Internet and Businesses Articles

Have you heard of the other tlds (top leve domains) such as: .free, .church, .video, .travel, .llp, .golf, .school, .agent and .love? There are many more too. Wait! Don't wretch just yet. I'll tell you why in just a minute.

If you look for a great domain name for very long you will learn how rare they are. Trying to find a one word dot com is a futile effort. The only exception to that is the occasional name that someone gives up. The problem with that is you must search a list of thousands (or tens of thousands) to find one and of course you must get there ahead of the next person. If you just have to have a one word dot com, be ready to shell out thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

Then there are the dot net, us, cc, org and biz. Generally if you checked a dot com a few years ago you could find the net, org or biz equivalent. Not so anymore. Besides, the only one of these related to business is biz.

So why am I writing this you ask. First, though, think about it for a bit. I did that and realized it would be (is) great to have stockpick.free, camera.video, poem.love, game.video and loan.travel. Are you beginning to see what I mean? Don't you agree that these are somewhat better than allthefreeebooksyouwant.com or stopheretogetaloan.com.

The point being made here is "type in traffic" (people who go online and just type what they want in the browser). You could wait for years for someone to go to the internet and type in one of those dot coms.

Think again, though, about how many will be looking for toy.free or camera.video. What would it be worth to you to have 30 or a hundred or a thousand people searching for a video camera typing your name into their browser? Pretty obvious now, huh.

I told you not to wretch, now I'll tell you why. There is a wesite where you can get these tlds, and there are lots of them. They are at new.net. When you finish reading here go and see for yourself, but let me tell you two more things.

1. You need to download a plugin to view these sites (very easy)

2. 175,000,000 people already have theirs

Copyright 2004 Dean Walden

About The Author

Dean Walden is the owner of http://www.clikngo.us. If you find some value in this article please do some searches with us (clikngo is a ppc search engine).

Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.

Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others simply had ‘hosting’, ‘host’, or a related term in the domain itself.

So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, “Yeah, it’s a shame – if only I had the time to develop some content for some of these domains then I might make some money form them”. It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains – just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain, others apparently found the domain through a search engine that had categorized the parked page.

So I suggested the following to him – why not use a service that will take the domain as is – with no content whatsoever – and suggest search options that generate revenue for each click? He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess what? He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.

He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages – with a brief description of the company’s product offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved to be a great success – and his revenue stream increased.

My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.

If you have parked domains and what to try getting paid for search results on those pages, check out this service offered by Sedo (there are others out there as well):

http://www.sedo.com/services/parking.php3

Good luck in transforming your parked domains into cold, hard cash!

About The Author

Derek Vaughan has been actively marketing on the Internet since 1995. Mr. Vaughan has marketed products at the Walt Disney Company as the online marketing manager of ecommerce for ESPN.com. Mr. Vaughan is also the founder of Cheap Hosting Directory - a web hosting review site. Mr. Vaughan holds degrees from both the Indiana University and Purdue University. He has also received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University. Cheap Hosting Directory - http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com - is a part of TechPad Agency's network of web hosting portals.

Domain Dispute is no longer news unless a Madonna or Julia Roberts type of celebrity gets involved. However, greater now than ever is the risk for domain registrants to lose their domain names when they get involved in a domain dispute. The risk is originated from the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (the Policy) approved by ICANN and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) passed by U.S. Congress. The direct risk comes from reverse domain hijackers, biased panelists, and the unprepared registrants themselves.

Innocent registrants are prone to ignoring measures to protect their domain names. They tend to think they are safe and would win even if some party would complain to WIPO-the worst arbitration organization for innocent registrants. Thus, they often do not take steps to protect their domain names. As a consequence, they are likely to lose their domain name(s) in a domain dispute. Preparation both BEFORE and AFTER you receive a complaint is equally important. Generic domain names are no exception. Net-firms.com (usid.com received a complaint from netfirms.com) and netlearning.com (the registrant received a complaint from NetLearning, Inc.) are just two examples proving how easy it is for a common word domain name to get hijacked.

The following suggestions may be useful when preparing yourself for a potential battle for your domain name(s).

1) Make sure your domain record, including the ownership and administrative contact information, is complete, correct, and current. If it is incorrect, the panelists will take it as evidence against you. Therefore, check your domain record often to see if any change is made without your authorization.

2) Write down your idea or business plan about what you would use your domain for and get it notarized.

3) If possible, register your domain name, i.e., yourdomainname.com, as a trademark with the trademark authority in your country. If you registered your domain name as a trademark successfully, it is to your advantage. Once you establish your rights to your domain name(s), your domain name is entitled to legal protection even if it is stolen.

4) If you start up a business, register and or use your domain name as your business name, if possible. Use your domain name with the TM sign on your letterhead, envelope, business card, or wherever possible. When you design your web site, make sure to put the TM sign with your domain name. Print a copy and have it notarized by a local Notary Public. If your site is designed by others, make sure to get a certificate that shows your domain name on it.

5) When you do advertising, make sure your domain name shows up in the ad. If you do online advertising, even with goto.com, print a copy of your link ad that is properly dated. Keep a copy of that ad and all communications between you and your ad service provider as evidence.

6) If you are not planning to use your domain name in the near future, register it as an intent-to-use trademark with your trademark authority. For coveted domain names, i.e., mostly single worded and popular, yet generic names, you may not be able to get them registered as a trademark. For those domain names, use them as soon as possible for any legitimate purpose, such as for business, non-profit, or even a personal or fun activity.

7) When using a domain name, try to use a fee-based web hosting service that would enhance the impression of seriousness of your business. Free web hosting is costly because it will harm your business in various ways.

8) Never merely put simple links on the pages and never link your domain to porn sites. By doing so, you will be doomed if you come across some self-authorized or puritan panelists.

9) If you consider selling your domain, do not sell it until you establish your rights to it. When you receive any offer to purchase your domain name, do not answer unless you know who the person is. The inquirer may be a spy. Again, talk to a lawyer if possible before you do anything.

