New Domain History Site www.hosterstats.com

I’ve launched a new domain history website www.hosterstats.com It covers the DNS history of over 210 million domains covering com / net / org / biz / info / mobi /asia / ie / eu /co.uk domains. The historical DNS database covers domains back to 2000. There is also the statistical history for each Top Level Domain by year back to 2004.

Tags: Irishblogs,Domain History, Domain Tasting, Domains, Internet Statistics, DNS, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on October 2nd, 2008 with 6 comments.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

ICANN Kills Domain Tasting?

ICANN voted to accept its budget for Fiscal Year 2009. The budget document contains a proposal to impose the transaction fee of $0.20 on domains deleted during the Add Grace Period. The fee will be applied to transactions exceeding 10% of that registrar’s net new registrations in any month or 50 domains, whichever is the greater. The “net new registrations” is defined in as the total new registrations less domains deleted during AGP. For ICANN, FY2009 starts on 01/July/2008. This means that the transaction fee will apply from 01/July/2008 onwards. Of most interest will be its impact on the .com and .net TLDs.
The effect of the transaction fee on excess AGP deletions will be easy to see. The majority of domain tasters will have to reconsider their strategy. Auction operations will also be deterred from sucking up most of the deleting domains.

All that can be hoped for now is that it will be properly implemented and ICANN will not waste more time waffling. It has already damaged the domain industry enough by not acting sooner. This belated action will curtail Domain Tasting. It will not kill it. But rather it will force domain tasters to evolve. However it will make more domains available and that will have a serious impact on the domainer community because it may lower valuations on currently registered domains.
Tags: Irishblogs,Cybersquatting, Domain Tasting, Domains, cybersquatters, Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on June 26th, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

Ovidio Dropping .eu domains?

The number of Cyprus registered domains has fallen dramatically since the first of the month. On 01 April 2008 it was 90,363. This morning (29 April) it is 52,509. A quick check of some Ovido Limited domains registered during the April 2006 landrush shows that they are now in Quarantine and scheduled for deletion.

The incompetence of Eurid management is quite staggering. How a bunch of people who had only ever run a third rate, mickey mouse ccTLD ever got the contract to run the .eu ccTLD is a mystery. The result was the mess that is .eu ccTLD.

The numbers for Ireland have increased dramatically as well. From 27,998 on 01 March 2008 to 52,016 on 29 April 2008. This is due to Dotster using an Irish front company to hide over 20K .eu domains that it had cyberwarehoused. But the Eurid management is so utterly incompetent that it has taken no action against this cyberwarehousing operation either.
But then a direct navigation operation like the Ovidio Syndicate dumping .eu domains is not so much the rats leaving the sinking ship (nobody from Eurid management has resigned or retired yet) as a vote of confidence in .eu ccTLD. A direct navigation operation depends on type-in traffic. The user has to type the domain into the browser navigation bar in the hope the site exists. The .eu has such a low profile in the EU that it is not even a third choice domain for new registrants. In terms of public recognition it is irrelevant. Direct Navigation networks tend to work best in successful TLDs. The .eu ccTLD is not a successful TLD.
The sooner Eurid is stripped of the contract to run .eu ccTLD, the better. But then the European Commission probably don’t want to upset their fellow Brussels cronies and their great and successful cesspit of a ccTLD.

Tags: Irishblogs,Eurid, .eu Statistics, Domains, searchengines, Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on April 29th, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

Only 13.37% .eu Websites Active/Unique - .eu is a disaster zone

The latest WhoisIreland.com .eu web survey shows that the .eu ccTLD is in serious trouble. Out of 1723638 websites checked, only 13.37% of sites were active/unique. As a ccTLD for Europe, it is a disaster zone. Brand registrations accounted for 7.78% of registrations. The percentage of duplicate content sites was 6.02%. The percentage of websites that redirected elsewhere was 16.68%. The percentage of PPC/warehoused websites was 14.22%. The percentage of holding page sites was 16.79%

In terms of use, .eu is way below other ccTLDs. It is a junk extension. While some companies use .eu for a Europe-wide identity it is largely ignored as another example of useless EU bureaucratic corruption and waste in the rest of the European Union. If it wasn’t for German speculation and registrations driving the ccTLD, the .eu would have completely failed long ago.

