It is now three years since the relaunch of the ccTLD for Montenegro, .ME, and they are celebrating with over 530,000 registrations in 200 countries. “In that time, the dot-ME domain has transitioned from one country’s Web identity to the most effective personal domain name extension in the world,” says Predrag Lesic, Executive Director of the .ME Registry. “Dot-ME has truly ‘gone global,’ having registered more than 530,000 domains in 200 countries.” The popularity of the ccTLD in English-speaking countries was not unexpected given the popular use of the word “me”. American registrations account for more than half (52.92%) of .ME registrations while another 7.68 per cent of registrants are located in the United Kingdom. Then comes German (3.82%), Canada (3.81%) and Japan (3.63%). But, it is the percentage of .ME growth quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year that proves the domain is a consistent top choice among persons and companies looking to be sure their web address stands out from the crowd. During the Registry’s last fiscal year (July 2010-June 2011), the registration of .ME domains grew by 27 per cent; which, according to VeriSign’s May 2011 Domain Name Industry Brief, is more than three times the average industry increase during the report’s measured 12-month period (7.9%). .ME has also become extraordinarily popular recently for its value in the world of mobile apps and as a URL shortener for some of the world’s biggest companies, such as Wordpress (WP.Me), Facebook (FB.Me), Yahoo (ME.Me), VKontakte (VK.Me) and Time Magazine (TI.Me). “Some might argue that dot-ME has put the young country of Montenegro in a worldwide spotlight,” notes Lesic. “We certainly are proud of dot-ME’s international presence and of the Registry’s accomplishments in successfully marketing the domain for its value, simplicity and brand presence online.” To register your .ME domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

Free online resources outline opportunities for dot.BRAND TLDs in today’s new Internet environment [news release]  In a historic move, ICANN approved its long-discussed New gTLD Program. This program allows any brand or community of interest to apply for a unique “right of the dot” top-level domain. For example, instead of “.com,” a brand like Nike could apply for “.nike” to reinforce its brand on the Web. “The ICANN program creates opportunities for brand builders to re-invent how customers experience brands on the Internet,” said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Afilias. “However, there are a variety of challenges in applying for, winning and running a dot.BRAND Web space. One significant issue is time. The program application period starts on January 12, 2012, and will end on April 12, 2012. Once the application window is closed, the opportunity to apply for a dot.BRAND TLD is gone. There are no firm plans to accept new applications after this round of submissions closes.” To help global brand builders understand the complex ICANN application process — as well as the many benefits of owning and operating a unique dot.BRAND TLD — Afilias has created an easy-to-digest video and e-book to explain the program. “Afilias is ideally positioned to offer this information,” LaPlante said. “Afilias is among the world’s largest providers of diverse domain registry services, and has supported the applications for and launches of numerous new TLDs under ICANN processes — including the highly successful .INFO, .MOBI and .ASIA domains. This also means we are uniquely qualified to help organizations apply for new dot.BRAND TLDs as well as launch and manage new dot.BRAND Internet spaces.” Organizations interested in pursuing a dot.BRAND investment will need to act quickly to assemble a team of experts, which will likely include the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), a brand advisor, the ad agency, a trademark lawyer and a domain registry technology partner. Properly assembled, this team will be able to prepare and submit an application that will meet ICANN’s stringent requirements and be awarded their own dot.BRAND. To access the free Afilias e-book, Envisioning Your .BRAND New World: A Field Guide for Brand Builders , as well as the educational video, Welcome to Your .Brand New World , visit www.afilias.info/dotbrand . About Afilias Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications, including Internet domain registry services and Managed DNS. For more information on Afilias, visit www.afilias.info . This Afilias news release was sourced from: www.afilias.info/news/2011/06/20/afilias-launches-campaign-educate-“brand-builders”-icann-new-tld-progra

Web Hosting – Abingdon, UK – Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, has today announced that it will support VMware vShield Endpoint from later this year.  Kaspersky Lab’s support of VMware vShield Endpoint will offer comprehensive protection for virtual machines from the latest malware threats without compromising speed and performance. New online research undertaken for Kaspersky Lab by YouGov reveals that around one in four (26 per cent) of IT managers surveyed considered security to be a major concern when implementing virtualized environments.

Web Hosting – NUREMBERG, Germany – Open-Xchange, the supplier of business-class email and groupware for cloud providers, today announced that it continues to build momentum with Parallels, a worldwide leader in hosting and cloud service enablement, via their cooperative technology development and sales initiatives. The two companies have partnered since 2008 delivering integrated products that work in hosting and cloud computing. “Our work with Parallels has propelled our business and will help us increase from 24 million to 40 million users this year,” said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange.

Ourghana Company, started in 2004, situated in Accra, is a company that offers web administration services, for the businesses throughout the world. Our company majorly specializes in SEO/SEM services, web hosting and Web Design, Accra and other companies based all over the world.

Web Hosting – REDWOOD CITY, CA – Equinix Inc.

Web Hosting – Sunnyvale, CA – Cotendo, an innovative fast growing Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Value-Added Site Acceleration services provider, announced today the availability of its new Cloudlet™ Platform, the world’s first fully customizable, high-performance and globally distributed cloud application environment. The patent-pending Cloudlet™ platform revolutionizes the CDN space by enabling mobile and wired content providers to extend their business logic to the edge of the network, moving content delivery decision making closer than ever before to the end user. In so doing, the Cloudlet™ platform elegantly addresses the growing need for content providers to deliver more personalized, customized and device-specific content efficiently and quickly, thus improving the users experience and ensuring high performance without increasing infrastructure complexity, spending or headcount.

Hosting Toolbox – CHICAGO – Trustwave, a leading global certificate authority and issuer of SSL certificates and online identities, has partnered with Tucows’ wholesale Internet division, OpenSRS, to deliver Trustwave SSL products and secure site seals to OpenSRS resellers and their customers. OpenSRS manages over ten million domain names and millions of mailboxes for a network of over 11,000 web hosts, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other resellers around the world

Hosting Toolbox – REDWOOD CITY, CA – Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq:EQIX), a provider of global data center services, announced the opening of its fifth International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in Dallas, Texas.

Hosting Toolbox – Abingdon, UK – Kaspersky Lab has today announced that its Founder and CEO, Eugene Kaspersky, will host a seminar at InfoSecurity Europe 2011 entitled ‘Cloud Security vs Cybercrime Economy: The Kaspersky Vision’. During the seminar, Eugene Kaspersky will describe how modern Cloud security solutions can not only protect users and businesses, but also undermine and outsmart the cybercrime economy. Open to all delegates, the seminar will take place on the 19th April between 15:20-15:45 in the Business Strategy theatre.