ICANN has stepped up the pace of its Initial Evaluation results schedule, this evening publishing the results of 92 new gTLD applications. Applications for the following strings have passed IE this week: .fishing, .casa, .gop, .home, .love, .budapest, .book, .kiwi, .llc, .iselect, .audible, .wedding, .cpa, .earth, .delivery, .tickets, .msd, .neusta...

Bill Sweetman, who recently resigned as head of Tucows' domain portfolio business, has reemerged with his own "boutique" consulting firm, Name Ninja. Sweetman said in a press release that the new company "will focus on domain name acquisition (buyer broker), domain name rescue, domain name protection, corporate domain name strategy, and domain name...

PimpRoll, a pornography publisher and owner of porn.com, has bought the domain name porn.xxx from registry manager ICM Registry, it has just been announced. The domain is already live. The site appears to be distinct from porn.com, but PimpRoll said it plans to build another "tube" site there. The price of the domain was not Related posts: ICM co...

ICANN has approved a new UDRP resolution provider, the first to be based in the Arab region, despite the objections of domainers. The Arab Center for Dispute Resolution will now be able to service UDRP complaints. But it won't be bound to an ICANN contract, as had been demanded by the Internet Commerce Association and Related posts: Businesses to...

Directi, fresh from relaunching .pw, will shortly start selling third-level domain names under .in.net, mimicking the pseudo-TLD business model most often associated with CentralNic. The sub-domains will be targeted at the Indian market, with prices expected to be in the sub-$10 range. Directi is set to launch June 17 with a 42 day "landrush &...

Did would-be new gTLD registry services provider GMO Registry fail its ICANN technical evaluations? The Japanese company has made a deal that will see CentralNic take over the back-end operations for all 27 of the applications it was signed up to service, it has emerged. In a letter, provided by GMO to ICANN last week Related posts: Another 44 ne...

ICANN has released its weekly batch of new gTLD Initial Evaluation results and it includes the program's second and third failures. Two dot-brand applications — .olayangroup and .mckinsey, filed by Olayan Investments and McKinsey Holdings — didn't get passing scores and are now categorized as "Eligible for Extended Evaluation". Both ...

An anonymous individual claiming to be an ICANN staffer has warned the organization's board of directors about senior-level cronyism and a "climate of fear" among employees. However, DI's private conversations with other ICANN staffers suggest that the concerns may not be widely shared, at least not to the same extreme. DI received a lengthy email ...

ICANN's Ombudsman Chris LaHatte has received complaints about some new gTLD objections that were apparently filed after the submission deadline but are being processed anyway. Two companies have officially called on LaHatte to tell ICANN that "late complaints should not be received on the basis that the deadlines were well advertised and achievable...

Four new gTLD applications have been withdrawn so far this week, including the first to come from .info operator Afilias. Afilias has pulled its bid for .mail — the second applicant to do so — due to the number of competitors for the string. A spokesperson said in an email: The company felt there were Related posts: .transformers gTLD...

The International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO, doesn't want to have its acronym blocked in new gTLDs by the International Sugar Organization. ISO has told ICANN in a letter that demands for special favors coming from intergovernmental organizations, via the Governmental Advisory Committee, should be rejected. Secretary general Ro...

The European Commission plans to build a massive web site and database of information related to global internet policy-making. The Global Internet Policy Observatory, which is still in the planning stages, would be a "clearinghouse for monitoring Internet policy, regulatory and technological developments across the world". The idea appears to be t...

One of the only two companies to receive formal, consensus, kiss-of-death Governmental Advisory Committee advice last month has called on ICANN to reject it as "untimely". GCCIX WLL of Bahrain applied for .gcc to be an open gTLD for residents of the Persian/Arabian Gulf region. It was a ballsy application. The intended meaning of the Related post...

Directi appears to be the last man standing in the three-way tie-up for .online, following the latest new gTLD withdrawals. Namecheap has dropped its .online application, closely following Tucows, which dropped its bid a couple of weeks ago. The three companies announced a deal in March to see them cooperate to win the contested TLD, Related post...

New gTLD applicants affected by Governmental Advisory Committee advice may be about to find that their launch runway is quite a bit longer than they hoped. That's the message that seems to be coming through subtly from ICANN and the GAC itself — via last week's applicant update webinar and GAC chair Heather Dryden — Related posts: ICA...

ICANN's evaluators have passed 56 more new gTLD applications through Initial Evaluation. The latest weekly batch of published results cover bids for the following strings: .aig, .airforce, .art, .axa, .baby, .basketball, .bid, .business, .bzh, .cal, .center, .ceo, .cisco, .cloud, .coach, .codes, .contractors, .cpa, .dell, .diet, .docomo, .duns, .du...