The post-landrush development that takes place in a well run ccTLD is just not happening in .eu ccTLD. This is due, mainly, to EURid’s incompetent handling of the landrush and Sunrise phases. The small businesses and developers that would have provided that initial development spurt were missing. They were missing because the fools in EURid took no action to prevent .eu being speculated, cyberwarehoused and cybersquatted. The EURid people were simply outclassed by even the simplest of speculators faking the country field in the whois data while including a complete US postal address. Even years later, some of these bogus registrations are still there because EURid is too incompetent to detect them. But then detecting them would reduce the size of the .eu zone and EURid has to keep up the pretence that .eu is a great success for their clueless political masters in the European Commission.

The .eu ccTLD is a failure. It is a failure because of EURid’s utter incompetence in dealing with the cyberwarehousing and cybersquatting issues. These guys were too stupid to realise what was going on when the .eu ccTLD was being stolen by non-EU speculators and cybersquatters. And now .eu is a disaster zone - irrelevant to citizens of the EU and a joke of ccTLD in the industry. Perhaps it would be best if EURid was stripped of the administration of .eu and the ccTLD redelegated to a more competent registry. Otherwise the longterm outlook for .eu is dire.

In real terms, .eu already begun to resemble a third choice TLD like .info or .biz. While the total registrations figure may seem impressive, broken down on a country by country basis and compared against those country’s ccTLD and TLD holdings, .eu is not making any significant inroads into these markets. Even the cyberwarehousers are giving up on .eu ccTLD.
Tags: Irishblogs,Eurid, .eu Statistics, Domains, searchengines, Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on January 29th, 2008 with 11 comments.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

ICANN Ends Domain Tasting?

According to a post on Bret Fausett’s blog, ICANN has passed a resolution that will end Domain Tasting. It has taken ICANN a long time to deal with the problem. Domain Tasting exploits the Add Grace Period. The AGP is a five day grace period during which a domain could be cancelled without the registrar having to pay for it. This move is long over-due and ICANN has been criticised for not acting promptly to fix the problem.
The AGP was intended to protect the registrars from various fraudulent registrations and obvious customer mistakes. However it was used by unscrupulous operators to sift through millions of domains each day for domains that would monetise well and justify the registration cost. Other operations were registering typos of trademarks on an industrial scale and the Dell Vs Belgium Domains et al is perhaps the first example of a major case being taken against such operations.
ICANN’s move against Domain Tasting was long over-due. The move by Google against monetising domains less than five days old was, perhaps, the trigger that kicked ICANN into bothering to take action.

Tags: Irishblogs,Cybersquatting, Domain Tasting, Domains, cybersquatters, Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on January 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

Dell Targets Cybersquatting Domain Tasters

Domain tasters/cybersquatter operations Capitol Domains, Belgium Domains and Domain Doorman were named in a Florida legal actions by Dell Computers. Some of the court documents have been posted on Jay Westerdal’s blog and make for interesting reading. The suit also alleges that one Juan Pablo “JP” Vazquez of Miami, Florida is centrally involved in the operation. This is a massive domain tasting and cybersquatting operation responsible for the bulk of domain tasting in the last six months.
The domain tasting operation had effectively exploited the five day grace period to register and drop millions of domains. However what made this operation different was the way that it effectively passed on the domains through a network of registrars that it controlled so that it never had to actually pay for the domains. The abuse was on an industrial scale and the operation has been responsible for 185,650,068 domains tasted (approximately 72.5% of the total number of tasted domains) in the last six months according to Domaintools.com.

