Since many domain investors keep lists of domains ready to purchase when there are specials available, we figured we’d let you know about a current special that one of the early registrars, AIT Domains, is running for a limited time. You can register or transfer any COM, NET, ORG, INFO, BIZ or US domains for $2.99 including private registration and ICANN fee. No coupon code is needed.The price is only valid for the first year of domain registration and a limit of five domains per customer applies. Find out more about the special on their site.

On news of the applicants for new gTLDs today, speculators were still alive and well.  It appears that some in the domain space saw value in registering  .com domains that included the word “dot” and the TLD.  It’s unclear if all of these new registrations were speculators as some could be new TLD applicants.

At the time of this writing, a small handful of “dotTLD” domain name registrations were grabbed up in .com including domains that are brand oriented.  The list is below :

dotaccountant.com
dotbeats.com
dotboots.com
dotcimb.com
dotcleaning.com
dotfarmers.com
dotfinish.com
dotfyi.com
dotgratis.com
dotgrocery.com
dotguitars.com
dothangout.com
dotketchup.com
dotmobily.com
dotmotorcycles.com
dotmutual.com
dotmutualfunds.com
dotplumbing.com
dotsoy.com
dottaobao.com
dottmall.com

dotaigo.com and dotyoutube.com were registered yesterday

Surprisingly, there are over 500 corresponding .com domains that were not registered. After this post, I’m sure many will be snapped up quickly.  Anyone got a godaddy coupon code ;)

dotaarp.com
dotabarth.com
dotabb.com
dotabbott.com
dotabbvie.com  >>>  Rest of the list published after “Continue Reading”

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Some domainer owners watching the news about the new gTLD applications may have had a pleasant surprise today. Domain owners that own a .com domain that has a corresponding new TLD application may just have learned about increases in traffic and possibly value to their .com holding.

Clearly many of the applicants for new TLDs such as ABC, IBM, FedEx, or Google already own the matching .com domain names, but with this announcement we’ve learned of hundreds of new generic TLD applicants that do not own the corresponding .com.

New TLD proponents will argue that it is unneccessary and maybe even counter-intuitive for an applicant to purchase the .com corresponding to a new TLD that they are applying for, but others in the domain space point to confusion that already exists between other domain extension.  As new TLDs market themselves, a resulting confusion in the marketplace drives more traffic to the .com

A perfect example of this can be seen with the .xxx domain extension and the xxx.com domain name.  The .xxx sunrise ended October 2011. According to Compete.com the traffic to the domain began to increase shortly after the sunrise and has doubled from levels seen prior to the .xxx extension approval.

Domain name broker Andrew Rosener told DNN that the increased visibility, promotion & traffic going to xxx.com has significantly raised the value of his clients domain name. He also stated, “I have several clients with matching .com domains who were very excited to hear the news today.”

Elliot Silver weighed in recently with this prediction on his blog :

Owners of the keyword string .com names are going to be very happy. Some registries will feel the need to buy the corresponding .com names and pay a lot of money for them. In addition, there will likely be a ton of error traffic that pays well.

While millions of dollars are being pumped in to the domain space to set up new TLDs, a handful of .com domain owners may benefit as well. Those with comparable .com domain names should see gains in traffic and exposure from the marketing efforts of the new TLDs launching in 2013.

The ICANN public comment period for the .com Registry Agreement renewal with VeriSign ends tomorrow on Thursday April 26th at 23:59 UTC.

You can submit comments via to com-renewal@icann.org. In the second “reply” phase replies to the comments can be submitted limited to those who commented in the first phase – this phase will end on May 17th 2012.

The 14 comments submitted to date can be read on the site here.

The proposed agreement suggests to keep the .COM contract with VeriSign without opening it to competitive bidding, a process that when done with the .NET registry in 2005 resulted in lower .NET registry pricing ($5.89 per Domain Name Year). The proposed extension would allow VeriSign to increase registrations fees by 7% in four of the next six years, potentially bringing up the price from the current $7.85 to $10.29 by 2016.

In case some of you feel strongly about the anti-competitive nature of the .com renewal, you may also want to consider a submission to the US Department of Justice.

[Hat tip to George Kirikos]

This post has been syndicated (and slightly edited to reflect updates) from a post by SEO expert Bill Hartzer.

Google, in an effort to protect their interests in their new Google+ Plus social network, has recently acquired the International Domain Name (IDN) +.com, also known as xn--dra.com. The problem here is that xn--dra.com (+.com) is an illegal domain name–the domain name violates IDNA2008, as published by the IETF.

