Andrew Allemann reported about changes that are coming to domain name transfers, and it is a bit concerning to me. You can read about the new, hopefully temporary transfer authorization process on Domain Name Wire, but this is the part that concerns me:

"In many cases, domain name registrars will not be able to get the registrant email address from Whois that is necessary to send a Form of Authorization when someone transfers a domain name to them. As a result, gaining registrars will be allowed to skip the Form of Authorization requirement." (emphasis added by me).

From what I understand, domain registrars are responsible for generating EPP authorization codes. Each registrar may have its own process for creating them and for updating them regularly or periodically. With the new transfer process coming into play, I think it is very important for domain registrars to reset all EPP authorization codes. If that would be a major inconvenience for customers who are in the middle of a domain transfer, perhaps the EPP codes could be → Read More

Whois privacy seems to be a bit misunderstood by the general public and even some people in the technology sector. I regularly see news articles, social media posts, and other references that mention a Whois privacy / Whois proxy service without a clear understanding about the company or the purpose it serves.

There are many good reasons to use a Whois privacy or Whois proxy service. Of course some people who do bad things also use services to keep their Whois information private, but just because some bad actors use them, it doesn't mean there is not a valid purpose for them.

Most domain registrars offer some form of Whois privacy or Whois proxy service. In fact, many of the companies that offer privacy / proxy services are related to the domain registrar. Whois privacy services are probably a nice upsell revenue stream for domain registrars.

Because of the (more…) → Read More

Allegravita created this interesting infographic to illustrate where the domain name registrars of China are located. Click on the infographic to make it full size and easier to read.

Simon Cousins wrote an article about DomainFest Asia, a domain conference taking place in Macau this weekend. Simon shared his thoughts about the conference, the domain name space in China, and the four China Boot Camp sessions his company (Allegravita) is producing for the conference.

I appreciate that Allegravita shared this infographic with me, and I hope you find it interesting.

→ Read More

I use Whois privacy on some of my domain names for competitive reasons. I don't necessarily want people to know I own or acquired certain domain names, and having privacy enabled is an inexpensive way to keep some registrations private.

Just because I have privacy enabled on domain names, it does not necessarily mean that I am not interested in selling domain names. Although I have found that the majority of people contact me using links on the landing page of these domain names, I am fairly regularly contacted via email found during a Whois lookup.

One issue I have found is that some privacy services (more…) → Read More

I don't know about you, but I use Google for just about everything with my business, including email, document sharing, storage, and more. I use different accounts for the different websites and businesses that I manage. Google Apps are relatively inexpensive, and they are fairly easy for me to use.

Name.com just announced that they are offering Google Apps for Work to its registrants. This allows for seamless integration with domain names that are registered at Name.com. The news was announced in a blog post yesterday, which also offered a free three week trial of the services.

Here's what Name.com had to say in its blog post:

"Want to manage your domains at Name.com AND create custom email addresses AND have a Gmail inbox AND be able to collaborate in Google Drive with your coworkers?

We know that sounds like a lot of awesomeness to handle all at once. But it's a real thing. Name.com is now offering the full Google Apps for Work suite. It's your domain, combined with all of the awesome cloud-based apps—Gmail, → Read More