8 European countries have partnered up to raise awareness on internet domains on Facebook. Together they have developed a game which allows people to perform whois queries on Facebook using domain names in a playful way. The project has been implemented by AvenueSocial, a US company specialising in Facebook applications, fan pages and mobile apps. The new Facebook application tells you whether your first and last name is still available as domain name in the selected country as well as providing a link with where to register it. You can also query any keyword and find out if it is free or not. Use the picture tool for sending interactive domain greetings to your friends and feel free to recommend funny domain names to them. Participating in the domain quiz will bring you points on your way to becoming a domain star. Other features of the application include a general knowledge quiz with a focus on the internet and domains as well as a tool where you can play with the visual aspect of a domain name seeing how your domain might look on different backgrounds and pictures. Points can be earned on many parts of the application and then ranked against your friends and global users. The Domain Star application is available at apps.facebook.com/domainstar . Participating registries are: Austria (nic.at – www.nic.at ) Finland (Ficora – www.ficora.fi ) France (Afnic – www.afnic.fr ) Germany (Denic – www.denic.de ) Montenegro (doMEn – www.domain.me ) Poland (NASK – nask.pl ) Serbia (RNIDS – www.rnids.rs ) Slovenia (ARNES – www.arnes.si )

Following a similar announcement by the .ORG registry a few days ago , the .ME Registry announced that they will also help domain name holders located in Japan by waiving renewal fees for one full year for all names that expire or will expire between March 11 and April 30, 2011.  Read the press release after the jump : “The recent devastating disasters in Japan have left many registrants without the ability to renew their domain names.  The .ME Registry would like to alleviate concerns amongst Japanese .ME domain name holders by waiving renewal fees for one full year for all names that expire or will expire between March 11 and April 30, 2011.   “This is a small gesture we can make to help show support for our friends in Japan,” said Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .ME Registry, based in Montenegro. “In the weeks following this tragic crisis, truly heroic stories of survival and commitment have surfaced in Japan

A screenshot from .ME Registry website shows how to register a .ME domain (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Domain registry .ME ( www.domain.me ) announced on Thursday that it has waived renewal fees for one full year for all domain names that have expired or will soon expire between March 11 and April 30, 2011, in light of the recent disaster in Japan. This announcement comes a few days after the .ORG registry automatically renewed its domain names in Japan. “This is a small gesture we can make to help show support for our friends in Japan,” Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .ME Registry said in a statement

A screenshot of Data Storage Corp’s website (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Data center protection and recovery firm Data Storage Corporation ( www.datastoragecorp.com ) announced on Tuesday the appointment of John Coghlan to its board of directors.  This appointment comes a month after the company appointed Richard Rebetti to chief operating officer. According to the press release, Coghlan has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and experience serving on various boards

Yesterday we told you about dozens of domainers being bedridden after falling ill upon return from last week’s DOMAINfest Global conference in California .

Applied Innovations Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) January 13, 2011 Applied Innovations today announced it is offering 3 months of free WebMatrix hosting on its Hyper-V Cloud platform. This announcement comes on the heels of the official launch of WebMatrix by Microsoft today. Applied Innovations’ WebMatrix Hosting Plan For a limited time, get 3 months free web hosting for Microsoft’s Web Matrix – an innovative, integrated development tool with Applied Innovations

All too often web site security is somebody else’s problem . It shouldn’t be.