10) When challenged directly by a company or individual, you should never answer until you consult a legal professional. Any of your good-willed answers may be used as evidence against you later or help your challenger to shape a plan against you. Do not put out a web site for your domain in a hurry as a response to the challenge you receive. Such an action may prompt some panelists to believe you have done some thing wrong.

11) When you receive a complaint from WIPO, you should RESPOND if you want to defend your domain name(s). Many panelists would treat you lightly and rule in favor of the complainant if you fail to respond. If your domain name is critically important and you are well financed, hire a COMPETENT lawyer! The fee can be anywhere between $1500 and $5000 per response. Or, some lawyers will charge on an hourly basis, usually between $200 and $500 per hour. Do some searching and ask for references when you choose a lawyer. Furthermore, you should consider paying $1500 to have a three-panelist panel. With WIPO, you are likely to lose if only one panelist is assigned to your case. When you request three panelists, you have the right to designate one panelist for the dispute panel. By carefully choosing a registrant-friendly panelist, you will increase your likelihood of winning.

12) If you lose at WIPO, you have 10 days to appeal to your local federal court or the court that has jurisdiction over the registrar. 13) If the challenger goes directly to court to sue you, you should file your response timely. Do not get scared because the plaintiff may do this simply as a tactic to scare you by the fact that a court action is more expensive than dispute arbitration. The most important thing is to establish your rights to your domain name. Keep any and all evidence that is indicative of your using your domain name for a legitimate activity. And finally, be careful to avoid the traps that would endanger your rights to your domain names.

The tips in this article are intended for reference only and should not be construed as legal advice.

About The Author

Dr. Peter Liu is a consultant to Marsgerm.com web hosting service at http://marsgerm.com. He runs http://www.domainmanual.com. Contact him at shopseek2@yahoo.com if you have any comment.

new@domainmanual.com

Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets. The method user to represent these IP addresses is known as dotted decimal Notation". A typical address looks like this: 199.249.150.4

It is very difficult to keep in mind the IP addresses of all the websites we visit daily, because it's not easy to remember strings of numbers. However, we do remember words. This is where domain names come into the picture. If you want to connect to a particular site, you need to know its IP address but do need to know its URL. The DNS gets the mappings of the IP addresses and the corresponding names.

Names and numbers

DNS converts the machine names (such as www.xyz.com) to IP addresses (such as 199.249.150.9). Basically, it translates from a name to an address and from an address to a name.

The mapping from the IP address to the machine name is called reverse mapping. When you type http://www.xyz.com into your browser, the browser first needs to get the IP address of www.xyz.com. The machine uses a directory service to look up IP addresses and this service is called DNS. When you type www.xyz.com your machines firsts contacts a DNS server, asking it to find the IP address for www.xyz.com. This DNS server might then contact other DNS servers on the internet. DNS is therefore is considered as the global network of servers. The great advantage of DNS is that no organization is responsible for updating it. It is what is known as distributed database.

The three letter codes

A DNS server is just a computer that's running the DNS software. The most popular DNS software is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) DNS is hierarchical, tree-structured system. The top is donated by'.'. And is known as the root of the system. Below the root there are seven immediate sub domain nodes and these are 'com', 'org', 'gov', 'mil', 'net', 'edu', 'Int', etc.

DNS consists of two components

1. Nameserver
2. Resolver

Nameserver:

This performs the task of looking up the names. Usually, there is one nameserver for a cluster of machines. If the nameserver does not contain the requested information, it will contact another nameserver. But it is not required for every server to know how to contact every other server. Every nameserver will know how to contact the root nameserver, and this in turn will know the location of every authoritative nameserver for all the second level domains.

Resolver:

This runs on a client machine to initiate DNS lookups. It contains a list of nameservers to use. As we have read, the function of each of these nameservers is to resolve name queries. There are three types of nameservers-primary nameserver, secondary nameserver, and caching nameserver. The secondary nameservers are configured for backup purposes. Caching nameservers only resolve name queries but do not maintain any DNS database files. It is important to note here that any change to primary nameservers needs to be propagated to secondary nameservers. This is because primary nameservers own the database records. The changes are propagated via a 'zone transfer'.

HOW 'CACHING"WORKS

DNS uses principle of 'caching' for its operation. When a nameservers receives Information about a mapping, it caches this information .further queries for the same mapping will use this cached result, thereby reducing the search cost. The nameservers don't cache forever. The caching has a component called time to live (TTL) and the TTL determines how long a server will cache a piece of information. So when the nameservers caches receive an IP address, it receives the TTL with it. The nameserver caches the IP address for the period of time then discards it.

When a process needs to determine an IP address given a DNS address, it calls upon the local host to resolve the address. This can be done in variety of ways:

Table look up. On UNIX hosts, the table is /etc/hosts.

The process communicates with a local nameservers. This is named on a UNIX system.

By sending a massage to the remote system that is identified from the information in the file/etc/resolve.conf.

When a nameserver receives a query for a domain that is does not serve, it may send back a referral to the client by specifying better nameservers. Typically operate in the recursive manner wherein any DNS server passes requests it cannot handle to higher level server and so on, until either the request can be handled or until the root of the DNS name space is reached.

The nameservers contain pointers to other nameserver with the help of which it is possible to traverse the entire domain naming hierarchy. A host with the initial nameserver addresses has to be configured. After this, it is able to use DNS protocols to locate the nameserver responsible for any part or the DNS naming hierarchy.

Thus when a nameserver receives a request, it can do one of the following:

It can answer the request with an IP address. This method is called iterative. In this, the client simply asks the server to resolve a domain name. The server accesses its database, finds its IP address and sends that back. If the server does not find the address, it sends back an error ;DNS not found'). Contact another nameserver and try to find the IP address for the requested name. Send back a referral to the client specifying the IP address of better nameservers.

