August 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from WhoisIreland Review written in the month of August 2006.
Google announced that it was launching a Google Apps For Your Domain service today. The new service includes Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and web page design, publishing and hosting via Google Page Creator. The user interface can be customised with the user’s own branding. Administration will be via a web interface.
It looks like the hosting business just got a lot more interesting.
According to the press release:
“Google will provide organizations with two choices of service.
- A standard edition of Google Apps for Your Domain is available today
as a beta product without cost to domain administrators or end users.
Key features include 2 gigabytes of email storage for each user, easy
to use customization tools, and help for administrators via email or an
online help center. Furthermore, organizations that sign up during the
beta period will not ever have to pay for users accepted during that
period (provided Google continues to offer the service).
- A premium version of the product is being developed for organizations
with more advanced needs. More information, including details on
pricing, will be available soon.”
Tags: Irishblogs,Google, Domains, Google Apps, Internet Statistics, hosting, domains, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 28th, 2006 with comments disabled.
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Malls.eu was released yesterday and it was snatched almost instantaneously by cyberwarehouser Coursers UK. The .eu WHOIS for the domain shows it as being registered to Coursers UK with the “registrar” being Ben Levac/ Reg/Ca Enterprises Inc. And the registration time: 11:00.
As had been previously reported, Michael Berkens/Worldwide Media Inc had tried and failed to register Malls.eu with a UK front company and a Begian trademark.
At this stage it is hard to take EURid seriously. But it will be interesting to see where malls.eu ends up - will it be auctioned on Pool.com? Will Worldwide Media Inc get its hands on it? Does anyone think that EURid is a competent registry?
Tags: .EU, Domains, .eu Fiasco, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 23rd, 2006 with 1 comment.
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Microsoft filed suits against cybersquatters who have been targeting its trademarks. The suits are being taken against a number of cybersquatters under the US
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. This legislation allows for up to $100K statutory damages for someone who registers, uses or traffics in a domain that is identical to, confusingly similar to or dilutive of an existing trademark. And given Microsoft’s popularity, many of its trademarks are targets of cybersquatters.
While only a few suits have been taken against named businesses, there are also “John Doe” suits which are seeking to have the owners of 217 domains revealed. These domains are using Whois Privacy services to hide the names of the registrants. The outcome of these suits will be very important for the domain business because they will decide on the level of protection that these Whois Privacy services can provide. Most of these services have clauses in their contracts that cover wrong doing. But what Microsoft and indeed anyone could argue is that the use of a Whois Privacy service to obscure identity on such a scale is proof of wrong doing.
The move by Microsoft is interesting. But is Microsoft even aware the problem of its trademarks being cybersquatted in ccTLDs?
News.com report.
Tags: IrishBlogs, Domains, Microsoft, Internet Statistics, Cybersquatting, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 23rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
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The fallout over the AOL search data leak continues. The CTO of AOL, Maureen McGovern will leave AOL immediately. Two other employees, the researcher and his supervisor have been fired. McGovern oversaw the division that released the user search data. The actions were announced in two e-mails from Jon Miller the chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL.
The amount of data released by AOL is staggering but it is the idea that it has been anonymized is the problem. Dataminers detect patterns in piles of data that appears to be just a chaotic collection. And naturally some people have been identified from their search patterns.
Tag: Irishblogs - Search - Search Engines - AOL
Written by John McCormac on August 22nd, 2006 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Search Engines.
The .ie ccTLD is an unusual ccTLD because historical mismanagement restricted its growth. But over the past year or so, it is beginning to turn into a modern ccTLD despite a complete absence of domain industry expertise on the board of IEDR. One of the primary reasons for this growth is the reduction in the cost of .ie domains. Another is the relaxation of regulations governing the registration of .ie domains though this has led to abuses with abusive registrations.
WhoisIreland.com produces hosting statistics reports for the domain industry covering domain registration in com/net/org/biz/info/ie/eu TLDs and using these databases, a comparison was done on the terms and keywords registered in .ie and in com/net/org/info/biz. The results are interesting because they show how a ccTLD stacks up against the gTLDs.
16.974% - .ie unique
18.226% - .com/.ie
15.085% - .com/.net/.org/.info/.biz/.ie
5.640% - .com/.net/.ie
3.632% - .com/.net/.org/.ie
2.677% - .com/.net/.org/.info/.ie
1.522% - .com/.net/.org/.biz/.ie
1.156% - .com/.org/.ie
(percentages below 1% not included)
Approximately 52.186% of the .ie domains have equivalents in the com/net/org/biz/info gTLDs. 30.794% of .ie domains also have equivalents in .eu/.com/.net/.org/.biz/.info gTLDs based on approximately 70% of .eu domains mapped.
