Verisign reported financial results for the second quarter to end 30 June 2011 with reported revenue of $190 million for the quarter, up five per cent from the prior quarter and up 13 per cent from the same quarter in 2010. Verisign Registry Services ended the quarter with 110 million active domain names in the adjusted zone for .COM and .NET, representing an eight per cent increase year-over-year. In the second quarter of 2011, Verisign processed 8.1 million new domain name registrations, representing a two per cent increase year-over-year. Other highlights of the report relating to domain names included: On May 11, 2011, Verisign announced that it had entered into a Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release with the Coalition for ICANN Transparency, Inc. (CFIT), CFIT’s members and specified related parties that resolved the over five year long CFIT litigation On June 28, 2011, Verisign announced that ICANN and Verisign have renewed Verisign’s contract to serve as the authoritative registry operator for the .NET registry for another six years On 14 July, 2011, Verisign announced that as of 15 January, 2012, the registry fee for .COM domain names will increase from $7.34 to $7.85 and that the registry fee for .NET domain names will increase from $4.65 to $5.11, the maximum possible under the registry agreement with ICANN. The full Verisign news release with further details of the financial results is available here .

ICANN is today publishing a proposed version 3.0 of the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Implementation Guidelines [PDF, 196 KB] for public comment. The IDN Guidelines are a list of general standards that all top-level domain registries deploying IDNs are required to follow based on the Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA) protocol standard from the IETF. This draft was developed by the IDN Guidelines Revision Working Group (comprised of ccTLD and gTLD registry representatives with IDN experience supported by ICANN staff). The new draft modifies the current Version 2.2 to reflect the IDNABIS revision (”IDNA2008 protocol”) of the initial IDNA protocol (”IDNA2003″). ICANN previously published a discussion draft prior to the ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia in November 2010 (see www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-15nov10-en.htm ). Section II: Background The current version of the IDN Guidelines is available at www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/implementation-guidelines.htm (version 2.2 published 26 April 2007). A redline of changes in version 3.0 against the version published November 2010 is also available at www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/idn-guidelines-discussion-draft-redline-25jul11-en.pdf [PDF, 348 KB]. Section III: Document and Resource Links Comments are welcomed from the community on version 3.0 and may be submitted to at idn-guidelines-v3-revision@icann.org by 26 August 2011 23:59 UTC. Comments may be viewed at forum.icann.org/lists/idn-guidelines-v3-revision . Section IV: Additional Information The Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA) protocol is the technical standard for the implementation of IDNs for TLD registries, registrars and software developers that make IDNs available for their customers. The IDNA protocol references and further detail about the 2008 revision can be found here: www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/rfcs.htm . Comment Period Deadlines Open Date: 27 July 2011 Close Date: 26 August 2011 Important Information Links Public Comment Box To Submit Your Comments (Forum) View Comments Submitted This ICANN announcement was sourced from: www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-27jul11-en.htm

GoGuides is offering a package of 222 of their premium domain names in one package in an auction on eBay that ends around 23:00 central European time on 19 July. GoGuides began accumulating this portfolio in 2003 that includes domains across a wide range of gTLDs and ccTLDs. There are also appraisals for 20 domain names conducted by Sedo (in 2010) and GoDaddy (in 2006). To check out the list of domain names available and for more information, see cgi.ebay.com/222-Domain-Names-1-Package-Aged-Brandable-Appraisals-/200629791259 . Currently there are only six bids with a top bid of $26.

The registry fee for .COM and .NET domain names will increase from $7.34 to $7.85 and $4.65 to $5.11 respectively on 15 January 2012 VeriSign, the registry for both TLDs, announced. The increases are a smidgen under the maximum possible under the registry agreement with ICANN – seven per cent for .COM and ten per cent for .NET. The last increase was on 1 July 2010 when the registry fee for .COM domains increased from $6.86 to $7.34 and for .NET domains increased from $4.23 to $4.65. In justifying the increases, VeriSign said in a statement that: “Continued strong global Internet usage growth, along with increasingly powerful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks leveled against all parts of the Internet’s critical infrastructure, have dramatically increased the demands on Internet infrastructure providers such as Verisign. In the last five years, the volume of Domain Name System (DNS) queries on Verisign’s global Internet infrastructure has more than doubled, increasing to an average daily query load of 57 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Future growth is expected to occur at an even faster pace. Verisign’s infrastructure has maintained 100 percent operational security, accuracy and stability for more than a decade due to continued innovation and investment in the infrastructure.” To avoid the increases, registrants are able to register their .COM and .NET domains before 15 January. To register your .COM and .NET domain names, check out America Registry here .