A popular user interface, called 'nslookup'is available on the UNIX system. With this, you can perform any DNS function. This program also displays the result to the user. Using is nslookup, you can obtain a listing of all the hosts in a zone. In order to do this, you first need to identify the nameserver for the zone.

The threats that are associated with the DNS are due to the lack of integrity and authenticity checking of the data held within the DNS. Also, other protocols can use host names as an access control mechanism. The internet engineering task force (IETF) has come up with DNS security (DNSSEC) extensions to DNS protocol. The main objective to DNSSEC is to provide authentication and integrity to the DNS. These are provided through the use of cryptographic'

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director,
Birbals, Ebirbals, SeoBirbals, Hbirbals
India.

Visit us at: http://www.birbals.com, http://www.ebirbals.com, http://www.hbirbals.com, http://www.seobirbals.com

pawan@ebirbals.com

I come across sites all the time that are obviously hosted for free. Why obviously? Because they have no domain. Having no domain can cost you big time.

You have taken the time to put together a great website. You have collected pictures, designed or bought a nifty template, and filled it with great text. Your website is ready to go. Everything looks great – until you decide to host your site on a free hosting account provided by your ISP. Big mistake.

Having no domain name is no big deal if all that you will ever do with the website is post family pictures. A domain name is mandatory though, if you plan to do business online. If you don't take your business seriously, why should anyone else?

Domain names build trust in your website visitors

One of the biggest barriers to doing business online is the lack of face to face communication. When people can't look into your eyes and size you up in person, they are slower to trust you. In the absence of being able to talk face to face, your website and everything about it, communicates trust, or the lack thereof.

Registering a domain name is an important first step to building the trust your visitor has in you and your company. Always keep in mind that trust is much easier to lose than it is to build in the first place. It takes a long time to build trust but it takes no time at all to destroy it.

Domain names are portable

When you go with a generic website address from your ISP, the few dollars you save per year are far less costly than the lack of mobility to you get with a free website address. You may have hopes that your part time web project will one day lead to a full time income. When you have a free website address, you are stuck to that ISP. In contrast, when you own a domain name, you can take your domain name to any web hosting company you choose.

As the traffic to your website builds and your website climbs in the search listings, changing its name later is impossible without taking a big traffic hit. When you have a domain name however, changing hosts will have very little effect on your traffic. This is even more important if your website is suddenly hit with a major increase in traffic. You may need to change web hosts but if you don't have a domain name, that traffic may disappear. On top of that, if you start using too much bandwidth on your free hosting account, your provider will most likely pull the plug.

Domain names make it easier for your prospects to email you

When you have a domain name, it looks more professional. Having an email like jack@yourdomain.com looks far better and is easier to remember than jack.lastname@yourisp.com. Easier for your prospect translates into more money earned for you.

Domain name registration is a no brainer and something you should do right away.

Joe Duchesne is president of Yowling. Business web hosting and domain registration are two of the services they offer. Reprint freely as long as you keep both clickable links found in this resource box. http://www.yowling.com/

Choosing a domain name can be daunting. Research the subject (after all, you're the type of marketer who researches, right?) and you'll be hit with a landslide of opinions, most contradictory. There is, however, two points that everyone agrees on:

Pick your domain before you launch your business.

This is especially true if your market niche has lots of competition. Research your domain before you commit to a business plan.

Don't wait too long if you like a domain.

While you're researching, you'll likely come across a couple of domains that attract you. You might be tempted to wait, since you haven't finalized or refined your business plan. Don't. A handful of domains isn't going to cost you much at an affordable registrar like GoDaddy, and once they're gone, they're gone. Chances are you can even resell the rejects at cost, if not a profit. Or "develop" them with unique content and point them to your main site for extra traffic.

Now that we have the easy part of the way, let's wade into murkier waters.

Q. Which TLD (top-level domain) is best?

A. If you're a juggernaut in the business world with a giant ad budget, the answer is dot-com (.com). If you're a smalltime business struggling for search engine positioning, the answer is still dot-com.

People do disagree on the value of a dot-com TLD. Some assert that dot-coms have no particular value in the search engines, which may be true.

However, the fact is, if you haven't yet seared your brand on the collective brow of the planet, dot-com makes you easier to remember. If you eschew dot-coms, then in some deep dark place inside, people will remember you as "that hard-to-remember URL with the ending that isn't dot-com." What's worse, if you pick an otherwise memorable domain ending in dot-net, -us, or (God forbid) -tv, some of your traffic will end up at that competitor who snagged the dot-com version of your domain. Okay, that's settled. Now for the controversial stuff. Which is best: the "keyword" domain, or the "creative-genius, snappy and brandable" domain?

Keyword Name vs. Creative-Genius Brandable Name

A Keyword Name is the boring, workhorse kind of domain. You seem them everywhere. They bristle with hyphens: "best-anchovy-pizza-in-siberia.com." Or "super-labrador-accessories-and-golfballs.biz." On the face of it, they're hard to brand. They're hard to fit on business cards. They're really hard to explain over the phone to Aunt Martha.

On the other hand, a Creative-Genius Brandable Name is the sexy kind of domain. The successes are sparkling: Yahoo!, Google, Amazon.com. You can shout these URLs across the room and the other guy will probably get it right. But note: the dot-com road is littered with hip, snappy business who failed to brand their product successfully, or get listed high in the search engines. Now their URLs all point to the same page: "server not found …"

The debate rages on, but the first question you must ask yourself is:

How will people find YOU?

It was recently reported that "direct navigation" web traffic has started to outnumber search engine traffic. In other words, more people visit sites by typing in the URL directly than they do by combing search engines for results. So more gurus are recommending ‘brandable' domains.

But think about this. As a small business owner, how will people find you? Word of mouth? Billboards on I-95? "Corporate sponsorships" on hockey arenas? Probably not: they'll find you through search engines. They'll type in "cheap purple widgets," and as a smart marketer, you will offer them a website optimized for the keywords "cheap purple widgets."

Still, this doesn't imply you should automatically pick a keyword domain. There are pros and cons to both types.

