John Demco
Domain Name Registrations Top 233 Million – According to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign, the first quarter of 2012 ended with more than 233 million domain names worldwide, an annual growth of more than 23 million or 11%. The annual growth as reported three months ago was 20.4 million or 10%. Total ccTLD registrations were 94.9 million, a 16.2% annual increase. The ten largest domains are: .com, .de (Germany), .net, .uk (United Kingdom), .org, .info, .tk (Tokelau), .nl (Netherlands), .ru (Russian Federation), and .eu (European Union). The order of these TLDs is unchanged from the previous quarter.
KIDS.US Domain Suspended – The U.S. Department of Commerce is suspending the kids.us domain effective July 27, having “determined that the kids.us domain is not serving its intended purpose as per the Dot Kids Act”. Originally proposed in 2001 to create a new .kids top-level domain, legislation approving kids.us was signed into law in late 2002. Open registration began in September, 2003, with the first domain listed being smithsonian.kids.us. Two years after launch, 24 sites were listed, and as of this writing a handful remain.
Picks To Click
- A press release, blog posting, and two stories on the 25th anniversary of the .ca domain.
- The .org domain hits 10 million registrations.
Timeline
- Tue, Jul 31 – Mon, Aug 13: call for Member Nominees for CIRA Board election
- Thu, Aug 23 – Thu, Sep 6: shows of support for Member Nominees for CIRA election
- Tue, Sep 11 – Tue, Sep 18: online forum for CIRA Board of Directors election
- Wed, Sep 19 – Wed, Sep 26: CIRA Board of Directors election
- Sun, Oct 14 – Fri, Oct 19: ICANN meetings in Toronto