The case has an interesting angle in that Dell wants the activities to be considered counterfeiting rather than simple trademark infringement. This massively increases the maximum statutory penalty per offence to $1,000,000.
The court actions were sealed while Federal Marshals raided Valzquez’s home and seized computer hardware. The court also issued temporary restraining orders (TROs) that restrained the named parties from domain tasting, making money from domain tasting and or disposing of Dell related domains that they had registered. The documents also list some of the front companies that the operation had set up in to hide the registrations: Caribbean Online International, Domain Drop S.A., Domibot, Highlands International Investment, Cambridge Investments, Keyword Marketing Inc., Maison Tropicale, Marketing Total S.A, Click Cons Ltd., Wan-Fu China Ltd. and Web Advertising Corp, Belgium Domains LLC, Capitol Domains LLC, Domain Doorman LLC, Netrian Ventures LLC, IHoldings.com Inc, Unasi, Unaci, Domaincollection.com, Wang Lee Domains Ltd, Domaincar, Juan Pablo Vazquez and Does 1-10. The number of John Doe defendants indicates that the identify of some of those involved in the operation has yet to be confirmed.
It may be that the domain industry has just changed. Dell’s action will be closely watched and other affected companies may consider legal action against domain tasters and cybersquatters. The PPC advertising providers may also feel a cold wind blowing as a lot of their easy revenue will, if these legal actions are successful, disappear. It may also change the direct navigation model, or at least the section that depends on typo squatting for traffic. It may even convince ICANN to alter the registrar agreements.
Tags: Irishblogs,Cybersquatting, Domain Tasting, Domains, cybersquatters, Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on November 29th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

EURid Blocks 10K Buycool.com/Zheng .eu Domains

EURid has blocked over 10K .eu domains that were registered by Chinese cybersquatting/cyberwarehousing operation Buycool.com/Blogdo.com/Zheng Qingying. French domain news site Domainsinfo.fr broke the story about how EURid is finally taking action.

The Buycool.com/Blogdo.com/Zheng Qingying cyberwarehousing operation has been using a UK phone number and a UK postal address as a claim to have been domiciled in the EU. However a string of ADRs has forced the incompetent management of EURid to reconsider things. Most of these ADRs have been taken by European intellectual property rights owners who have had their .eu domains cybersquatted by Zheng Qingying.
EURid management screwed up the launch of .eu ccTLD and allowed it to be overrun with cybersquatters and domain warehousers. Of the 2.5M .eu domains registrered, at least 1M are warehoused/cybersquatted. Most European businesses do not consider .eu to be a premium extension and have concentrated on maintaining their brand in the local ccTLDs and .com. As regards the brand visibility of .eu - most Europeans are not aware of it.

But then the European Commission and its “expert” advisors gave the administration of .eu ccTLD to a third rate ccTLD venture. The disaster that followed was widely predicted but the morons in EURid management ignored the warnings.

A court ruling on the activity of the Chinese cybersquatter Zheng Qingying is expected in September and the cybersquatted domains may be deleted. Just some of the domains from the 10K or so domains make interesting reading:

a-cappella.eu, a-drive.eu, a1waste.eu, aadler.eu, aaefx.eu, aanekoski.eu, aar-treuhand.eu, aareal-bank.eu, aaroadwatch.eu, aartkok.eu, abc-arbitrage.eu, abc-wassersport.eu, abctranslations.eu, abelag.eu, abelenstra.eu, abiuk.eu, abmoto.eu, abnamroprivatebanking.eu, abocard.eu, abs-products.eu, absautoherstel.eu, absbox.eu, absolight.eu, acadia-pharm.eu, acces-direct.eu, access-music.eu, accessiweb.eu, acceurope.eu, accidentline.eu activebanking.eu
bankforeningen.eu, bankhaus-lampe.eu, bankpost.eu, bankpuliabas.eu, berenbergbank.eu, boekenbank.eu, britishsafetycouncil.eu,brittas.eu, byblosbank.eu, capital-bank.eu, castell-bank.eu,
ge-money-bank.eu, gls-bank.eu, grondbank.eu, hqbank.eu, hsbcprivatebank.eu, iombank.eu

Tags: Irishblogs,Eurid, .eu Statistics, Domains, cybersquatters, Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on August 28th, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

Top 20 .eu Hosters - July 2007

The figures above are .eu statistics based on over 2 million mapped .eu domains. The BIONIC figure refers to the number of Biz / Info / Org / Net / Ie / Com domains on a hoster.
Published monthly, WhoisIreland’s HosterStats Report provides an unparalleled insight into the strengths and weaknesses of hosting industry, identifying key players and trends. Aimed at firms that need to have accurate figures on the Irish hosting business, WhoisIreland.com uses industry-leading algorithms and proprietary methodology to provide the best data on the domains market.
Irish HosterStats Report

Tags: Irishblogs,.eu Statistics, Domains, Webhoster Stats, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames

Written by John McCormac on July 17th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.

« Older articles

Newer articles »