Neustar will apply for .Neustar Brand-specific gTLD to Further Promote its Brand, Products and Services [news release] Following today’s approval of the new gTLD guidebook by ICANN, Neustar, a leader in Internet and telecommunications information and analysis, will be joining the ranks of Canon®, Hitachi® and  other global brands in applying for a new gTLD. Applying for the .NEUSTAR brand-specific gTLD will provide Neustar with an opportunity to further promote its brand, products and services by owning both sides of the dot, ultimately bolstering its online presence and brand visibility. “Having a brand-specific gTLD gives companies an infinite universe of branded domains that can be used to promote products and services,’ said Mark Pilipczuk, vice president of Marketing for Neustar.  “One of the many benefits of owning the .NEUSTAR gTLD is the flexibility it provides in creating shorter, more intuitive and easy to remember domains for our marketing campaigns.” For the first time ever, ICANN is allowing applications for brand-specific (dot-brand) gTLDs.  With today’s announcement of the approved ICANN new gTLD guidelines, companies, like Neustar, now have the official guidelines and process needed to create formal applications and submit them to ICANN for review beginning January 2012 through April 2012. The new gTLDs give companies the ability to own both sides of the dot; replacing mycompany.com with dot.mycompany, which helps to establish a more robust online presence.  Neustar is not only applying for its own brand-specific gTLD, but it also is helping companies, organizations, geographic locations and others to apply for and manage their own gTLDs.  Neustar has more than a decade of experience in being a trusted authoritative registry for Internet domains names for the .biz, .us, .tel and .travel top-level domains. It also is the technical services provider for Colombia’s .co and the gateway services provider for China’s .cn, and Taiwan’s .tw country-code top-level domains. This Neustar news release was sourced from here .

[news release] Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) today announced the official launch of the full Chinese .香港 Internationalised Country Code Top Level Domain (.香港 domain name). HKIRC has received positive response during the half-month soft launch period, with about 20,000 .香港 domain names activated

A screen shot of the official Red Cross Twitter stream (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — A swarm of spam and phishing attacks have emerged via the Internet in an attempt to exploit users who are looking for information about last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Scammers are using different tactics, including posting messages or fake news related to trending topics on Twitter in an effort to dupe unsuspecting users into visiting malicious websites, These individuals will setup different fraudulent charities and sites that will try to steal the would-be victim’s financial information. Security websites are warning Internet users to stick to using reputable websites such as UNICEF, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders when making donations to victims of the Japan disaster

A screen shot of the official Red Cross Twitter stream (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — A swarm of spam and phishing attacks have emerged via the Internet in an attempt to exploit users who are looking for information about last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Scammers are using different tactics, including posting messages or fake news related to trending topics on Twitter in an effort to dupe unsuspecting users into visiting malicious websites, These individuals will setup different fraudulent charities and sites that will try to steal the would-be victim’s financial information. Security websites are warning Internet users to stick to using reputable websites such as UNICEF, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders when making donations to victims of the Japan disaster

Domain Madness 3 will be held this year on April 4 and 5th .You will have the chance to win $1,000 cash by showing your domaining skills  .The registration fee is $750 . In order to win $1,000 you will have to guess which domain names will or not sell .The contest starts March 22 and runs thorough March 29 ,2011 . Moreover,Domain Madness 3 prepared a premium domain name auction live from the Palms in Las Vegas on April 5th .In order to submit your domain names ,you have to know that Domain Madness 3 is seeking domain names in the following areas :      Las Vegas      Gambling      .Me      One-worders      Education/Finance      Brandable Generics      Phrases      Numeric 3 or 5 character domains      Real Estate      Games      Mobile      Product Specific The official Domain Madness 3 website will be launch on 15 March .Here is the official schedule :      March 9 – Submissions Accepted      March 15 – Official DM3 Site Launch      March 18 – Submissions Closed      March 22 – Catalog Released, Contest Opens      March 29 – Contest Closed, Auction Opens      April 4 & 5 – Domain Madness 3 Event      April 5 – Live Auction Finale      April 6 – Extended Auction Closes      April 30 – Contest Winner Announced DKD DomainNews

The Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Ltd (HKIRC) announced last week that current English .HK domain holders will be offered priority to register for a full Chinese .香港domain name free of charge during the Pre-Launch Priority Registration period from 22 February to 10 March, 2011. The newly registered Chinese .香港 domain name will be bundled with the English .HK domain name.

Earlier today, rumors said that ICANN will no longer host its 41st meeting in Amman,Jordan .Now it’s official .ICANN made an official statement regarding the cancellation of ICANN Jordan Meeting.