News

• Website address 'revolution' on hold

  The internet domain name "revolution" is on hold due to a flaw that let some aspiring applicants peek at unauthorised information at the registration website.

• Embracing mobile site visitors: Early detection is best

  The ubiquity of mobile devices, the shift to "choose it yourself" top-level domains and the availability of internationalized domain names will profoundly impact the relationship between your network and your network users. In this biweekly column, Ram Mohan, a non-voting ICANN board member and "Security and Stability Advisory Committee Liaison," chronicles these and other developments.

• Startup spotlight: DotYellow to enter online listings market

  Concerned by the waste generated by the Yellow Pages books, product development director, Angelo Perera, decided to do something about it and helped start Melbourne-based online brand listing company, DotYellow.

• A Report on ICANN 43: New gTLDs and DNSSEC

  The ubiquity of mobile devices, the shift to "choose it yourself" top-level domains and the availability of internationalized domain names will profoundly impact the relationship between your network and your network users. In this biweekly column, Ram Mohan, a non-voting ICANN board member and "Security and Stability Advisory Committee Liaison," chronicles these and other developments in this biweekly Network World column.

• How to profit from new domain name rules

  A new era in Web site naming has begun, providing a golden opportunity for savvy IT professionals to go on the offensive with new domains that can capture additional Web traffic and generate new revenue.

• New era for website names begins

  A new era of Web site naming begins, when Internet policymakers start accepting applications for hundreds - perhaps thousands - of new domain name extensions such as .hotel and .paris.

• Brands prep for gTLD digital land grab

  Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) may well prompt a digital land grab by the world’s biggest multinational brands when applications open this week, but new gTLDs such as .food, .health and .sport may also open up the internet to more consumer choice and small business opportunity.

• Critics stage last-ditch effort to derail domain name expansion plan

  Debate around a controversial plan to add hundreds of new domain name extensions to the Internet infrastructure has reached a fever pitch in the nation's capital, as critics engage in a last-ditch effort to scrap or delay the plan, which is scheduled to launch Jan. 12.

• Tech stories of 2011: Jobs, Android and Anonymous rank in top 10

  In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked world of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law. Patent wars shaped competition in tablets and smartphones, hacktivists attacked a widening array of political and corporate targets, repressive regimes unplugged citizens from the Internet, and the U.S. government moved to block the giant merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a technology icon who redefined the computer, entertainment and consumer electronics industries. These are the IDG News Service's picks for the top 10 technology stories of the year:

• State governments move to secure .sydney, .melbourne domains

  The NSW and Victorian governments have moved to begin securing new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) including .sydney, .melbourne and.victoria ahead of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opening up applications in less than three months’ time.

• Trademark owners can block misuse in .xxx domain

  Trademark owners can prevent their names from being misused in the new .xxx top-level domain by blocking these names, ICM Registry, the Florida-based registry operator for the .xxx top-level domain said.

• ICANN approves change to Internet domain name system

  The board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved an increase in the number of Internet domain name endings, known as generic top-level domains (gTLDs), from the current 22.

• P2P-based alternative to DNS hopes to challenge ICANN

  A group led by former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde is forming to develop a peer-to-peer-based alternative to today's ICANN-controlled DNS system, according to a blog posted on Tuesday.

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  ICANN board approves dot-XXX top-level domain for porn

  Pornography will have its own top-level domain, dot-XXX, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided Friday.

• Dot-org domains can now be protected by DNSSEC

  On Wednesday, .org became the first generic top-level domain to offer its customers improved security using DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions).