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Survey Picks Top Domain Name Registrars

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:39:52 +0000

Some familiar faces and a new one in registrar poll.

This is the sixth year of the Domain Name Wire survey. I’ve never pretended that it’s a scientific survey. It’s more of a vote. So I’ve taken small anomalies in stride.

But this year there were some problems with the voting for “best domain registrar”. Without getting into details, there was significant voting that looked like it might be gaming the system.

Thankfully I found a simple solution. I hesitate to mention it here as it could lead to a similar problem next year without the same footprint, but it’s also important to share what these 2011 results cover. The simple solution: remove anyone who said they own fewer than 50 domain names.

I know that’s not perfect. I’m not happy about it. But it removed all of the suspicious votes.

So if you want you can put an asterisk next to this post:

*Top domain name registrars according to people who own 50 or more domain names

OK, so drumroll please….

1. Go Daddy 28%
2. Gandi.net (first year on chart) 21%
3. Moniker 10%
4. Fabulous 9%
5. Name.com 4%

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Survey: GoDaddy, Moniker Still Top Domain Registrars

2 One Letter .Net Domains Are Registered. How Much Will Others Sell For?

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:35:23 +0000

24 one letter .net domains are currently reserved. How much will they sell for?

Last night I wrote about VeriSign’s request to auction off one and two character .net domain names.

I did a search on the one letter .net domains, and found that two of them are already registered. These domains are grandfathered in to the system.

i.net is technically owned by Inet Corp., but it’s essentially Future Media Architect’s private domain name registrar. You may ask yourself “Why would you use such a great domain for your own private registrar? Wouldn’t you want to keep the domain name available to sell to someone else?” But anyone who knows Future Media Architects knows they don’t sell any of their domain names.

The other registered domain is q.net, which was registered back in 1992. The domain name doesn’t respond, and its whois record is funky, but it’s registered at Gandi.net.

That leaves 24 ASCII one letter .net domain names that VeriSign hopes to release. How much will the typical one sell for? Leave a comment below.

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Study Questions if Consumers Want New Top Level Domains

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:45:49 +0000

Research report shows consumers not keen on new TLDs.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from a researcher at The Future Laboratory, a UK-based research and trend forecasting company. The company was preparing a report, sponsored by domain registrar Gandi.net, about the introduction of new top level domain names. We later discussed the issues surrounding new TLDs via phone.

I assumed that the report would be tainted by Gandi’s position on new top level domains, but I was assured the company was only the sponsor. Aside from some sidebars from Gandi, the report seems to be straightforward and unbiased.

One of the findings in the report is that consumers mostly haven’t heard of these new domains, and most don’t care to see them:

They believe existing domain name extensions are trustworthy and reassuring, whereas the prospect of new website suffixes provokes suspicion and concern. For example, 35% of consumers think
.uk is trustworthy, compared to 3% that trust .biz (which was created in 2001) and 4% that trust
.eco (a proposed new TLD)…

The majority of consumers polled (60%) agree that the liberalisation of domain name extensions will
change the way they use the Internet, but not for the better. The Internet will become full of pointless
domain names (for 65% of those polled), messy and confusing (57%), too complex to navigate (46%) and
out of control (41%)…

Consumers muster little enthusiasm for any new top-level domains. A quarter of people are ambivalent about the prospect of a .theirname suffix and 28% would be wary of domains ending with .theirprofession. Just 15% think this sort of suffix would be appealing.

The report also gave examples of new ways to use domains, such as london.lonelyplanet. I keep seeing examples like this, and wonder what’s wrong with london.lonelyplanet.com. Indeed, many people will type the domain that way anyway. The report includes a similar assessment by an ecommerce consultant:

Everyone knows that Amazon is amazon.com or amazon.co.uk,’ says ecommerce consultant, Emma Kane. But if Amazon ever decides to operate under .books, she says ‘it will just lead to confusion, especially amongst less savvy internet users who will type in Amazon.books.com as opposed to Amazon.books.

The Future Laboratory surveyed 1,000 British consumers for the report. Although one could cite the sample size or locality of the consumers as different from the world at large, this is the only study I know of that shows any hard stats about consumer interest in new TLDs.

Over the next few months you will surely see more studies about consumer interest in new TLDs. Always consider the source, as many are backed by companies looking to make a buck off of new domains.

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New Registrars Added to RegistrarJudge.com

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:11:40 +0000

7 more registrars added to domain name registrar review site.

Six more registrars are available for reviewing at Registrar Judge, Domain Name Wire’s sister site. Domainers can now review ResellerClub, Dynadot, Gandi.net, DomainDiscover, Joker.com, directNIC, and NameCheap.

The registrars were added at the request of Registrar Judge users. ResellerClub and Dynadot were added last week and since then ResellerClub has shot to the top of the charts.

At Registrar Judge, domain name owners can rate and review domain registrars based on price, security, customer service, and account management tools. These registrar aspects have been voted most important in Domain Name Wire’s annual surveys.

Nearly 100 ratings have been submitted since the site launched November 12. Based on the success of the site, Domain Name Wire will release Parking Judge in the near future. Parking Judge will let users review domain parking services.

Registrar Judge uses a Bayesian ranking system to chart the top registrars. The system takes into consideration all of the star ratings for the registrars (not just “overall”) in addition to the number of positive and negative reviews. The top three registrars are currently:

1. ResellerClub
2. Fabulous
3. GoDaddy

If you disagree with the current rankings, then submit a review.

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An Update on GoDaddy Whois Issue and Other Registrars’ Responses

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:19:27 +0000

GoDaddy will not return domain; other registrars say what they would do in the same situation.

It’s been just a few days since Domain Name Wire broke the story about GoDaddy deleting a domain registration due to an invalid e-mail address in whois. GoDaddy responded to the article but few people seem satisfied.

Here’s another update. After agreeing to give the previous registrant of FamilyAlbum.com his domain if he indemnified GoDaddy, GoDaddy today decided that it will not give the domain back. In a message to the former owner, GoDaddy said:

Thank you for your message. After further review with our Legal Department, it does not appear that we are able to assist you with this issue. Since the name was cancelled following ICANN standards and the name is now registered to another party, you will need to contact the current registrant regarding the domain name.

I’ve never actually seen ICANN’s complete policy on this but would appreciate anyone experienced with these rules to comment.

In the mean time, I contacted a number of registrars to ask them what they would do in this same situation. Would they cancel a registration after just trying to contact the customer via e-mail? What do they do about inaccurate whois data? Here are the responses so far:

DIRECTNIC
“We operate the domain name registrars directnic.com and domaincontender.com as well as the parking service Parked.

You asked what steps we are willing to take instead of deleting a customer’s domain due to invalid WHOIS data. Well, we are willing to make a Federal case out of it. We literally will go to Federal court to protect our customers, including for WHOIS privacy.

In 2002 we at directNIC.com refused to delete the domain name of a customer who allegedly had invalid WHOIS information. The fact that this client also was being sued for allegedly committing slander was not an issue for us to judge. The attorneys involved demanded that we delete the domain name. However, we considered the rights of our customer too important to be swayed by impending litigation. Some registrars will take the position of “not having a dog in that fight” and so they will roll over on their customers. That is not our position. As a result, we ended up fighting a Federal lawsuit, titled Gregg Lloyd Smith versus Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., which we ultimately won on summary judgment. The end result of the lawsuit was that, under U.S. law, domain name registrars were deemed to be interactive service providers with federal immunity from the postings of the registrant of a domain name. See http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/docket/011303smith-ruling.pdf.

In another example, several years ago we had a customer who refused to update WHOIS information on a domain name and an attorney threatened to sue us at directNIC.com over it. Ultimately, the customer used a WHOIS protection service and the attorney who was making the threats ended up in jail.

Aside from the anecdotal replies above, when we receive a WHOIS complaint, we specifically state and adhere to our policies published on directNIC.com and http://domaincontender.com. The first action we take is to attempt to verify the WHOIS information ourselves. Sometimes people complain an email is invalid when in fact, the owner was on vacation and their email box was just full. We are not going to consider a client’s WHOIS information incorrect if their email box is full, or if their mail server is temporarily down, or some other trivial issue. Catastrophes, such as Hurricane Katrina, also caused many people to have “invalid WHOIS” information for a long time, and we take such things into consideration before acting on a complaint.

