Recently in gTLD Category

The saga around China domain names continues with this week's rumour that every .CN website owner may have to apply in person for a web address. Luckily there is another unrestricted alternative, in addition to .CN.COM, suitable for the Chinese market: the generic .ASIA top-level domain.

5 reasons why you should consider .ASIA for your website

• .ASIA is governed by international authorities outside of China. It provides security, stability and is used and commonly known for the Asian region.
• A .ASIA domain can be registered by anybody, quickly and easily without the hassle of documentation.
• Asia is the market of tomorrow. Did you know, that .ASIA domains can improve the search engine ranking for queries relevant to the Asian market? The term "asia" itself is already one of the most popular search keywords.
• The .ASIA namespace is still young so the chances of getting your desired domain name beneath .ASIA are more likely than in the .COM or .NET extension.
• .ASIA registrations help fund community work in the Asian region such as Relief.asia, ISIF.asia (R&D Grants Fund), CreativeCommons.asia, OLPC.asia (One-Laptop-Per-Child initiative in Asia).

In addition to our special offer for .CN.COM domains, we will also run a promotion for the .ASIA extension. All new registrations will only be $14.90 USD from March 1st, 2010. Go and get your .ASIA domain now!

As you may have heard, China recently changed the rules for .CN domain registrations blocking overseas registrars, excluding individuals from registering a domain name and requiring extensive documentation from businesses before domains are accepted. Thus, we have removed the .CN domain extension from our website completely until further notice.

If you would like to secure your online identity in China, we recommend registering a .COM / .NET Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) or soon to be available .ORG IDNs with Chinese characters instead. The registry for .ORG, PIR, is allowing IDNs with the Chinese and Traditional Chinese character sets from January 23rd 2010, 19:00 UTC. Please note that .ORG Chinese IDNs registered in the first 30 days, will have restriction placed upon them by the registry to allow for intellectual property interests to file UDRP actions if warranted. You will not be able to delete, transfer or update a domain during this time.

Chinese character .ORG domains can be registered through our standard domain search which is already fully IDN enabled.

中文国际域名 (IDNs) .ORG 很快开放

中国当局最近更改了.CN 域名注册规则。由于这些变更我们不得不暂时将 .CN 域名从我们的网站上移除。但是，如果阁下希望确保您在中国的在线身份，我们建议阁下用中文汉字注册 .COM / .NET 域名。同时 .ORG 域名也将作为国际域名 (IDN) 很快开放。敦请阁下注意，中文 IDNs 的 .ORG 域名自注册之日起30天内会受到限制。期间您将无法删除，传输或者上传。中文汉字域名 .ORG 可以通过我们的带有完整 IDN 功能的标准域名搜索来注册。例如 阳光.org

At iWantMyName we strongly believe in an open and inclusive internet for all people on this planet. Hence we are always happy to support new technical developments that move us towards a truly internationlized web. We are making a special effort to roll out new services that enable multi-lingual functionality across the global web infrastructure, as these services become available.

Although it may still take a while until we will see localized versions of the .COM, .NET or .ORG suffixes, ICANN is making steady progress in pursuing changes to introduce internationalized country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as .РФ (.RF - Russian Federation) or .бг (.bg - Bulgaria) with a possible start date as early as 2010.

.NAME introduces IDN registration

As a further step to tear down language barriers on the web VeriSign, the domain registry for .NAME, enables the registration of internationalized web addresses with non-latin characters beneath this domain extension. From Nov 7th, you will be able to search and register domains in the same language scripts (e.g. Arabic, Greek, Cyrillic, Chinese or Japanese) as it is already possible for .COM and .NET web addresses.

IDN resources & domain tools:

• Online IDN Keyboard for other languages
• FlipMyName - create mirrored domain names

Get your own name domain in your local language as soon as they become available.

Part 4 of our Domain Statistics & Numbers article series breaks down the size of generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces:

1. How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?
2. How many domains are registered worldwide?
3. What are the Top 10 global domain extensions?
4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?
5. What is the ranking of my country code top-level domain (ccTLD)?

4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?

A useful resource for these domain name statistics is the ICANN Dashboard which provides an interactive timeline on the growth of generic TLDs.

.AERO - .MOBI interactive timeline or click for larger view:

.MUSEUM - .TRAVEL interactive timeline or click for larger view:

Further information about the fluctuation in these graphs can be found directly on the ICANN Dashboard.

The number of registered gTLDs and their ranking is as follows:

1. .COM: 82.01 million
2. .NET: 12.42 million
3. .ORG: 7.79 million
4. .INFO: 5.24 million
5. .BIZ: 2.03 million
6. .MOBI: ~ 850.000
7. .NAME: ~ 300.000
8. .TEL: ~ 220.000
9. .ASIA: ~ 210.000
10. .TRAVEL: ~130.000
11. .CAT: ~38.000
12. .PRO: ~37.000
13. .JOBS: ~16.000
14. .AERO: ~6.500
15. .COOP: ~5.800
16. .MUSEUM: ~550

Total number of generic domain extensions (September 2009): 111.3 million

Sources: DomainesInfo Statistiques, ICANN Dashboard

Afilias, the registry of the .INFO domain extension is currently running an award for the best .INFO website 2009. The .INFO web address was launched in 2001 and is one of the top 10 domain extensions worldwide.

