“Instant Transfer” technology for domain sales.

During this period, in response to significant traffic growth and customer feedback, in order to provide our customers with a more robust platform, EuroDNS moved from two nameservers to four in geographically diverse locations.

As we look forward to yet another eventful year and strive to provide all our customers with the best domain name experience, we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for being a part of the fantastic year we had at EuroDNS.

Please stay tuned for this year’s events, offers on domain extensions and news by subscribing to our monthly newsletter here http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/

It is that time of the year again where fun, frolic and festivities surrounds our lives. As we gear up for yet another Christmas, we at EuroDNS would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

As a part of our Christmas wishes we will be releasing our traditional voucher codes. These voucher codes will be valid till December 31, 2011. Don’t miss the opportunity to avail of the latest offers at EuroDNS. We are currently offering great discounts on many domain extensions.

Let us give you a sneak peak to some of these offers;

.AT available for € 19.20 use promocode DECAT to avail of this offer

.ME available for € 10 use promocode IAMME to avail of this offer

.CH available for €17.88 use promocode CHD2011 to avail of this offer

.CO.NZ available for € 27.20 use promocode JACONZ11 to avail of this offer

.COM available for € 10.80 use promocode COMDEC to avail of this offer

.IM available for € 6.00 use promocode IAMIM to avail of this offer

.IT available for € 11.20 use promocode RENEWIT11 to avail of this offer

.NL available for € 11.70 use promocode NLXMAS11 to avail of this offer

.RU available for € 6:00 use promocode RUVDNG to avail of this offer

To know more about our current offers you may visit our website http://www.eurodns.com/offers/

To receive our Christmas voucher codes please make sure you sign up for our monthly newsletter http://www.eurodns.com/newsletter/ here or alternatively follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook before next week.