BRANDABLE: ADVANTAGES

The brandable domain is great for business cards. In fact, it's nearly compulsory if you're planning on offline marketing. In other words, if you're printing up stationary at Kinkos, you want a brandable domain name.

If you're also a marketing genius, this is a fit challenge for your talents. Finding a memorable, apt domain to brand your business is something no software-driven suggestion tool can do.

Most "hybrid" domains -- ones that are really crosses between keywords and brandable names -- are long gone. But if you create a unique idea for your brand, you can probably snag the dot-com name for yourself. Now all you have to do is burn that brand onto the world's collective forehead. If you do, you'll benefit from type-in traffic. That means that if someone hears about you, they can probably find you just buy typing in your domain.

BRANDABLE: DISADVANTAGES

The brandable name requires solid marketing skill, research and luck. Your name should be so catchy, it's almost viral. It should also convey your actual business – or you'll have to work hard (often meaning, spend money) to associate the two. Your name should be "tested" on coworkers, cousins and dishwasher repairmen to ensure it has no undesirable connotations. Finally, your name should be available as a domain, and not suffer from competitors with similar domains. Sometimes, pulling all this off is difficult.

KEYWORD: ADVANTAGES

By keyword names, we're not talking about the glorious generic keywords – the one-keyword kings such as drugs.com or business.com. No, we're talking keyword names you can afford.

This is where you buy the domain name www.cheap-purple-widgets.com in hopes of getting a top search ranking for cheap purple widgets.

Advantages are many. First, more keyword names are available. (They're ugly, and many people feel an aversion to hyphens.) Also, they do help you place higher in the search engines. It's true that search engines only give you a little credit for having a keyword in your domain, but "a little credit" counts.

Second, keyword domains leave no doubt in the searcher's mind about what you're selling. If you decided to call your widget business "Ableeza," a searcher might not get at a glance what it is you're selling, even if your rank is high.

Finally, if you can get people to link to you, those links will be valuable. No matter how Webmaster Joe describes you, the link part will always say, "cheap-purple-widgets." This is a powerful search engine strategy for moving higher.

KEYWORD: DISADVANTAGES

You won't get type-in traffic for a keyword name. You can't really explain it across a phone. It won't look pretty on a business card, and it's almost impossible to pair up with a cute logo. But if search engine traffic is going to drive your business, the keyword name is worth a long, hard look.

WRAP-UP

Regardless of which type you choose, don't play guessing games. If you go with a keyword name, use a search tool (like http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx to determine what keyword phrases people are searching on.

If you choose a brandable name instead, test it out on a variety of real people first. Pay attention to their reactions. Reserve your domain early, since brandable domains go fast unless they're very unique.

In the long run, both types of domains can work for you, especially if offline marketing is an option and you have a knack for branding. Overall, though, the keyword domain is probably the easiest path to success for the small-business owner.

Blake Kritzberg is editor of FavorIdeas. Stop by for continually-updated celebrity wedding news, remarkable beach wedding favors, exclusive hairstyling articles and gorgeous and unique wedding favors. http://www.favorideas.com/

Since every website needs a name, Dr. Steve Baba has written a free ebook that will help you obtain a brandable, memorable domain name at a reasonable cost, which will contribute to your brand equity and profits. The ebook, downloadable from Seemly.com, explains how to select and buy an elite domain name. You will be able to obtain a better name than your competitors have.

There are at least 10,000 words in a dictionary that would make great domain names plus at least 10,000 proper names and 10,000 great short coined-words. With a supply of 30,000 great names and millions of good names, obtaining a good name is easy.

There is no need to pay more than a few thousand dollars for a great one-word domain name, and many good domain names are available for free. This book provides you with the information needed to beat domain name speculators at their games.

Both naming methodology to identify great domain names and negotiating/purchasing methods to obtain great domain names at low prices are covered. After a couple of introductory sections, the book starts with domain naming goals or the criteria for choosing a great domain name: image, memorability, trademark-legal, and price. Then quality domain naming strategies are discussed. Inferior domain naming styles, which you want to avoid, are then discussed.

The second half of this book explains how to buy a great domain name. Auctions, expired domains, speculators, and other sources are discussed. Finally, many other topics are expanded on.

Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience. The ebook on domain names is available at www.seemly.com, for free. No registration is required. The ebook is a PDF file of approximately 250K. The free ebook is advertising supported. The following paragraphs are book excerpts. Generic names, arbitrary dictionary words, coined or made-up words, modified generic names (generic plus) and unrelated two-word names are quality domain naming strategies. But, each quality strategy has strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing as a perfect name.

Generic names are highly controversial and expensive. Examples of generic names are Hotels.com, Shoes.com and Furniture.com. The generic name strategy was always controversial and peaked during the dotcom bubble.

The generic naming strategy is virtually never used offline, but a very few small stores do business under generic names such as the “Mattress Store” in Annapolis, Maryland. Offline, anyone can use the same generic name and open a store name “Mattress Store.” Online, ownership of the domain name MattressStore.com can only prevent competitors from using the same exact domain name.

Since, generic names cannot be trademarked, competitors can use Hotels.NET, Rooms.com, Hotelrooms.com, Motels.com, Hotel.com (singular), Inns.com Hotels.us, and so on. Often, there are a half dozen simple generic names for each industry not to mention generic names with a prefix (e, i) or suffix such as eHotels.com.

Since competitors can use similar generic names, developing a distinct, memorable brand is difficult. Memorability or the need to spend less on advertising is often an argument for high domain name prices – but this argument is only half true. At the same time, with only a few first-rate generic names in each industry, the generic domain names may be unavailable or overpriced, and are rarely bargain-priced. A generic name also hampers brand extension beyond the generic category – Hotels.com selling plane tickets?

Another quality strategy is unrelated, arbitrary dictionary words. Examples of unrelated dictionary word names include Amazon.com Yahoo.com, Google.com, Target and Staples. Both the words yahoo and google are in the Oxford dictionary, but were rarely used prior to becoming famous brands.