For the last few weeks I've been attempting to write a sensible analysis of the Governmental Advisory Committee's advice on new gTLDs without resorting to incredulity, hyperbole or sarcasm. I failed, so you'll have to read this instead. I'm sorry, but the GAC's Beijing communique (pdf) just has too much stupid in it to take Related posts: GAC del...

Go Daddy's management shake-up continues apace, with the news last night that former interim CEO Scott Wagner has been appointed COO and CFO. Wagner comes from KKR, one of three major investors to take a big stake in the registrar in 2011. He was CEO in the interregnum between Warren Adelman's short-lived stint and the Related posts: Go Daddy get...

ICANN has told three registrars that they're in breach of their contracts and risk losing their accreditations. Two of the companies in receipt of breach notices this week — Internet Solutions and DomainSnap — have no gTLD domains under management, but the other, Aregentinian registrar Dattatec, has over 90,000, making it the 112th-larg...

Go Daddy has "broken ground" on a new 150,000 square foot facility in Tempe, Arizona. The new Global Technology Center will have room for 1,300 technology and customer care employees, the registrar said in a press release today. It expects to create 300 new jobs locally. The construction project was ceremonially kicked off by CEO Related posts: G...

Today, we've launched a new search tool that enables you to easily view, search and sort new gTLD program Initial Evaluation scores from a single page. The tool, available to DI PRO users here, is designed for those who desire a little more granular data on IE results than currently displayed on the New gTLD Related posts: Neustar leading the new...

Another 31 new gTLD applications have passed Initial Evaluation in ICANN's weekly batch of results. The applied-for strings receiving passing grades are: .gay, .statebank, .tkmaxx, .school, .app, .thai, .site, .democrat, .holdings, .room, .equipment, .alipay, .merck, .fls, .fire. .cloud, .rugby, .now, .news, .mtn, .bike, .estate, .auto, .gripe, .na...

Recently relaunched budget TLD .pw is being widely abused by spammers already, but registry manager Directi said it's enforcing a "zero tolerance" policy. Anti-spam software makers and users have over the last week reported a "massive" increase in email spam from .pw domain names. Security giant Symantec reports that .pw jumped to #4 in its Relat...

ICANN's board of directors is to discuss its response to the Governmental Advisory Committee's sweeping new gTLDs advice at a meeting next week. The New gTLD Program Committee has "Plan for responding to the GAC advice issued in Beijing" on its May 8 agenda. It's the only specific topic listed for discussion at the meeting. Related posts: ICANN s...

If I don't see somebody wearing this on a T-shirt at the next ICANN meeting I will be very upset. Credit: an anonymous artist. Related posts: Is Ella Koon the hottest Go Daddy Girl yet? Domainer Jan Barta invests in dotFree VeriSign drops $150,000 on ICANN Singapore

YouPorn owner Manwin Licensing scored a PR coup in its lawsuit against ICM Registry today, when the .xxx registry agreed to steep financial concessions in order to settle the case. One of the effects of the settlement, at least according to Manwin, is that .xxx is slashing its registry fees from $60 to $7.85 a Related posts: YouPorn owner arreste...

Following the news that Uniregistry and Top Level Domain Holdings are to work together on the .country new gTLD, larger portfolio applicant Donuts has said it's not interested in similar arrangements. While not entirely ruling out joint ventures along the lines of the .country tie-up, company VP of communications Mason Cole told DI that Donuts' R...

ICANN has proposed big changes to how it will handle premium domain names, dot-brands, mergers and acquisitions and mandatory fees in new gTLDs. It published a new version of the proposed Registry Agreement for new gTLD operators this morning, saying that it is the product of months of "negotiations" with applicants and registries. But some Relat...

Top Level Domain Holdings and Uniregistry have inked a deal to go splits on the proposed .country registry, the first publicly announced settlement of a new gTLD contention set. The two companies are the only applicants for .country, so assuming one or both applications are approved by ICANN no auction will be required to decide Related posts: Na...

ICANN has posted its latest weekly batch of Initial Evaluation results for new gTLD applications, with 44 new passes and no failures. The publication brings the grand total of passing applications to 213, with only one failure to date and 51 withdrawals. Today's passing strings are: .?? (Wei-bo), .?? (charity), .?? (microblogging), .cimb, .wme ,bro...

ICANN has a new version of its constantly evolving new gTLD program timetable that accounts for Governmental Advisory Committee advice and other recent developments. Staff talked through the timeline with participants at an invitation-only industry meeting in New York on Tuesday, but we have a couple photos to share more widely, provided by an atte...