The fight in courts over the US government’s seizure of gambling-related domain names is continuing with Wired reporting “federal prosecutors are asking a judge not to return the domain names of one of Spain’s most popular websites, seized as part of a major US crackdown on internet piracy.” “The legal filing over Rojadirecta.com represents the government’s first legal response to a lawsuit challenging ‘Operation in Our Sites.’” The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized as many as 208 domains the authorities claim are linked to intellectual-property fraud, Wired reports, with the first seizures taking place in 2010. “The court-ordered seizures are aimed at web sites that sell counterfeited goods, as well as sites that facilitate illegal music, film and broadcast piracy.” “The Rojadirecta .com and .org domains were seized in January along with eight others connected to broadcasting pirated streams of professional sports.” To read the Wired report in full, see: www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/domain-seizures-defended

Hustler has prohibited ICM Registry, the operator of the .XXX registry, “from registering or selling to a third party any .XXX domain names that contain the famous Hustler trademark or other Hustler-related trademarks.” Hustler President Michael Klein said “it appears that the .XXX TLD will do nothing but drive up costs to the adult community and will force us to fight infringement on yet another front,” according to an XBix.com report. Hustler has made clear in writing several times “that any attempt to do so will constitute infringement of its intellectual property rights and that legal action will be taken, the company said.” “Like many other companies in the adult industry, Hustler will not allow its trademarks to be bought, sold or used by any other entity nor will be we be shaken down by ICM,” Klein said. “We are prepared to take whatever legal action may be necessary.” The report also noted that attorneys for Hustler said they are continuing attempts to initiate dialogue with ICM, but the company has remained silent. “We are constantly policing the registration and use of domain names that attempt to capitalize on Hustler’s trademarks,” said Jonathan Brown, attorney for Hustler. “ICM’s silence is particularly disconcerting, especially in light of ICM’s supposed aim of ‘working proactively to balance the rights of existing domain name holders, and other trademark and intellectual property holders.’” In a separate report on AVN, the parent company of Brazzers, Manwin, also signalled its intention to assertively protect its online properties in a letter to ICM Registry last week demanding protection of its domain names and trademarks as the launch date for .XXX nears.

After a relatively modest increase in new registrations in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, new .BE registrations rebounded strongly in 2010 with another record in the number of new registrations according to the 2010 annual report. There were more than 257,000 new .BE registrations in 2010, almost ten per cent better than in the previous year. Renewal numbers were also very good in 2010 with an 83 per cent renewal rate of existing .BE domain names, ranking in the top five globally. The growth in active domain names was nearly 13 per cent in 2010, meaning that 2010 was the year in which the magic mark of 1,000,000 domain names was passed. At the end of June 2011 there were 1,156,953 .BE domains registered. DNS.be also did some research into why .BE domain names are registered. The findings were broadly similar to previous years with over three quarters (77%, 77.7% in 2009) of registrants linking an email address to the domain and a website in 84.3% of cases (82.3% in 2009). The registry found that only 12.2 per cent of registrations are defensive (and hence is not linked to either an email address or a website) compared to 12.4 per cent in 2009. In recent years DNS.be have seen a fall in that percentage. The registry considers this a positive change because it means a larger number of domain names are being used more actively. Most registrants have only one domain name registered, with over three quarters (435,794 – 78%) of registrants having just one domain name. 64,868 (12%) registrants registered two domain names while the average registrant has 1.96 domain names. In other news in 2010, security was increased with a new procedure was introduced in July 2010 that ensures tighter checks are made on all new registrations. This will result in higher quality of whois data. At the same time, these new checks make it more difficult for fraud and other illicit practices to gain a foothold. Greater security in the .BE zone is also a particular focus in the registry’s objectives for 2011. For 2011, one of the key developments will be the replacement of all of the hardware on the registration platform, including a number of network connections. This will enhance the performance and availability of the platform. It will also mean an optimisation of costs for DNS.be over time. DNS.be are integrating some of their name servers as part of anycast clouds, while a number of European locations will receive new equipment. The DNS.be 2010 Annual Report contains a lot more statistics and information on .BE domain names. To download the report in full, see www.dns.be/pdf/Annual_Report_en_2010.pdf . To register your .BE domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

Domain Consultant.com’s Domain Madness auction has come to an end with $214,605 worth of domain names being sold. 16 of the 65 domain names were sold . The winner of the $1,000 prize will be announced on April 30th,2011

The third Domain Madness auction will end in about 9 hours .The auction features 65 domain names,including a premium domain name Ocean.com . Only 8 domain names received bids so far : DM3TestingDomain.com        $1,400 BaseballTrainer.com              $2,500 BroadbandProviders.com       $3,000 Cradle.net                           $1,000 EliminateDebts.com              $1,500 GasDeals.com                      $1,605 SmoothLegs.com                 $3,500 Waikiki.me                           $1,750 Ocean.com was added to Domain Madness inventory last week,after Domain Consultant decided to rerun the auction because the CPU was just not big enough to handle 1,734 simultaneous users. You can still place your bids here .   DKD DomainNews

SnapNames April Showcase Auction ended yesterday .Given the slower results,SnapNames must do something in order to see improved sales at their next auctions . SnapNames Education and Employment auction closed with two domain name sales : EZS.net     $475 6CK.com    $300 SnapNames next showcase auction features Local Search & Real Estate domain names . The auction starts  on 3 May and and will end one week later,on 10 May ,2011 at 3:15 pm Eastern Time