If we conclude that a domain’s WHOIS information is false or outdated, then we try to contact the customer. We generally spend at least 15 days trying to contact the customer. (Exceptions to this rule include when it is clear a domain is being used for serious financial fraud or child porn.)

Sometimes a customer will respond with valid reasons for not wanting their WHOIS information on the domain name. In those cases we propose that they use directNIC’s WHOIS identity protection service.

If the customer fails to respond to our requests to update their information, then we generally place the domain name on hold. However, this is more than two weeks after the process has started. Such rare and drastic action typically gets the attention of the customer, and they usually are very quick to respond to us at that point.

Sincerely,

Sigmund Solares, J.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.”

REGISTER.COM
“We certainly appreciate your concern in this matter; and would like you to know that I have taken the time to review this article as well – which I found this to be very interesting. While the statement is true; that it is required by ICANN that we keep valid contact information on file for the domain name, many customers will register with bogus information to keep their information private. Register.com makes every possible attempt to contact the customer to give them an opportunity to update and validate thier contact information. We willl contact them via telephone; email; snail mail and also fax if it permits – however have not in my career with Register.com in the last 3 years have experienced an issue to an extreme where an account has actually been deleted. Also as was mentioned, there are services provided by most domain registrars which will keep the whois information both valid private.”

GANDI.NET
(In addition to the message below from Gandi’s CEO, I received a phone call from the company. In short, they explained that they’d do everything possible to contact the owner before taking action. It would contact the customer based on all information in whois, on the web site, etc. It wouldn’t cancel a registration if unable to reach the customer because the customer might call back later…which is what happened with FamilyAlbum.com.)

“- it’s a case per case basis, which means that we take a look at the domain and website attached to it to. Obviously Familyalbum.com is not the same than a domain name leading to fraudulent activities,

- depending on the case, we try to contact our customer by ANY means to have his data corrected,

- if we do not have ANY answer, we NEVER cancel the domain. We hold it instead, and wait for a reaction,

- Gandi has never and will never purchase domain names for itself in order to put ads on it or whatsoever close to that. We are registrars, not real estate-short-term-view-agents”

REBEL.COM
“While there are many “you could or you should” advisories for
the Registrar from ICANN, it comes down to your business model. At
Rebel.com, we are a registrar focused on satisfying the needs of the
domain name professional. We understand the value of our customer’s
assets and offer the tools and the personal service they would expect.

Emails are sent, phone calls are made. We look for contact
information on developed sites. We reference our customer records for
contact information for parked sites. Ultimately every problem report is
resolved considering all available registrant information and the
required policies of ICANN.

-David Chiswell, CEO of Rebel.com”

I anticipate further comments from registrars over the coming week and will post them as they become available.

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CNET Surveys Registrars about GoDaddy Suspension

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:47:29 +0000

CNET sent surveys to 12 registrars asking them about their policies for suspending domains.

Last week GoDaddy changed the DNS on a customer’s domain name at the request of MySpace. MySpace complained that the site in question was displaying the usernames and passwords of its users. It turns out that this same file of usernames and passwords was available at numerous sites on the internet and could be found with a simple Google search. (I suspect GoDaddy was not aware of this.) The site in question was a mailing list archive site. A mailing list it archives had sent the list of usernames and passwords, so it was archived on the site.

GoDaddy’s terms of service point out that the company can suspend services at its will. But the company damaged its reputation by how it responded to the incident.

But what would other registrars have done in the same situation? CNET, one of the publications that broke the original story, surveyed 12 registrars and asked them that very question. Of the 12, the following responded to the survey: DirectNIC, Gandi.net, GoDaddy, and OnlineNIC. Many of the registrars did not respond to the survey questions, including Register.com, NameKing, Moniker, Melbourne IT, Dotster, and eNom. Two registrars, Network Solutions and Tucows, refused to participate.

Unfortunately, CNET’s article is titled “Are domain registrars free-speech friendly?” Free speech really isn’t the issue here, and it doesn’t summarize the actual survey. The survey asks if a registrar will suspend a registration without a court order. Articles are typically written by one person and headlines by another. Despite the headline, I highly recommend all domain owners read the survey responses.

I found it interesting that a couple of the registrars said they also received calls from MySpace but they were unable to confirm the origin of the calls and did not take action.

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