Compared to generic names, it was not immediately obvious what business Amazon, Yahoo or Google was in. On the other hand, Yahoo can legally prevent competitors from using similar names such as FreeHoo via trademark laws.

SearchEngine.com would be the generic name for Google. “Fast” and “All The Web” are used as trademarks by another search engine. But “fast” and “all the web” are not unrelated or arbitrary. Other search engines can also claim to be fast, speedy, quick, the entire web, or something similar.

The key to having the most trademark protection is to choose an unrelated, arbitrary word. Descriptive words, such as fast, are unlikely to earn much trademark protection. Instead of fast, it may be possible to use a suggestive name such as jet, rocket, or race.

With 10,000 good, short, easy-to-spell dictionary words, it is always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars. Shorter four or five character dictionary words are more expensive. Three character dictionary words are extremely expensive.

Coined or fanciful words are words such as Exxon or Kodak that had no prior use. In theory, coined words are the best from a trademark-legal point of view, since no one has used the word before. Ideally, a coined word is totally new and unrelated to any other word.

But, memorability requires a short name, which has led to a number of similar coined names such as Duron, Enron, and Micron, which diminishes the legal advantage, since confusion is possible. LexIs sued LexUs.

While the legal protection is not perfect, the legal protection is considered the strongest of any category. But from a marketing point of view since no one has used the word, coined words may be as difficult to remember as nonsense syllables.

With a supply of thousands if not tens of thousands of short, coined words, it is always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars or less – often free.

Because of the lack of trademark protection for generic names, the lack of distinctiveness, and the cost of many generic domain names, many businesses have used a “generic plus” or “modified generic” naming strategy.

A prefix, suffix or second word can be added to the generic name. Examples of this are Carmax, CarMart, eCars, CarDepot, CarOne and CarLand.

This works if the generic word, such as car, is short. Longer generic names, such as CarpetCleaningMax.com, can be too long. But many of the longer generic words have common abbreviations. For example, computer is often abbreviated “comp” as in CompUSA. Software is often shortened to “soft” or “ware” in names. Tech is a common abbreviation for technology, overused in names.

These names range from virtually generic, eCars.cars, to nearly coined, QuanCars.com, with descriptive, suggestive and arbitrary second-words in-between. Since the generic word lacks any trademark protection, the trademark strength depends on the trademark strength of the “plus” part of the name.

The generic plus strategy is often an attempt to have the benefits from both a generic and a distinctive name, but may have the problems of both if one is not careful. At worst, it could infringe on someone's trademark based on the second word such as CarsRus or CarBay. The generic part of the word is usually trademark safe.

Another strategy is to use two unrelated words in a name. Examples of two unrelated words are RedEnvelope.com and BlueTooth.com. The two unrelated words strategy differs from the generic-plus strategy in that neither word is related to the generic product. Technically red is related to envelope by being an adjective, but neither word is closely related to the product or service being sold.

The main advantage to this method, two unrelated words, is that it’s cheap and often free. With 30,000 single words, there are 900 million combinations of two single words (30,000 x 30,000).

The main disadvantage is that two unrelated words are twice as difficult to remember as one. Two words that are commonly related to each other such as “happy birthday” or “hot wire” are easier to remember, but rare and may be as expensive as single words.

From a trademark viewpoint, it could be twice as risky. It could infringe on someone's trademark based on either the first or second word. If you are RedDog.com selling computers, either Red Computers or Dog Computers could consider trademark action against you.

About The Author

Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience. The ebook on domain names is available at http://www.seemly.com, for free.

eeeni@aol.com

By now you've probably noticed the onslaught of unfamiliar domain name extensions popping up here and there. Like most domain name professionals, you've probably sat at your computer pondering whether or not you should kick out the extra cash to register some of these domain names... why?

Keywords! While droves of individuals place an extreme value on the domain names extension, I firmly believe that the extension has nothing to do with the success or failure of the domain name. While certain ccTLD's (Country Code Top Level Domains) gain popularity, others leave little to be desired. Mostly because of certain restrictions placed on the domain extension by it's sponsoring organization.

Those ccTLD's made available nationwide, or at least with no registration restrictions are, of course, going to be more popular than ones limited to corporations of the country for which it stands.

What determines popularity. People do. How do we increase the popularity of these alternative domain names? Marketing, and education. The best thing to do is make people aware that they do, in fact, have other options.

Just because .cc is technically the country code for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, or .ad is for Andorra doesn't mean you have to market it that way. Use some creativity in choosing the best name possible. People remember creative names.

Again, I cannot stress the importance of keywords. The part of the domain name before the extension is, and always will be the most important aspect of the domain name. So, if your question is, should I buy or invest in ccTLDs, the answer is yes. Though the present return on these alternative domain names is minimal in comparison to the .com, the future looks promising for certain ccTLDs, for example, Beauty.cc sold for $1,000,000; setting a record for the highest amount paid for a non .com! I'd say the proof is in the pudding, not to beat an old cliché to death.

About The Author

Jennifer Chiera Webmaster/Investor; webmaster@domainbash.com

DomainBash.com - http://www.domainbash.com

DotTown.com - http://www.dottown.com

DomainAppeal.com - http://www.domainappeal.com

Cologne,10 July 2004. ICANN accredited registar Secura announces today, that the company is accepting applications for the sunrise and real time period of eu-domains (https://www.domainregistry.de/eu.html).

Sunrise Period

You should send now to your applications to secure your rights at the new eu-domains. The eu-domains will be the most important event since the introduction of com-domains.

There will be a Sunrise Period (Phased registration for those holding prior rights to a name) at the eu-domains.

The Sunrise Period of eu-domains will have two phases:

The EU Regulation stipulates that the registry must make a sunrise provision at eu-domains to allow those with 'prior rights' to a name to apply for registration of eu-domains in advance of beginning general registrations. The PPR states that the sunrise period (phased registration) of eu-domains will take place in two phases each lasting two months.