The use of the + character in the .com TLD is not allowed, and violates IDNA2008. Under current Verisign .com rules, it appears that the +.com domain name cannot be renewed, and according to Mozilla, IDNs are not allowed on the .com TLD.

I realize that Google would want to protect their brand and protect their new Google+ Plus social network by purchasing the +.com domain name. But from what I can tell, this was a mistake–especially because the +.com is not allowed in the .com TLD.

It doesn’t look to me like Google “did their homework” when they purchased that domain name.

What has been disallowed in IDNA2008 (IDN in application, a standard for handling IDNs in apps) is most symbol domains. IDNA2003 (the previous version of IDNA, still running in most applications as of right now, including browsers) allowed symbols.

See here to compare how the domain is handled:

In IDNA2003 it worked fine, in UTS46 (a transition standard between IDNA2003 and IDNA2008) it still worked fine, but in IDNA2008, it won’t resolve. At this point, when +.com does come up for renewal, we do not know whether or not the domain will be allowed by Verisign.

I have obtained a copy of the email from Verisign to Registrars regarding the deletion of certain domain names that are not allowed under IDNA2008. Below is the email:

As you may know, the IETF/IESG has adopted RFC 5891, which applies to Internationalized Domain Names in Application (“IDNA”). Compliance with this new RFC is necessary to ensure the security and stability of registry operations. RFC 5891 affects allowable second level strings in IDN domain names. As such, and in compliance with RFC 5891, Verisign implemented filters to block registration of disallowed strings, and updated our Software Development Kit in early Q1 2011. In addition, Verisign will insure compliance with RFC 5891 by deleting existing domain names and child hosts from the .com and .net databases.

You are hereby given 120 calendar days notice that Verisign will delete the attached registered names from the .com and/or .net databases. The attached names will be deleted on the 121st calendar day after the date of this notice, as measured by United States Eastern Time.

As a courtesy, Verisign will issue a credit to your account with Verisign for any deleted domain names pursuant to this notice, which will be calculated as follows: for each deleted domain name, Verisign will determine the remaining registration period as of the date of this notice and round it up to the nearest year.

Pursuant to Section 2.11 of the .com and .net Registry-Registrar Agreements, registrars are required to comply with (and include in their registrant agreements) an obligation for the registrant to comply with, operational standards, policies, procedures and practices of the registry as established from time to time. As such, you are directed to provide immediate notice (and in no event later than ten (10) calendar days after the date of the instant notice) of these actions to the affected registrants.

[Hat tips to Drewbert and JS Lascary]

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the .COM gTLD with a Policy Forum and Gala and has also set up a website with a timeline of the development of .COM. The first domain name, symbolics.com, was registered on March 15th, 1985 and is today owned by domain investor Aron Meystedt.

In order to celebrate the anniversary the main sponsor and registry operator Verisign, will be hosting  a Policy Forum in Washington DC on March 16th and will end with gala in San Francisco on May 26th. The company will also announce the creation of four $75,000 research grants that will be awarded to those who show the most promise to shape the next 25 years of .com.

“In the past 25 years, the Internet has altered history and transformed lives around the globe. It has forever changed our relationships with the world around us by providing unprecedented access to people, places and information. The .com celebration is about honoring the innovators who have gotten us to where we are today and recognizing those who will help shape the next 25 years,” said Mark McLaughlin, CEO, VeriSign. “Billions of times each day, VeriSign connects web sites and users, while helping to ensure the Internet revolution continues to unfold at its characteristically fast pace. We’re proud of the role that VeriSign plays in enabling the .com infrastructure and in the role that our registrars play in providing the crucial platform and access to .com every day.”

Read the full press release after the jump.
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Sedo’s two letter .COM & .NET auction ends tomorrow at noon EST. The auction contains 32 two letter and digit .COM and .NET domains. See the full list after the jump.
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This week’s Sedo sales report features record highs for both the single sale of the year as well as the highest weekly total!

Top.com exceeded the previous sales of Adam Dicker’s  Forums.com and Dollars.com, which both ended just shy of $400,000 USD, by closing at over $450,000 USD (€ 357,500). Joined by other notable sales including Anwalt.com for over $66,000 (€52,000), Campings.fr for just below $45,000 (€35,000), and SexCamera.nl for more than $41,000 (€32,500) – this week’s Sedo sales went well beyond $1 million USD after currency conversions.

Check out the full list after the jump…

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