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Registrar Connections
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March 2009
In this issue
Event
Reminder: 2009 Asia Registrar Days
The 2009 Asia Registrar Day events are only
a few short days away! This year VeriSign executives and registrars
will be meeting on March 30 in Beijing, China and April 2 in Seoul, Korea. These are the first of our 2009 Registrar
Days planned this year.
Some of the topics we’ll cover at this year’s
“Broadening Your Business” event will include;
- 2009
State of the Business:
General State of the Domain Name Business, economic impacts and indicators
for 2009
- Policies
To Help Your Business and Customers:
Policy updates, clarifications and the implementation of the
Add Grace Period Consensus Policy
- Broadening
The World of TLDs and What It Means
Update on IDNs, New gTLDs and Internationalized TLDs including
research findings
- Effective
Programs To Better Your Business
Expanding Your Domain Name Business: a focus on new unit acquisition,
renewals, reseller programs and reinforcing customer support best practices
- Enabling
New Opportunities
Overview of VeriSign SSL business and overview of user authentication
products
- How
To Grow Your Business
Value of Data Services and the addition of .name and .tv to your
portfolio
These events are open to all VeriSign registrars, click
here to reserve your spot today. If you have any questions
surrounding the Registrar Day events feel free to send an email to namingevents@verisign.com
or check out the event page on www.verisign.com
for more information. We look forward to seeing in Asia!
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Localization
of Domain Name Suggestion Service
VeriSign has teamed up with linguistic experts to
bring the registrar community domain name suggestions in new languages!
VeriSign views localized domain name suggestions as a value added service
for registrars with presence in both established and growing regions.
We are excited to add domain name suggestions in German, Portuguese,
and Spanish languages into our current Domain Name Suggestion Service.
We are on track to go live in late March 2009 with these new languages,
and our OT&E test environment is now available and ready for registrar
integration.
Benefits of Domain Name Suggestion Service:
- Potential to increase domain name registrations by customers who would
otherwise decline to register a domain name, or register fewer domain
names
- Domain name suggestions available in multiple languages to assist
registrars operating in growing regions to deliver on the need for localized
domain names
- The ability to offer a state-of-the-art technology tool to your customers
without costly investment in research and development
- All the benefits of VeriSign’s Name Store platform: A single
EPP interface, 24 / 7 account and technical support, details and summary
activity reporting online
- Ongoing research and development in emerging methodologies for computational
linguistics to continually improve performance
VeriSign offers both a Product Guidebook and an EPP
Software Development Kit to assist you with integration.
We want your feedback on new languages and feature
enhancements to include in our Domain Name Suggestion Service. Please
send your feedback to our Customer Service team at info@verisign-grs.com.
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Add
Grace Period Consensus Policy
VeriSign will implement the ICANN approved Add Grace
Period (AGP) Limits Policy, the “Policy”, effective March 31 at 11:59:59
pm US ET. Any .com, .net and .name domain names that are registered
by registrars upon implementation of the policy will be subject to the
threshold limits established by the Policy.
VeriSign will make numerous reports available to registrars
via FTP to assist in monitoring and managing Add Grace Period deletion
activity. It is each registrar’s responsibility to download and retain
these reports for future reference. Please access the registrar-only,
password protected site for more information, at https://knowledge.verisign.com/support/registrar/index?page=content&id=AD136&actp=LIST
Questions relating to VeriSign’s implementation of
the AGP Limits Policy should be directed to cao@verisign-grs.com.
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VeriSign’s Webinar
Series
Thank you to those of you who joined us for
the March
EPP Software Development Kit and Tools Webinar, the third of
the 2009 webinar series. It was well-attended and a vital webinar
conducted by James Gould, Naming Services Principal Engineer and Application
Architect for the Naming Services Registry Systems. Jim discussed the
SDK's and the Tools available to make it easier to integrate and troubleshoot
the VeriSign EPP systems including the COM NET Registry, the Name Store
Platform (TV, CC, JOBS, and Name Suggestion), and the NAME Registry.
For those of you who were unable to attend click
here for archive materials or email namingmarketing@verisign.com
with any questions. You can also find the latest EPP SDK Tools
information found on www.verisign.com.
Remember to mark your calendars for the next
webinar taking place on Thursday, April 23 where we will host a session on Internet Profile Service for Registrars. For a complete
listing of dates click here for the webinar
calendar.
A separate email from Naming Marketing will
be sent out with dial-in and log-in details. We look forward to having
you join us then. If you have any issues logging into the archive or
have questions feel free to contact Naming Marketing: namingmarketing@verisign.com.
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Customer
Service FAQs: What Your Should Know
Q: When will VeriSign implement the Add Grace Period (AGP)
Limits Consensus Policy announced by ICANN?
A:
VeriSign intends to implement the Policy on March 31, 2009 at 11:59:59
p.m. US ET. Any .com, .net and .name domain names that are registered
by registrars after implementation of the Policy will be subject to
the threshold limits established by the Policy.