During phase one, public bodies and holders of registered Community or national trademarks will be able to register their names.

During phase 2 those who may register in phase 1 may register their eu-domains as well holders of other rights recognised under Community law or the national law of an EU member state. Eu-domains registered during the sunrise period must be an exact match for the prior right claimed and documentary evidence must be supplied to proof the right.

Live Registration: First comes-first serves

Some weeks after the Sunrise Period eu-domains goes live and general registrations of eu-domains will begin and registration of eu-domains will be done on a first come first served basis for any eu-domain not taken during the sunrise period.

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited registrar Secura GmbH

You can reprint or republish these articles for free if these three lines are at the end of the articles:

http://www.com-domains.com

https://www.domainregistry.de

secura@domainregistry.de

The registry of ru-domains reports, that the number of domain names registered in Russia's national domain, the ru-domains, has increased 19.82% in the first half of 2004 to 256.356 ru-domains.

Ru-Center compares this to the growth of 2003, which was 16.02% for the first half of 2003.

The increase among ru-domains in Russia is coincident with the rising numbers of Russian Internet users. Ru-Center explains, that the weekly users numbered 5.9 million June 2004 , 1.4 million more than one year earlier. The number of Russian Internet users is expanding 30% a year.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura is accepting registrations of ru-domains by non-russian enterprises and private people. According to the experience of this registrar, the ru-domains owned by foreign registrants is growing rapidly (https://www.domainregistry.de/ru-domain.html).

About The Author

Hans Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

http://www.domainregistry.de/ru-domain.html; secura@domainregistry.de

ICANN accredited registar Secura is announcing today, that the company offers is-domains to persons and companies outside from Iceland.

The is-domains, which are the domains from Iceland, belong to the domains, which become more and more attractive.

The is-domains are specially interesting, because in English, "is" has a meaning. You could make a combination with files, which form sentences like http://www.tommy.is/at/home or http://www.tommy.is/superman.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura can register an is-domain at once, if the domain name is available.

Only companies from Iceland can register is-domains. A company from Iceland acts as trustee and is registering the domain for the customer. The company from Iceland confirms, that you have all rights at these is-domains.

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

https://www.domainregistry.de/is-domain.html

secura@domainregistry.de

Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has -as Hindustan Times reports-some advice for Indian patriots: use in-domains for Websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the world.

With India emerging as a global "labor" for IT, Indian companies should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs to in-domains, just like other countries.

"In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals," the minister said during his first speech as IT Minister.

"During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?", Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.

Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India.

"I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland," Maran says.

"Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in," the IT minister explains.

The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to all Indian companies. "Foreign companies", explains Hans-Peter Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura (https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only register the own name at .gen.in."

About The Author

Hans Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura


https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html, https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html; secura@domainregistry.de

Whether you're someone that registers domain names on a regular basis, or you’re a person looking to register one domain name for your website or business, then it's likely that you've encountered the free .info registrations taking place at several registrars.

I've encountered a lot of debate regarding the free .info giveaways. Some think that this free rush will decrease the value of the domain extension, while others insist that no matter what the price, certain domains maintain value due to the high demand of the keywords.

The best thing we could do to maintain the value of the .info is to only register the extension appropriate keywords. I've seen a lot of random, and worse, profitless .info domain names being registered for the sake of being free. This doesn't really help the .info market, especially when I've personally come across several hundred domain names that match perfectly with the extension, and are still available for registration.

The .info should be used for exactly the purpose it was designed. For information. Anything else would just be impractical. It’s not difficult to find worthwhile terms to match with the .info extension. Do some research. Visit your favorite directory and browse through for topics. I've found hundreds of available extension appropriate terms using this method. Forget the strategy you've been using to find .com's, and other such extensions. The .info is a very special extension, and should be treated as such.

This is not to limit you, quite the contrary. This is a great opportunity for many people to register valuable domain names at little to no cost whatsoever. If you spend a little extra time to find better registration choices, then it will pay off in the end. Rushing out to register the first thing that comes to mind for the sake of doing it won't benefit you, or anyone else in the end, especially come renewal time.

Another tip is to only register names that would be worth registering if you were paying out of your pocket for them. Also only register names that would be worth the renewal cost. Chances are if you avoid these two tips, it won't even be worth it to you to park your ineffective domains at a revenue bearing parking service. Think before you register. Be sure that there is a way that you can profit from this opportunity, whether it be in reselling, developing, or parking. Quick, thoughtless registrations of the .info are counterproductive, and should be avoided at all costs.

About The Author

Jennifer Chiera, Webmaster/Investor

DomainBash.com - http://www.domainbash.com

DotTown.com - http://www.dottown.com

DomainAppeal.com - http://www.domainappeal.com

webmaster@domainbash.com

In this article we will cover the basics of what a domain name is, how they work and why you need to have at least one. I am going to try and avoid complicated computer terms and stick to explanations that should be easily understood by someone without a computer science degree.

What is a Domain Name? Before we can go into what a domain name is I'm going to tell you why we need them as the answers compliment each other. The Internet is just a really big collection of connected computers (a network). For the purpose of explaining domain names you can think of the Internet a bit like the phone system and just like the phone system every computer on the Internet has it's own phone number except an Internet phone number is called an IP addresses. This address is made up of up to 12 digits in the form 123.123.123.123, computers use these IP addresses to send information to each other over the Internet.

When the Internet was first created it quickly became clear that these IP addresses were not easy to remember and another method was need to make these addresses more human friendly. The solution to this was the Domain Name System (DNS). Basically the DNS is a really really big phone book for computers. When you type a web site address into your web browser it checks the DNS for that website name and finds the IP address. Once it has the IP address it can then send a message to that computer and ask it for the web page you wanted.

Ok so you know a domain name is part of a web site address but which part? Lets look at a website address so we can identify and discuss what bit of it is a domain name.

http://www.itxcel.com/index.html

The above address is the home page of the itXcel web site. It can be split into 3 main parts. The first part is http:// this just tells your web browser what kind of information it is going to get and how to get it. The last part is /index.html this is name of the files on the remote computer that you want your browser to get. The bit in the middle www.itxcel.com is a domain name. This is the name that your computer sends to the DNS to get back the IP address.