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this is that 16.947% of the .ie domains are not found in eu/com/net/org/biz/info gTLDs. If this pattern is repeated across other ccTLDs then it could have some rather strange effects on search engine results. Some search engines still use the url in the computation of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). And having a unique domain name could potentially help in the position of a site in the SERPs.
Tags: Irishblogs,.ie, Domains, IEDR, Internet Statistics, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 21st, 2006 with 10 comments.
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It is easy to be wary of EURid claims. Its roll out of the .eu gTLD has been problematic to say the least and it had denied that there was any problem with cyberwarehousing. When EURid claims that over 27202 .eu domains (01 August figure) are Irish registered then there is reason to question that figure.
A survey of the .eu gTLD by WhoisIreland.com, only 3379 of the identified .eu domains were hosted on the DNS of Irish hosters. Realistically this would put it between the Irish .net and .org ownership figures.
Perhaps there are some Irish companies that are being used as fronts for non-EU warehousing operations. Maybe IEinternet’s EUinternet.com registrar operation has been wildly successful and has put other Irish .eu registrars such as Eircom.net, Esat.net and Irishdomains.net in the shade. The total number of prior rights applications for Ireland is 3829. Extrapolating the number of .eu domains detected on Irish hosters would give a rough figure of 5000. Perhaps the true Irish owned .eu count will never known but a figure in excess of 27K does seem high.
Tags: Irishblogs,.EU, Domains, .eu Fiasco, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 10th, 2006 with 7 comments.
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The Sunrise validation procedure has drawn fire over its erratic and often downright flakey decisions. Indeed given some decisions, it would be a risk to trust PwC BE to validate the recipe to boil water.
Malls Limited one of the UK companies apparently owned by Worldwide Media Inc’s Michael Berkens failed to get malls.eu with a Belgian National Trademark. It also seemingly failed to get mall.eu.
The director and secretary of Malls Limited are, according to the UK Companies House documentation, Michael Berkens and Judith Berkens. Both have the same address:
PO Box 129, Highlands, North Carolina 28741, USA.
The registrant WHOIS data for Malls.com is:
Worldwide Media, Inc.
PO Box 129, Highlands, NC 28741, US
Each is listed as having 18 UK company appointments. The company names for which Michael Berkens is listed as a director are all premium keyword domains.
Girls Limited 05482934
Cartoons Limited 05483925
Voyeurs Limited 05483965
Textmessaging Limited 05483990 (.eu accepted/registered)
Downloads Limited 05483992
Lesbian Limited 05483999
Webcams Limited 05484002
Malls Limited 05484017
Hardcore Limited 05484019
Gays Limited 05484064
MP3S Limited 05485107 (application rejected)
Adultdating Limited 05485457
Weightloss Limited 05485895
Jokes Limited 05485995
Datingservice Limited 05486002
Gaydating Limited 05486005
Skiing Limited 05487949
Boats Limited 05488056
Of these, textmessaging.eu is the only one that appears to have been accepted and registered.
Both Michael Berkens and Worldwide Media Inc are noted players in the US domain monetisation and warehousing business. According to a recent article in a Miami newspaper, Berkens has approximately 50000 domains under his control.
The domain monetisation business relies on type-in traffic and domains not being renewed. Domains are not renewed and are snapped up when they drop. They are then pointed to pages with PPC advertising so that anyone pointing looking for the old site will be presented with a page of adverts instead.
The malls.eu domain was uncontested and its seems that Malls Limited was the only company trying to get it. There are other companies trying to get the mall.eu domain. According to the article in the Miami Herald, Berkens’ asking price for the malls.com domain is $5M. But the question that arises from this rather poor .eu hit rate is this:
How did some companies with obviously dubious and highly questionable trademarks (such as Bar & Celona and Frank & Furt) get their domains past PcW BE’s validation process?
Tags: .EU, Domains, .eu Fiasco, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 10th, 2006 with comments disabled.
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The UK company Ovidio Limited is not the Ovidio Limited of the Ovidio/Fausto/Gabino syndicate. And it is not the UK company Malls Limited either. There is a Cyprus company with the name Ovidio Limited registered with the address given in the .eu whois data.
The same address, (3 Pikioni Street, 3075 Limassol, Cyprus) is also home to Fausto Limited and Gabino Limited.
The domains registered by Ovidio Limited that have been detected so far seem to be a general landgrab of generic keyword type domains. Many of them have equivalent .com websites. The domains registered by Gabino Limited that have been detected seem to be of a gambling and casino nature. The domains detected on the Fausto Limited nameservers seem to be porn domains.
The data obtained on the UK Ovidio Limited was mixed up with Malls Limited. But neither are the Cypriot company. So who is behind the Ovidio Limited in Cyprus?
Tags: IrishBlogs,.EU, Ovidio Limited, Ovidio, Domains, .eu Fiasco, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 10th, 2006 with comments disabled.
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