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Welcome to Webnames.ca's Corporate Domain Management News

We hope you had a wonderful summer. As Webnames.ca looks forward to Fall, we wanted to take this opportunity to review the latest domain industry news and tell you about some new services we will be launching over the coming months.

In this Issue

The Lowdown about New gTLD's

This past summer ICANN unanimously approved a recommendation that will change how we navigate the Internet by radically overhauling its addressing system. Until now ICANN has kept tight control over the creation of new TLD's (top-level domains); however, beginning sometime in 2009, we could see a massive increase in Internet real estate and potentially thousands of new gTLD's.

The proposal would allow applicants for new names to self-select their domain name. This means public and private organizations from anywhere in the world will be able to register any string of letters as a gTLD. Companies will be able to apply to secure their brands as TLD's - for example, Apple could apply to register '.Apple,' replacing apple.com/ipods and apple.com/itunes with ipods.apple and itunes.apple.

Another interesting aspect of the new rule is that general terms such as .news or .sports will also become available for registration. Interested consortiums are already popping up, wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

While the media and public have shown unprecedented interest in ICANN's announcement, the reality is many new TLD's have launched since 2001 -.jobs, .travel, .coop, .museum and .aero are a few examples - and none have significantly shifted traffic away from the "generics" like .com and country code TLD's (ccTLD's) such as .de, .cn, .co.uk and .ca.

So how might it affect you? Although ICANN has stated the TLD expansion is "not based on profit," registering a family or small business name as a TLD will be impossible for average folks with application costs expected to start around $100,000 USD. Truly, the greatest opportunities revolve around corporate branding, but figuring out where to go with the new TLD's may be irritating to the average surfer. Without standardizations, how is one to know whether to go to home.google, or google.google? We venture to guess it'll be a long time before .com is no longer King, but if the amount of effort being expended by ICANN and other parties is any indication, it will be worthwhile to follow developments closely.

Recommended Reading:

Official ICANN Announcement and FAQ's

Why the New TLD's Don't Matter, by John R. Levine

ICANN goes native, as new TLDs proliferate, the Register

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Introducing .Tel - the New TLD for Internt communication

What is .tel? - .Tel is a new TLD (top-level domain) that allows individuals and businesses to store and manage all their contact information and keywords directly in the DNS, making it universally accessible without the need of a website. This stands in contrast to the typical use of the DNS for other TLDs, in which the DNS only provides a mapping between domain names and IP addresses. It represents the first intrinsically different use of a domain since .com was first created. It has been sponsored by UK based Telnic Limited.

How will .tel work? - .Tel is applicable to text messaging, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), videoconference activities and all other Internet-based communications. If you want to contact a registered .tel user over the Internet - for example, John Smith - you would enter "johnsmith.tel" into a communications device. The domain name will then resolve to multiple contact formats, including telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), and fax numbers, so users do not have to remember separate details for each.

Who is .tel aimed at? - The .tel domain is not specific to anything or anyone other than the entity who has registered it. The primary users of the new TLD are expected to be individuals and businesses desiring a universal communications identity.

When will .tel be available? - Trademark registration for .tel begins December 3rd and will run until February 2, 2009. Landrush will begin the following day, following general registration at the end of March.

Stay tuned for more information about securing your .tel domain(s) with Webnames.ca. If you are interested in .tel for your business, send your name and email to corporate@webnames.ca and we will make sure to keep you posted on upcoming .tel news.

Recommended Reading:

Telnic - The Registry for .tel

DC Savvy Article - .tel Registration Around the Corner

Wikipedia entry for .tel

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Recent Domain Disputes & Resolutions

Recent Domain Disputes & Resolutions

  • Spafinder, Inc. wins a dispute over spafinder.ca.
  • Salesforce.com, Inc. wins a dispute over salesforce.ca.
  • Staples, Inc. and The Business Depot Ltd. win a dispute over staplesonlinerebate.ca, staplesonlinerebates.ca, and staplesrebate.ca.
  • David Cohen loses a dispute over canadavisa.ca.
  • StatoilHydro ASA wins a dispute over statoil.ca.
  • Nova Verta International wins a dispute over novaverta.ca.

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Domain Industry News

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Event of the Quarter

IPIC

Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC)
Annual Meeting
Yokville, ON - Four Seasons Hotel Toronto
October 15-17, 2008

Annual Meeting Program and Registration Form
http://www.ipic.ca/english/pdf/AM08progENG.pdf

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CIRA Annual General Meeting - Tomorrow!

You are invited to attend CIRA's Annual General Meeting to be held on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, BC. CIRA invites attendees to share ideas, network with colleagues, provide feedback and help shape the future of the Internet in Canada!

This year's keynote speaker is Amber MacArthur , host of "Webnation" on CityNews TV. A New Media Specialist and Web Strategist, Amber Mac - as she's known by her fans and the Web 2.0 community - will be talking about how to use the top Web 2.0 tools to build community and customer loyalty online.

The AGM schedule is as follows:
11:30 am - 12:30 pm - Registration
12:30 - 2:30 pm - Business Meeting
2:30 - 3:00 pm - Keynote Address
3:00 - 4:00 pm - Closing Networking Reception

All attendees must pre-register by September 9th, 2008.
CIRA members can pre-register here.
Non-members can pre-register here.

CIRA will be raffling off great door prizes including a MacBook, HDTV, IPods and more to members who attend. Members of the Webnames.ca team will be attending, and we're looking forward to seeing many of our local customers and friends in attendance!

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Noteworthy

John Demco

On September 9th, the University of British Columbia will honour John C. Demco, co-founder and director of Webnames.ca, with the naming of the Demco Learning Centre at the Department of Computer Science. John was instrumental in founding the .CA domain name in Canada in 1987 and subsequently managed the .CA Registry as a volunteer for 13 years.

http://www.uilo.ubc.ca/demco/

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