According to DomainTools.com, a provider of domain name research and whois information, the number of .com domains under management by the registry has eclipsed 100 million domains. In a statement issued earlier today DomainTools claims that through their research they “calculated the current total of domains managed by Verisign to be over 100.2 million”

DomainTools’ points out that most counts taken on domain name totals use the zone files which are provided by the registry operator.  These counts, however, do not factor in several “classes” of domain names including those in redemption and pending delete status, as well as “dark” domains.

Domains held in redemption and pending delete are removed from the zone files as they proceed through the 35 day process before being deleted from the registry. The “dark” domains are not included in the registry because these domains have not been assigned a DNS entry by the registrant or may be suspended.

DomainTools conducted research on these 2 categories of names and estimates that there are 2.1 million domains in the redemption or pending delete status and another 400,000 “dark” .com domains. The current zone files as of the time of there release puts the size of the zone file at 99,837,548 with a gain in the total of nearly 22,000 new .com daily. The 2.5 million domains not estimated in previous counts brings the total .com domains under Verisign management to over 100 million.

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