John DemcoMarkMonitor Releases Brandjacking Index – MarkMonitor has released a quarterly report called the Brandjacking Index which measures the effect of online threats to brands. The study found cybersquatting posed the greatest threat, and also identified others including false association, pay-per-click fraud, domain kiting, objectionable content, unauthorized sales channels, and phishing. .MOBI Domain Registrations Surpass 500,000…
JuliannaDomain Roundtable Conference August 13-15th, Seattle, Washington Attention domainers and domain industry players: the third-annual Domain Roundtable Conference is scheduled for August just south of the border in Seattle, Washington. The conference will explore trends, opportunities and innovations in domain name investment, covering topics such as domain portfolio development, domain sales and acquisitions, monetization…
John DemcoCIRA Calls For Nominations For Board Election – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has a issued a call for individuals to be considered by the Nomination Committee for the Board of Directors election to be held this September. The last day for applications to the Nomination Committee is Monday, May 21. The 2007 election,…
Steve SmithI had the unfortunate experience of spilling an entire cup of tea into my keyboard last Monday morning. This may be as much a testimonial to Dell that I am writing this email on the same keyboard today, but here is my recipe for keyboard recovery in the event of a spill: 1) Unplug the…
JuliannaStill struggling with organic search engine optimization? The folks at SEOmoz recently published their list of Search Engine Ranking Factors and if you care about being found on the Internet, you should take note. So who are these people? More than just another Internet Marketing company, SEOmoz is a hub for search marketers worldwide, providing…
John DemcoMore Registry Price Increases – Following VeriSign’s registry price increases announced for .com and .net, Public Interest Registry and Afilias have announced registry-level price increases for .org and .info names, respectively. The increases for each are 2.5%, from $US 6.00 to $6.15, and will take effect in October. Individual registrars will decide whether or not…
JuliannaOur new and improved webmail user interface has launched. This upgrade will enable you to accomplish more with your Webnames.ca Webmail. In addition to the flexibility of sending and receiving e-mail from any computer with Internet access, our new webmail comes with calendaring and contacts manager, e-mail search functionality, shared task manager, notepad, enhanced folder…
JuliannaWinning the War on Spam Spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail, has risen in both quantity and sophistication over recent years. In 2006 spam made up 40% of all e-mail, a number expected to increase to an unnerving 63% in 2007. With the average person receiving over 2,200 unsolicited messages last year alone, spam has reached…
John DemcoICANN Board Rejects .XXX Domain Application – By a 9-5 vote with one abstention, the ICANN Board has rejected the .xxx domain application from ICM Registry. The decision came nearly seven years after the proposal was first made. ICM Registry is reportedly considering court action. VeriSign To Raise .COM/.NET Registry Fees – VeriSign has announced…
JuliannaWe did it again… for the third consecutive year Webnames.ca exhibited at the Massive Technology Show. This year the business-to-business technology tradeshow and networking event was held at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre (Canada Place) on March 28th. Located just up the street from our Gastown offices, we were set-up and ready to talk domain names…
JuliannaDomainNameWire recently surveyed the Better Business Bureau records of the seven largest domain Registrars in North America and were surprised to see that complaints ranged from 2 on the low end (over the last 3 years) to 321 on the high end. Consumers can register complaints with the Better Business Bureau when they are unsatisfied with…
JuliannaAs an ICANN Accredited Registrar, Webnames.ca follows the domain name industry very closely and the recent RegisterFly saga has been on our radar this month. The Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will revoke RegisterFly’s accreditation by the end of this month and plans to review how it accredits and disciplines domain name registrars after this fiasco put tens…
JuliannaSimple websites between one and a dozen pages, commonly referred to as “brochure” websites, are widely used by small businesses and organizations to accomplish two things on the Internet: get found on search engines and provide information about products/services to potential customers 24/7. The term “brochure website” is actually something of a misnomer. One of…
John DemcoICANN Terminates Registrar Accreditation Agreement For Registerfly – ICANN has issued formal notice of termination of its accrediation agreement with registrar Registerfly.com. According to the letter, Registerfly.com will no longer be allowed to operate as an ICANN-Accredited Registrar effective March 31. Whois Task Force Issues Final Report – The Whois Task Force has sent its…
JuliannaInformation Week reported yesterday that Microsoft is stepping up efforts against those who illegally profit from their trademarks by registering domains with slightly altered spellings. Paul Mc Dougall writes that the software maker will more aggressively pursue legal action against companies that register domain names that are misspellings of Microsoft product names in order to capture Internet traffic…
