insight 

You may have seen already our post on Domain Name Front Running (DNFR) since when things have got much more interesting.

Our original post explained our position that we have seen no evidence of DNFR and regard it as an inevitable consequence of a global market.  Network Solutions actually commented on that post saying they thought it did exist and needed to be tackled urgently as consumer confidence was being eroded.

Their response, which you probably have heard about, was to change their domain lookup tools so that any non-existent domain looked up through their site was automatically locked by them for four days so that nobody else could register it.  You as the customer who found it could register it, but only through Network Solutions and they are clear they will not be monetising the domain before then.

So, if you have not spotted it, they appear to be front running to protect end users from front running.

The second irony is slightly more oblique.  .com suffers dreadfully from the actions of domain tasters, who register huge volumes of domains and then cancel them before the grace period.  The mechanisms for deciding what domains to process in this way are largely algorithmic - how long was it registered for, when was it cancelled, how many clicks did it get in the tasting period.

Once a domain has entered the domain tasting merry-go-round it can be difficult for it to get off.  As soon as one taster lets it go another one picks it up because it meets the criteria for automatic registration.

So there is a possibility that the Network Solutions action could lead to a domain being picked up by tasters once Network Solutions drop the domain.  In that case the consumer who wanted it but decided they did not want to get it from Network Solutions would effectively lose it forever as it would now be on the taster radar.

Following the announcement in November from auDA, the Australian registry, of its one millionth .au domain name, it was pleasing to note this week that the French registry, AFNIC, has passed the one million mark on its register. They have been experiencing strong growth since liberalisation of their registration criteria. It is also further evidence of the growing popularity and increased usage of country code domain names.

Domain Name Front Running (DNFR) is a new buzzword acronym for the alleged practice of monitoring someone’s intentions to register domain names and then jumping in and registering them first.

Every now and again we get complaints about this sort of thing and we’ve investigated some of those in some depth in the past.  Our conclusion is that DNFR does not happen but that there are important characteristics in the way domains names are sought that many people do not know about that lead them to believe in something like DNFR.

You can read our full position paper here.

This is an issue that has recently been passed to the ICANN SSAC for them to study but it may turn out to be a waste of their valuable time.

On Wednesday last week, we launched our domain name industry report at our first .uk registrar conference. This seems to have been well received by all in attendance and has got a couple of mentions in the media.

Some, though by no means all, of the content was already in the public domain. The challenge for us was to bring together a large amount of disparate information and present an overview picture of the .uk domain name industry within a global context, including some previously unpublished statistics (.uk renewals, registrant and registrar trends).

Since presenting this information, we’ve had some requests for other data to be presented in the future and are already investigating various strands of research. We’d like to know what you think of the report and what other data you’d be interested in seeing us produce. So if there’s data you think we’re in a position to obtain and publish, then please ask and we’ll see if it’s possible to get at it.

The conference itself was also a first for us. We wanted to present a day that would be of interest to our registrars, increase the understanding of the various issues that we are all faced with in the market at the moment and impart some of the latest information about how we’re trying to support our registrar community. Judging by the feedback on the day, we seem to have hit the mark for most people.

If you were there and feel we could have done better then, let us know how and we’ll bear it in mind for future events.

If you weren’t there and want to know what happened then take a look at the presentation slides here.

We’ve just released a position paper on signing the root. There is quite a lot to this but I thought I would attempt to summarise the paper for those of you who don’t want to read the full seven pages.

Read more

I see that there have been a few stories in the press regarding ICANN investigating the practice of registering a domain name based on the search someone has done on that domain name. As far as we are aware this practice is not widespread in the UK. Read more

Occasionally domain name stories appear in the media solely because the name itself is of big enough interest, as was the case this week with a small spate of tales about the web site acdc.com, which has recently come into the hands of the band ACDC. It’s a bit of an amusing story but it nevertheless raises one of those important points regarding Trademarks, domain names and cybersquatting. Read more

We’re watching the launch of .asia with interest. Yesterday saw the opening of the sunrise period during which organisations with Trademarks can register domain names. If there are multiple registrations for the same domain, then instead of the usual first come first served process as observed with the launch of .eu there’ll be an auction this time. Read more

I noticed with interest that NASK, the .pl Polish registry has made an announcement regarding a domain name tasting service. Read more

Earlier this month isnic, the .is Icelandic registry, relaxed its rules for overseas registrants.

“Foreign registrants of .IS domains have until now been required to confirm their ownership of the corresponding trademark at the Icelandic Patent Agency (Einkaleyfastofa) before the domain can be registered. This requirement has now been lifted. Read more