clownpenis.fart will very probably be a real domain name one day, but there will be a .fart fight over it. Two applicants -- Link Freedom Group and Endpoint Domains -- have confirmed that they have ap...

We don't know how many new gTLD applications were submitted during the just-closed 2026 application window, but we do know the floor. ICANN said late Friday that it had received more than 1,600 -- tha...

The government of Montenegro says it has set the ball rolling on the creation of a state-owned entity that will eventually manage its local ccTLD, .me. The ccTLD, which enjoys over a million of regist...

In what could prove to be a game-changer for the domain industry aftermarket, domain investors can now place "for sale" signs directly into their DNS records, potentially bypassing middlemen such as b...

The regional government of the Indonesian province of Bali is to formally announce its application for the .bali top-level domain at ICANN 87 in October, according to a local report. Governor Wayan Ko...

ICANN's Country Code Names Supporting Organization has put out a call for nominations for candidates to potentially replace one of its current directors on the ICANN board next year. It's the seat cur...

Identity Digital's 2026 acquisition spree has continued, with the registry taking over a gTLD that means ".website" but has remarkably few registrations even a decade after launch. ICANN records show ...

The number of registered domain names topped 400 million for the first time, according to the estimates in Verisign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief quarterly report. There were 401.6 million domai...

Team Internet, still reeling from Google's decision to cut off one of its primary revenue sources, nevertheless stayed profitable in the first half of the year, the company reported. The company's dom...

IE Domain Registry has formally taken the reins at .ie after a decision by ICANN's board of directors. The board voted last week to redelegate Ireland's ccTLD to the company that has in effect been in...

Verisign has cranked up its growth predictions for .com for another consecutive quarter, partly driven by the availability of AI website creation tools. Announcing its second-quarter financial results...

.web entered the root zone this week, ending over a quarter-century of drama over the once-coveted gTLD, and now it looks like it could be immediately worth tens of millions to its new registry. Veris...

Controversial domain registry Freenom has returned, barely two and a half years after Facebook owner Meta sued it into the ground in a massive cybersquatting lawsuit. But the company seems to have aba...

It's been almost 10 months since ICANN last received a demand from a dot-brand registry operator to terminate its contract, but 2026 has now had its first such request. Networking gear maker Juniper N...

The Tax Man is going to get powers to ask for domains to be taken down in the UK, according to local registry Nominet. His Majesty's Revenue and Customs is set to be added to Nominet's list of approve...

French ccTLD registry Afnic has taken over management of three more ccTLDs assigned to France's overseas territories, meaning it now looks after all eight such TLDs, according to the company. Afnic is...

One of the world's most-popular ccTLDs could be on the verge of losing a substantial number of domains after extremely strict eligibility requirements come in to force just weeks from now. Registrants...

Google has added the long-dormant gTLDs .here and .eat to its 2026 launch timetable, synchronized with the previously announced launch of .fly. The company has told ICANN that it plans to runs its sun...

Trustname.com, a company that advertises itself as a privacy-devoted "bulletproof" registrar, is still refusing to suspend domain names used for phishing, malware, and payment card theft fast enough, ...

Bulk registration of domain names is likely to become more difficult under policy proposals being considered in ICANN, potentially limiting the potential of agentic AI. The Generic Names Supporting Or...

"He doesn't need a VPN, his network works above the DNS. Do you know what the DNS is?" When he said it, the 80-year-old barfly I found myself in a long conversation with at the weekend had no idea wha...

New new gTLD registry Dish DBS has revealed the launch dates for its .dot gTLD, and it's coming pretty soon. Information filed with ICANN shows that .dot is due to go to sunrise in just a couple weeks...

GoDaddy has said it may be forced to leave the Indian market if a court ruling forcing it and other registrars to reveal the identities of registrants is not reversed, according to a report. Reuters h...

Verisign's plans to shut down a bunch of legacy services in the .name gTLD has been challenged by a registrant who believes he will lose his domains and email addresses if the registry goes ahead. Doy...

Google seems to have accelerated its launch plans for .fly, one of the 2012-round gTLDs it's been sitting on for over a decade. The company's registry division has notified ICANN that it plans to open...