This Policy may be viewed at the link below.www.icann.org/en/tlds/agp-policy-17dec08-en.htm
Also, the full details of VeriSign's implementation
of this policy can be viewed at the link below. https://knowledge.verisign.com/support/registrar/index?page=content&id=SO11258
(password required)
Q: Does VeriSign offer access to the .com and .net zone files?
A:
Yes, in order to gain access to the zone files, you will need to complete
the agreement which is located at the URL below.
http://www.verisign.com/information-services/naming-services/page_001052.html
Q: How much does it cost to access the .com and .net zone files?
A:
Zone files accessed through the TLD Zone Access Agreement are free.
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eMarketer: Has the Internet
Made you More Productive?
Published: March 16, 2009
Most say, “Yes.”
A survey conducted by the USC
Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future found a majority
of US users thought the Internet had made them more productive.
From 2000 to 2007, a rapidly increasing number
of users believed in Internet productivity. Respondents who said the
Internet had improved their productivity “a lot” or “somewhat” were
at 57% in 2000, but jumped to 71% in 2007. According to the Pew
Internet and American Life Project, 28% of Americans have
Internet access at work. The majority of those users are between the
ages of 30 and 49, are college graduates and earn more than $75,000
annually.
What are US workers doing online?
A Nielsen
Online survey found that US workers averaged 67 online sessions
and spent approximately 89 hours online per month. They visited 131
different domains, viewing each site for a minute, on average.
Those 131 Websites can’t all be work related, can they?
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In the News
This section contains a selection of articles pertaining to the Domain
Name Industry compiled by Information, Inc.
"National Arbitration Forum Releases 2008 Domain Name Dispute
Resolution Program Totals"
PRNewswire (03/11/09)
The National Arbitration Forum announced that 1,770 domain-name
dispute cases were filed in 2008. Ninety-eight percent of the cases
revolved around UDRP domain names, such as .com and .org, while the
other 2 percent involved usDRP .us domain names. Of the 1,770 cases
filed, 1,477 cases were brought forth and decided upon, while the rest
were settled by the parties. In the same year, more than 10,600 disputes
were filed with the National Arbitration Forum, and 9,470 were actually
heard and resolved. The rest were settled between the groups. Noteworthy
claims involved trademarks with American Girl, Anheuser-Busch, Canadian
Television, Patrick Dempsey, We The People LLC, and YouTube. "The
world of domain name extensions is constantly expanding, putting trademark
holders around the world on high alert and creating challenges for new
potential registries," says National Arbitration Forum Internet
legal counsel Kristine Dorrain. "The National Arbitration Forum
offers solutions to protect intellectual property rights before or after
domain name extensions go live."
(Web
Link)
"URL Shortening: Yet Another Security Risk"
TechRepublic (03/09/09) Kassner, Michael
In the past, URL shortening was used to decrease the number of
bad links in emails. More recently, the popularity of instant-message
services and Twitter has created a greater need for URL-shortening Web
sites such as TinyURL and Bit.ly. Although these services can be useful,
they mask the actual link, making them excellent tools for hackers and
spammers. Hackers can use URL-shortening tools to bypass spam, guide
users to phishing and malware sites, and prohibit the verification of
URLs. Twitter is especially useful to these people because almost all
users place links in their tweets, making it somewhat of a habit to
click on the URLs. Security experts expect SMS-enabled mobile phones
to be exploited in a similar way. Fortunately, some URL-shortening Web
sites now offer previews, so users know the full URL before clicking
on a link.
(Web
Link)
"Facebook Getting Serious About Vanity URLs"
TechCrunch (03/12/09) Arrington, Michael
Facebook appears to be changing its policy on vanity URLs for
its Pages section, which music groups, celebrities, and brands use to
set up their presence on the social networking site. Previously, the
only pages that had vanity URLs were those that belonged to music groups
and businesses that partnered with Facebook for the initial launch of
the product. But with the introduction of vanity URLs belonging to Kevin
Rose, Ashton Kutcher, and Demi Moore, it appears that more people will
be allowed to have the personalized email addresses. Some other social
networking sites, including MySpace, already allow their users to create
vanity URLs.
(Web
Link)
"The 100 Oldest Registered Dot Com, Org, Net, Edu Domains"
TG Daily
(03/06/09) Hodgin, Rick C.
The first domain name ever registered, symbolics.com,
was created on March 3, 1985, for the software development firm Symbolics
Inc. Other early computer pioneers that are still the world's leading
developers today include apple.com and ibm.com, which were the 64th
and the 11th domains registered, respectively. The list of earliest
domains also includes the oldest .org domain, mitre.org, which was registered
on July 7, 1985, and the oldest .edu domain, berkeley.edu, which was
registered April 24, 1985. Domains tracked for start-up dates only include
those that have made the top 1 million domain names as tracked by alexa.com,
which posts daily updates. The 10 list of the earliest domains also
includes bbn.com at number two, followed by think.com, mcc.com, dec.com,
northrop.com, xerox.com, sri.com, hp.com, and bellcore.com.
(Web
Link)
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