Microsoft Is Now A Domain Name Registrar

Microsoft is now an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar for the following top level domains (TLD's):

.COM
.NET
.ORG
.BIZ
.INFO
.NAME
.PRO

Microsoft can now get names within the above-listed TLD's at wholesale (e.g. the current wholesale price for a .COM domain name is $6.)

Should discount domain name sellers like www.GoDaddy.com be nervous about the new competition? No, not really. The M$ people are not likely to start hawking domain names any time soon. But they do offer free domain name registrations for users of their Office Live product, which is currently in beta. So, basically, cutting costs is a primary motivation behind the move.

Or is it? Maybe the primary motivation is to get access to domain name records, and use that info to improve the search engine results pages (SERP's) produced by their Live.com search engine, à la Google. Only M$ knows for sure.

So now both Google and Microsoft are ICANN-accredited domain name registrars. But what about Yahoo!? Why is Yahoo! still reselling through Australia-based Melbourne IT? They certainly have what it takes to be an official registrar, so why continue as a reseller? Doesn't make sense to me. Feel free to post a comment if you can offer any insight. Thanks!

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AfterNIC No Longer Lists Adult or Gambling-Related Domain Names

Domain name broker AfterNIC recently announced that they will no longer list adult and gambling-related domain names. Here's a clip from a recent email:

"...After extensive consideration, we have decided to no longer accept domain names that promote hate, sex, obscenity or self-destructive behavior, such as substance abuse, violence and gambling. The sole rationale behind our decision is to make AfterNIC a more comfortable site for mainstream domain name shoppers, especially small business owners..."

To be perfectly honest, I have no problem with the new AfterNIC policy. They are not being forced to implement their new policy; they are doing it simply because they feel it's the right thing to do, and I respect that.

They are, however, overdoing it.

Today, I received an email from AfterNIC that contains a list of domain names from my portfolio that AfterNIC has deemed unsuitable for listing under their new rules. Here are some of the names:

PowerTeen.net
MyRut.com
WellDressedWoman.com
WomanOfTheYear.us

Hmmmm...

As you might have guessed, they are using an algorithm to weed out names, which is quite understandable since assigning a human to sift through their entire database wouldn't be practical. But, it's clear that their algo' needs some serious tweaking. Yep.

In all fairness to AfterNIC, they also included the following at the end of their email message:

"...You may request an appeal for any of the domain names listed for removal..."

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