ICANN's Ombuds dealt with 50% more cases in its last-reported year, with most of the growth attributable to community members who just can't seem to get along. In a recently published annual report (p...

Another new gTLD applicant has revealed its plans, this time for a namespace where domains are given away for free and the enemy is Big Tech. The Human-Centered Computing Foundation, a non-profit foun...

Another Asian registry has added a .ai option at the third level of its ccTLD, seeking to capitalize on the growth of the artificial intelligence industry. PANDI, the registry for Indonesia's .id doma...

ICANN is set to cut back on the amount of navel-gazing it carries out, dramatically scaling back how often it reviews its own structure and performance. The community's unashamedly meta "Review of Rev...

The bad news: ICANN has cancelled its meeting in Oman this October. The good news: you're all going to Bali instead! The ICANN 87 Annual General Meeting will now take place at the conference center at...

Four companies have had their gTLD accreditations terminated, as ICANN continues to clear up its backlog of long-dormant deadbeat registrars. The unrelated entities are US-based Domus, Finland-based G...

Alan Barrett, a member of ICANN's board of directors and an internet pioneer in his home of South Africa has died, according to ICANN. The Org said that Barrett died of cancer yesterday, May 28. An on...

In what looks like bad news for GoDaddy and Identity Digital, Montenegro appears to be the latest government to demand a bigger share of revenues from its national ccTLD. While already formally delega...

ICANN has approved 18 more requests for reduced-fee new gTLD applications under its Applicant Support Program. As of last week, the Org said it has conditionally approved a total of 16 requests, up by...

The World Intellectual Property Organisation has tightened its stranglehold on domain name disputes worldwide, taking over administration of .uk's Dispute Resolution Service. Nominet said today that W...

Trying to get hold of a domain registrant via their Whois record? It could be about to get even more difficult following an ICANN advisory that gives GoDaddy a pass for its current practices. The advi...

Imagine you're in a Zoom meeting, discussing policy that will govern the future of the domain name industry, when you suddenly realize not everyone in the room is human. Some are AI agents. That's the...

Amazon's .pay gTLD is seeing defensive sunrise registrations selling far in excess of what you'd normally expect from a new gTLD launch. .pay went into sunrise April 14, with an expected 30-day window...

Nominet UK has managed to avoid having to pay out millions in refunds to its registrars and members after a lawsuit filed by one member was dismissed by a British court. A spokesperson for the .uk reg...

Identity Digital's recent acquisition spree has continued, with the company recently taking over as registry operator for a sponsored gTLD that made its debut in 2001. The registry's affiliate, Jolly ...

Some are saying it could be one of the most expensive domain sales ever. The killer name ask.com is currently for sale, after InterActiveCorp closed down Ask Jeeves, the once-pioneering search engine,...

ICANN has offered an olive branch to a new gTLD applicant that refuses to accept defeat well over a decade after it was rejected. The Org has offered one last chance for Indian applicant Nameshop to g...

Law enforcement agencies will be able to get access to private Whois records in under 24 hours under ICANN policy introduced yesterday, but the powers are toothless for now. ICANN has updated its Regi...

Identity Digital has taken over another 2012-round new gTLD that never launched. The ICANN contract for .safety recently changed hands, with original registry Safety Registry Services handing over the...

If you needed more evidence of how innovation-resistant the domain name industry can be, Verisign is killing off two non-standard services that have been running for a quarter-century. The registry pl...

ICANN has initiated public compliances proceedings against four unrelated registrars that haven't paid their fees in a year or more. US-based Domus, Finland-based Globis, Hong Kong-based Overcasts, an...

There can be few in the ICANN community feeling confident that the Org's annual general meeting is going to take place in Oman, as currently planned, but its board has kicked the can on a decision to ...

DNSSEC is widely touted as a crucial security upgrade for the domain name system, but as so often is the case with security measures, it can also cause serious problems. DENIC, the registry operator f...

Identity Digital and it.com Domains are to market the Mauritius ccTLD, .mu, as an open alternative to the .music gTLD. According to it.com, the ccTLD will be marketed internationally as "Everyone’s Mu...