domains

The next Internet landgrab: dot-orgs

The domain extension long associated with non-profits -- .org -- is about to ring up some big bucks.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the not-for-profit operator of the .org domain extension, has teamed up with registrars Go Daddy and eNom to auction off 94 perviously unregistered one- and two-character .org addresses. PIR CEO Brian Cute says that the proceeds from the initiative -- called Project94 -- will go "to enhance the open development and security of the Internet, particularly in technologically underserved regions of the world."

Where exactly the money will go, he said, will be determined by how … Read more

Twitter outage caused by human error, domain briefly yanked

An outage that broke hyperlinks on Twitter yesterday evening originated with a simple human error at a Melbourne, Australia-based hosting firm that was responding to an abuse complaint, CNET has learned.

Twitter last year began to abbreviate all hyperlinks using its t.co domain name -- which had the side effect of introducing a central point of failure where none existed before. That failure happened last night around 11:30 p.m. PT when t.co went offline, meaning millions of Twitter users received "non-existent domain" errors when trying to follow links.

A spokesman for Melbourne IT, a … Read more

YouTube cedes to Turkey and uses local Web domain

Turkey and YouTube have a checkered past, so today's news isn't a big surprise -- the video-sharing site will now operate under a local Web domain -- "com.tr" -- and be subject to the country's content regulations and taxes.

According to Reuters, Turkey had been working to get YouTube to agree to this set-up for some time.

"This is an important development," Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told Reuters. "For a long time we have made a call to Internet firms in Turkey: 'You are operating in this country, … Read more

ICANN's next decision: Deleting the dot from new domains?

The Internet's next big land grab, which prompted Amazon.com to apply for the .music top-level domain and Google to bid for .cloud, is likely to come with a few limits.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is accepting comments through Sunday on whether it should ban applicants from using forthcoming top-level names -- thousands have been requested -- as single-word "dotless" domains.

Translated, that means Amazon.com could use http://amazon.music but not the single-word dotless http://music alternative.

An ICANN report (PDF) from earlier this year says the group's staff "… Read more

The 404 1,130: Where Wii play with power (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Ho-hum. The iPhone 5 isn't going to wow anyone

- Don't kid your selves, Apple's dock connector change is awful

- Planning for winter: the worst accessory for your new iPhone

- "Tupac hologram" maker Digital Domain files for bankruptcy

- Emoticon creator says emojis are "ugly"

Bathroom break video: 770 pounds of eggs spill onto the road in China, gets looted… Read more

GoDaddy offers users one month credit following service outage

GoDaddy customers are being given an apology and one month of free service after grappling with Monday's service snafu.

In an e-mail sent to GoDaddy users, the company's CEO Scott Wagner apologized for the outage that affected Web sites, e-mail availability, and other services.

"We let you down and we know it," the e-mail read. "We take our responsibilities -- and the trust you place in us -- very seriously. I cannot express how sorry I am to those of you who were inconvenienced."

To appease its customers, GoDaddy is kicking in a credit … Read more

Homeland Security's domain seizures worries Congress

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is seizing domains and taking down URLs in the name of copyright infringement, but its tactics are worrying certain members of Congress.

In a letter (pdf) sent last week to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary Janet Napolitano, three members of the House Judiciary Committee aired their unease.

"We are concerned about your Departments' seizure of domain names under Operation In Our Sites, launched in November 2010," the letter said. "Our concern centers on your Department's methods, and the process given, when seizing the domain names of websites whose … Read more

Domains seized from Demonoid BitTorrent site up for sale

Three key Demonoid domains are now up for sale, less than two weeks after the BitTorrent site was taken down in a coordinated effort.

The Ukraine-based site was taken offline earlier this month apparently when local authorities contacted its Internet service provider, Colocall, and forced the ISP to shut down the service's servers. Demonoid was among the Web sites included in the U.S. government's "Notorious Markets List," which was created to identify "markets, including those on the Internet, which exemplify the problem of marketplaces dealing in infringing goods and helping sustain global piracy." … Read more

Top domains and passwords compromised by Yahoo breach

The breach of one of Yahoo's sites reignited concerns over the vulnerability of the favorite Web sites that we visit.

But in reality, roughly 450,000 login credentials were compromised -- a small number relative to the total users on the Internet. Yahoo said less than 5 percent of the accounts had valid passwords.

The following is a list of the top 20 e-mail domains and frequently used passwords that were hit, as compiled by CNET's Declan McCullagh:

Domains 1. Yahoo.com (137,559) 2. Gmail.com (106,873) 3. Hotmail.com (55,148) 4. Aol.com (25,… Read more