Tag archive
icann
9 articles
.biz: The Business gTLD Nobody Picked — 2M Peak, GoDaddy Registry, and a Zone Still Shrinking
ICANN's 2001 "business-only" gTLD peaked above 2M (June 2008), sits near ~1.2–1.5M in 2026, and Harvard's six-month audit found 74%+ empty and ~25% defensive. NeuLevel → Neustar → GoDaddy Registry (not Identity Digital—that's .info). Verified roofs: gamesindustry.biz. Delete the old guide's unverified $35k sales, AlexMakeup.biz filler, and AIO boilerplate.
.name: ICANN's Personal Namespace That Never Scaled—and Verisign Is Ending the firstname.lastname.name Era
~96K names under Verisign management (2026), down from 232K in 2012; $6.60 wholesale; third-level registrations and legacy tiered WHOIS slated for discontinuation. Verified roofs: cavin.name, lemire.name, jarekq.name. Delete the old guide's about.me fiction, unverified NameBio sales, and AIO boilerplate.
New gTLD Report 2026: 48M Registrations, Renewal Reality, and Who Actually Wins
New gTLDs hit ~49.6M in Q1 2026 (+31% YoY) but renewal rates ~30% vs .com's 75%. .ai crossed 1M; .xyz leads by volume—not value. Data from nTLDStats, Namecheap, Verisign.
.com Is Verisign's Monopoly Rent on the Internet's Default — 166.6M Names, a 7% Cap, and $10.97 Incoming
166.6M names per DNIB Q2 2026—not "160M+." Wholesale $10.26 today, $10.97 from November 2026. Verisign's $1.66B revenue, 600B DNS queries/day, ICANN's price-cap debate, verified aftermarket ceilings—and why the old guide's 37% share, 70% survey, and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.net Is Verisign's Shrinking Sidecar: 12.5M Names Stalled While .com Grows — and Wholesale Now Costs More
DNIB Q2 2026: 12.5M .net flat for three quarters while .com hit 166.6M. Peak was 15.0M (Dec 2014), not "~16M in 2015." Wholesale $11.66 since Feb 2024—above .com's $10.26. Same Verisign DNS stack, opposite momentum—and why the old guide's AIO boilerplate and "Plan B" brochure failed audit.
.org Is a Trust Lease Without a Price Ceiling — 12M Names, a Blocked $1.135B Sale, and $11 Wholesale
~11.96M DUM per PIR dashboard—not "~10.5M." Wholesale $9.93 until June 2026, then $11.00—first hike since 2016, caps removed in 2019 RA. Ethos Capital's blocked $1.135B deal, $360M debt, Fadi Chehadé, ISOC's $61M cut—and why the old guide's 10% cap fiction and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.info Promised Information, Delivered Spam: 7.6M Peak, Identity Digital, and a Reputation That Never Recovered
ICANN's 2001 "informational" gTLD peaked at 7.63M (Oct 2012), troughed near 3.96M (Dec 2024), rebounded to ~5.56M on promo churn—and Interisle lists .INFO in the top phishing cohort five years running. Afilias → Donuts → Identity Digital; wholesale $21 → $23.50 Jan 2027—and why the old guide's Mad Lib notables and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.pro: Licensed Professionals Only Until 2015 — Identity Digital, ~1M Names, and Few Real Roofs
ICANN's 2002 credential gTLD peaked near ~1.02M zone names (Feb 2026), opened unrestricted 16 Nov 2015 after a decade of verification theater, and shares Identity Digital's $21 wholesale (→ $23.50 Jan 2027). Verified roofs: dorian.pro, poker.pro, video.pro. Delete the old guide's 300–500k fiction, European-freelancer Mad Libs, E-E-A-T AIO boilerplate, and invented premium tiers.
WHOIS Privacy: What Every Domain Investor Should Know
ICANN Registration Data Policy effective Aug 21, 2025: public redaction is default, accurate data still mandatory, RDAP replaces WHOIS port 43.