So you know what a domain name is and that there is a phone book called the DNS to change your easy to remember domain name into an IP address that you computer can understand. The Internet phone book (DNS) is special in that everyone on the Internet needs to be able to use it. This makes the DNS very very big (100+ million addresses big). Due to the size of this phone book it needed to have a carefully organised and managed structure.

Domain names themselves are split into different levels like a hierarchy. The DNS system uses this hierarchy to search the DNS for the IP address of the domain name it is trying to find. The last bit of a domain, in the previous example the com part is called the top level domain. There are a large selection of top level domains like com, net, org and info. There are also very similar endings called country level domains like uk and de. Each of the top level and country level domains are managed by a different organization, sometimes these are companies or non profit organizations and sometimes governments. In the domain business these organisations are referred to as the registries. Each registry looks after it's own part of the domain name system.

If you decide you want to use a domain name in the top level domain com, like mycompany.com you would have to have this name assigned by the registry that manages that top level domain (for .com a US company called VeriSign). The process of being assigned a domain name is called domain registration.

Domain registration is more like a lease than a purchase. You are renting the second level domain (the mycompany bit) from Verisign for a specific amount of time normally between 1 and 10 years at a time. Most of the organizations that allow you to register a second level domain charge a fee for each year that you register the domain for. With almost all domain names you are also given the option to renew your registration (lease) when it is close to running out (expiring).

Once you have registered a second level domain you are free to create as many third level domains (sometimes called sub domains) as you like. In our previous example the www is a sub domain of itxcel.com.

Most of the registries that manage these top level domain names do not allow individuals or businesses to register domains directly with them. To register a domain you need to use a company like itXcel. We act as a registrar and send all the required information and the registration fee to the registry. Registrars are useful as they hide the differences that exist in each of the registries from the customer and provide a simple step by step process for registering a domain. A registrar also allows you to manage and track all your domains from one place rather than having to deal with a different company for each top level domain.

OK so I know what a domain name is, Why do need one? Can you image what a nightmare it would be if you had an email address like myname@123.246.128.255 or a web site address http://123.246.128.255/?
These addresses are possible but not very easy to remember. Now if you register a domain name you could create an email address like myname@mycompany.com and a web site address like mycompany.com. These are much easier to remember and look 100 times more professional.

One of the important points about registering a domain is that once done you have an exclusive right to use that domain for as long as you keep the domain registered in your name. If you do not renew a domain at the end of it's registration period it will again become available for registration by someone else. For this reason even if you don't want or need a web site at the moment, it's still a good idea to register a domain as soon as possible. Just imagine if your competition registered the domain name of your company or product. Although there is a process in place to retrieve these domain it can be long and complicated. It is definitely simpler to spend a little money up front to secure your chosen domain names.

About The Author

Ewan Bain is the general manager at itXcel Internet Limited - Based in the UK itXcel provide Internet services, including domain name registration and web site hosting to small to medium sized businesses and home users.

To find out what domains are available and to quickly and cheaply register them visit http://www.itxcel.com now and enter your desired name in the domain search box.

For further information please visit our website.

Domain names are relatively straightforward! Or at least that’s the theory!!

The domain name is also, but technically not quiet correct, known as the website address.

Using an ISP’s domain name can look amateurish in an e-mail addresses, it is much more so with websites, giving the impression of hanging on another’s coat tails. The only exception being when a firm wants to re-inforce a local or professional affiliation by appearing as part of an existing site dedicated to a region or association. Even in such cases autonomy and continuity are better assured by having one’s own domain and merely using a page on the third party’s site to point users toward it.

Domains are classified according to their endings or “suffixes”. As a commercial organisation a company will almost certainly want a domain ending in .com or .co.uk. Other endings such as .biz and .ltd.uk are at least to date, insufficiently familiar to users, meaning the name can be too readily misremembered. Of the two desirable suffixes, .com is preferable for business with international activities, and arguably gives the impression of a bigger organisation, whilst .co.uk helps reassure users on the largely American-dominated web that they are indeed dealing with a UK firm.

The part of the domain name before the suffix will usually by the firms trading name, provided of course that the domain name has not already been registered, (which is increasingly likely these days). If the name is very long an abbreviation may be considered. Domain names are not case sensitive.

The actual registration of a domain name is a straightforward process that can be done online, either through your ISP or better still through a dedicated registration service company such as Discount Domains Ltd (http://www.discountdomainsuk.com). Renewal fees must be paid, typically every two years.

Checking if a domain name is freely available is very straightforward as most domain registration services provide a WHOIS service, as the name suggest, this checks the ownership details of a domain, note however that such services normally run 48 hours behind actual registrations.

Moving ISP’s can save money, however it may take time and incur extra charges. Pricing in the domain name registration industry have fallen considerably over recent years and a domain name typically now costs from $15 for two years registration.

Once your domain name is registered, you can either leave the domain name “parked” awaiting future use, or point it at a website, this is usually achieved by changing the Domain Name Server, or DNS settings on the domain to point at hosting company where your website is located. Almost all registration services offer a free user control panel to change these settings.

Web hosting is the provision of space on a web server to publish a web site. There are numerous hosting companies in the market, and most domain registration services also offer a hosting solution. Prices vary but $100 per annum should be sufficient for most business needs.

(C) Clare Lawrence 11th May 2004

About The Author

Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com.

What is a DETAGGED domain name? We get asked this question regularly.

Only UK domain names can be detagged. A domain name that has been DETAGGED is no longer hosted on valid name servers.

What happens if there are no longer valid nameservers showing against a domain name?

If no valid name servers are showing this means that any services such e-mail or a web site will no longer work.

Who can DETAG a domain name?

Only a domain registration service or agent can DETAG a domain name. This happens if the relationship between domain name owner and agent expires, for example if the registration fee or renewal fee is not paid.