You can win the following cash prizes:

1. First place: US $7.500
2. Second place: US $ 5.000
3. Third place: US $3.000

Submissions close on October 23, 2009. All further information on the awards site.

If you don't already own a .INFO domain, we currently have them on special at only US $6.90.

The iWantMyName team is about to head to Australia to attend the 35th ICANN meeting in Sydney next week. ICANN is the governing body of the internet and the acronym for "Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers". It's crucial for us to follow what's happening in the domain business and ICANN meetings are always a perfect place to mingle with industry experts, other domain registrars and registries.

The most discussed topic at ICANN Sydney will be the so-called "new gTLD program" which plans to extend the current system of 20 generic top-level domains such as .COM, .NET or .ORG with new domain name extensions. However, it will not be possible for everybody to have its own domain extension in a way you can register a domain name at the moment. There are still financial and technical requirements to be fullfilled. If you're interested to read more about the process we recommend Michele Neylon's "New TLDs for Dummies (sort of)" and ICANN's "So where are we up to with these new internet extensions?".

There were a lot of new gTLD initiatives popping up lately and there will be many more in the coming months with some of them being revealed in Sydney next week. This is a list of new domain name extensions that we have found so far (in alphabetical order):

• .AFRICA, .AFRICA (African community)
  
• .ARAB (Arabic language)
  
• .ARTIST (For artists)
• .BAY (The Bay Area, US)
  
• .BAYERN (Bavaria, Germany)
• .BCN (Barcelona, Spain)
• .BERLIN (Berlin, Germany)
• .BLOG
  
• .BZH (Brittany, France)
• .CAR
  
• .CYM (Wales, United Kingdom)
• .DELOITTE
  
• .ECO, .ECO (Ecological)
• .ENG (England)
• .EUS (Basque)
• .FAM, .FAM (Family)
• .FOOD
  
• .FRA (French Language)
  
• .GAL (Galicia, Spain)
• .GAY
• .GEO (Geographical locations)
• .GREEN (Ecological)
• .HAMBURG (Hamburg, Germany)
  
• .HEALTH
• .HOTEL
• .HOMES
  
• .INDIGI (For indigenous people)
• .KER (Cornwall, United Kingdom)
• .KÖLN (Cologne, Germany)
• .LAT (Latin American Region)
• .LLI (Leonese Language / Culture)
• .LONDON, .LONDON (London, United Kingdom)
  
• .MAIL (For emails and to control spam)
• .MED (Mediterranean)
• .MUNICH (Munich, Germany)
• .MUSIC
  
• .MONEY
  
• .MOVIE
• .NYC (New York City, USA)
• .PARIS (Paris, France)
  
• .PDX (Portland, Oregon, USA)
• .PHONE
  
• .POST
• .QUEBEC (Province Quebec, Canada)
  
• .RADIO
  
• .REAL
• .ROMA (Rome, Italy)
  
• .SCOT (Scotland)
  
• .SELL
• .SHOP
  
• .SPORT, .SPORT
  
• .SURF
• .TEAM
• .TOKYO (Japan)
  
• .VEN (Venetian Community, Italy)
  
• .VIDEOS
  
• .VIN (Wine community)
  
• .VLA (Flanders, Belgium)
• .WEB, .WEB
  
• .WIKI
  
• .XXX
• .YKS (Yorkshire)

While this is already an impressive list, there are still many initiatives which haven't been announced yet. We will definitely see more City top-level domains (maybe a .SYDNEY next week?), IDN (Internationalised Domain Names) TLDs in non-latin alphabets and also brand extensions such as .NIKE, .APPLE etc.

Ok, it's time to get ready and pack our suitcases. We will keep you updated about new top-level domains on a regular basis. See you in Sydney!

Sources:
http://www.robbiebirkner.info/2009/05/26/new-tlds-emerging/
http://www.mindsandmachines.com/2009/03/new-gtlds-sightings/
http://citytld.com/
http://twitter.com/ntlds

Update 1: Added .BAY, .BLOG, .CAR, .DELOITTE, .FOOD, .ROMA, .SHOP, .SURF

As of today through May 31st 2009, all new registrations (including iPhone domain orders) for the following international domain extensions will be priced at $US 14.90 for the first year:

• .AT - the Austrian internet extension
  
• .BE - country code top-level domain of Belgium
• .IM - Isle of Man or Instant Messenger domain
• .IN - India's web address

Don't miss out on the opportunity with these brandable domain extensions. Since their namespace is still fairly small compared to .COM, many great domains are still available!

We are also running a special price promotion for .INFO domains. New registrations are only $US 9.90 until June 30th.

Check out our domain search and register your name now.

The official .TEL iPhone application is available in the AppStore now. It offers an easy interface for all .TEL owners to update their domains directly from their iPhone or iPod touch. You could update the status before boarding a plane, on a road trip (don't forget our DomainApp to register domains) or just with your current location to tell your friends where you are.

The main features of My.tel are:

• Add, remove, hide or show your contact information
• Update your status
• Publish your location with an embedded map
• Add or remove folders and profiles
• Manage privacy settings
• Add or remove keywords