When are domain names detagged?

Domain names can be detagged at any point after registration. Detagging signifies the end of the relationship between the registration agent and the registrant.

It is not necessarily an indication of whether a domain name is paid for or not.

How can I tell if a domain name is DETAGGED?

You will probably notice that the email or web site associated with the domain name has stopped working.

You can check the status of any registration by doing a WHOIS look-up that will indicate that the domain name is DETAGGED.

How can DETAGGED domain name be retagged?

To restore a DETAGGED domain name, the registrant will need to pay a tag change fee of £15+VAT as of January 2004 to nominet via a registration service. Nominet charge a higher fee to deal direct with the owner.

Can I register a DETAGGED domain name?

A DETAGGED domain name is still registered to the original registrant, and it remains as such until it is either renewed by the current registrant, or it is cancelled. Once cancelled, it immediately becomes available for registration on a first-come, first-served basis.

How long does it take for a DETAGGED domain name to become available for registration?

Nominet contact the owner of each domain that is detagged and confirms if they wish to renew or allow each name to lapse.

If the domain is allowed to lapse then the domain name will be suspended after 21 days and then cancelled between 6-8 weeks after that.

For further information please visit Nominet http://www.nominet.org.uk

By Clare Lawrence 29th September 2003

Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name registration service.

About The Author

Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com

The number of registered domains has reached an all-time high of more than 60 million domain names worldwide.

Figures show that country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) are the fastest growing market, while general demand for new domains remains strong. The most popular domains are still the com-domains. The growth of com-domains is tremendous.

Experts think, that the growing sale of com-domains reveal a revival of the "New Economy". Some experts even argue, that this growth of domain names is an early indicator of persisting economic growth in the USA and the whole world.

The com-domains remain the most popular domain with about a 45 percent market share.

New generic Top Level Domains outside of .com, .net and .org, become increasingly popular, including aero-domains, biz-domains, coop-domains, info-domains, museum-domains, .name-domains and pro-domains.

Oktober 2004

.de 7.981.014 (Increment compared to one month ago: 89.793)

.at 367.987 (Increment compared to one month ago: 4.766)

.com 31.017.772 (Increment compared to one month ago: 750.631)

.net 4.999.073 (Increment compared to one month ago: 88.952)

.org 3.138.385 (Increment compared to one month ago: 37.607)

.info 1.919.331 (Increment compared to one month ago: 683.846)

.biz 1.041.432 (Increment compared to one month ago: 13.118)

.us 881.411 (Increment compared to one month ago: 6.395)

http://www.com-domains.com

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN Registrar Secura

http://www.com-domain.com; secura@domainregistry.de

Cologne, October 10 2004. ICANN Registrar Secura announces today, that the company is now accepting the registration of jp-domains from companies and individuals outside of Japan.

The jp-domains are the domains of Japan. The jp-domains belong to the popular domains in Asia.

You need a local contact to register these domain. ICANN accredited registrar Secura provides automatically this local contact in the registration process, if you have not a registered business in Japan.

There are domains at .jp and at .co.jp. You have to pay for the more attractive domains at .jp 300 US-Dollars per year.

It is paradox: But you have to invest 4000 US-Dollar in the first year, if you want a co.jp-domain, as you need for a co.jp- domain a Japanese business licence. In this price of 4000 US-Dollars is not only the co.jp-domain, but the business licence, the contacts with japanese authorities, the translation and everything else included.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura has access to the registration system of jp-domains. Secura can register a jp-domain at once, if the domain name is available. https://www.domainregistry.de/jp-domain.html

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

http://www.com-domains.com; secura@domainregistry.de

We do not always realize that figures are just quantity and can deceive about quality.

In spite of the fact that the net-domain is only the No. 4 in terms of the number of domain names registered, it works as a backbone of the web. The net-domains build the largest Top Level Domain by number of hosts, or machines connected to the Internet. More than 44 percent of name servers use net-domains. We presume, that programmers and other technical experts have a more narrow emotional relationship to .net than to .com. Their sympathy for .net is just greater than for .com.

Historically .net was once reserved for providers. This might have still an influence to the technical use of .net and the importance of this use. Every programmer and hostmaster has an idea of .net, but not every programmer and hostmaster has an idea of .com. In some way .net stands for the web.

Other facts:

-- 31 percent of all page views are dependent on a net-domain for resolution

-- 32 percent of all B2C e-Commerce in 2004 is dependent on a net-domain for resolution. https://www.domainregistry.de/net-domain.html

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN Registrar Secura

http://www.com-domains.com; secura@domainregistry.de

DENIC, the registry of the German Top Level Domain (TLD) has announced, that it has received the eight millionth application for the registration of a de-domain. The de-domain has the position as the world’s favourite Country Code TLD, ahead of .uk, which has about 3.7 million registrations. The de-domains are also numerically stronger than nearly all the generic Top Level Domains that are used throughout the world, such as .org, .net, .info and .biz. Only one the com-domain with more than 30 million domains is more often registered than the de-domain.

October 2004

.de 7.981.014 (Increment compared to one month ago: 89.793)

.at 367.987 (Increment compared to one month ago: 4.766)

.com 31.017.772 (Increment compared to one month ago: 750.631)

.net 4.999.073 (Increment compared to one month ago: 88.952)

.org 3.138.385 (Increment compared to one month ago: 37.607)

.info 1.919.331 (Increment compared to one month ago: 683.846)

.biz 1.041.432 (Increment compared to one month ago: 13.118)

.us 881.411 (Increment compared to one month ago: 6.395)

The de-domain is not totally liberalized, as it seems. Foreign companies and individuals can register also de-domains and sell products and services to the attractive German market by websites, but they must have a German Admin-C. DENIC-Member and ICANN accredited registrar Secura provides automatically this German Admin-C during the registration process. https://www.domainregistry.de/de-domain.html

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

http://www.com-domain.com; secura@domainregistry.de