News


European ccTLD - May 2013
The latest edition of the CENTR Monthly Roundup is available and covers the following
- Overview of ccTLD news from CENTR Members
- CENTR data on Domain Pricing
- Statistics on ccTLD Growth
- Q&A with .ee
- WTPF - "looking back"


Domainwire Stat Report Available
CENTR has published its biannual statistics report on the state of the domain name industry (edition 2013/1). The report gives detail on the following aspects with focus on European ccTLDs.
- Global Domain Name Registrations
- Top 20 ccTLDs and growth
- European ccTLD key statistics and growth
- European domain renewals
- European domain penetration per 100 population
- State of IDN implementation in Europe

See all other editions of DomainWire here


CENTR Report from RIPE66


IEDR reveals winners of €150,000 OPTIMISE Fund
The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s official Internet address .ie, today announced the 20 winners of its OPTIMISE 2013 Fund. The winning companies include family run businesses, emerging and established companies from the food, travel and tourism, media and publishing, retail and technology sectors (see further details).
IEDR’s OPTIMISE e-Commerce Website Development Fund provides €150,000 worth of professional consultancy and support to help 20 Irish SMEs and micro-enterprises upgrade their online presence and grow their business using the Internet as a sales and marketing channel.


DENIC Introduce Redemption-Grace-Period for .de
Upon consultation with the Cooperative members, DENIC eG has decided to introduce a Redemption Grace Period (hereinafter referred to as RGP) for the TLD .de. What does this mean? When a domain contract is terminated, the related .de domain will no longer be deleted IMMEDIATELY; instead there will be a cooldown phase of a defined limited period. During this cooldown phase, the domain holder will be able to reactivate the domain. If DENIC does not receive any reactivation request, the domain will be deleted permanently once the cooldown phase has expired. Other registries already apply similar policies.
This procedure shall protect domain holders against unintentional loss of their domain by accidental deletion and give them the possibility to restore the original registration condition of their domain during the cooldown phase. The launch of the RDG is scheduled for the second half of 2013.
The model described below reflects all the considerations DENIC has made until today as to the actual design of a RGP under .de. The model is to be understood as a general concept defining the essential framework conditions in line with existing processes at DENIC. The final concept of the RGP policy with all its details shall be defined after a four-week discussion and feedback phase, which starts with the publication of this concept on DENIC's public and member mailing lists.
Read further at Source Article


PuntCAT publishes infographic on .cat domains
puntCAT has published an infographic about the health of. Cat domains, seven years after its launch.
To see the infographic click here


Registrar’s Meeting of the .pl Registry
Registrar’s Meeting
of the .pl domain name Registry, organized by NASK, was held on 23 May 2013 in
Warsaw. During the conference, current challenges in the field of market
development, regulations, selected legal issues and the security of the Polish
Registry were discussed. The NASK’s representatives presented the benefits of
the implementation of DNSSEC as well as the results of the survey, carried out
in 2012, which aimed to measure and evaluate the level of services rendered by
NASK and the statistics regarding the .pl domain name utilization.
The representatives
of the Legal Department, CERT Polska and the NASK’s Research Division
added splendour to the event .


.eu 2012 annual report available
EURid’s annual report outlines key achievements from 2012, showcases inspirational .eu websites and presents the .eu General Manager’s comments on the road ahead.
2012 in summary
.eu completed 2012 with 3.7 million registered domain names and 5.4% annual growth. Other highlights noted in the annual report include:
- Accreditation to the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)
- A significant fee reduction for .eu Alternative Dispute Procedures
- The launch of .eu’s YADIFA open-source name server implementation
- The World report on Internationalised Domain Names, produced in collaboration with UNESCO
- A revised, simplified transfer procedure for .eu domain names.
The full report is available for download at http://link.eurid.eu/reports. It is also available as an app in the iTunes and Google Play stores.


SWITCH presents Junior Web Award
Today for the seventh time, SWITCH honoured the best
websites designed by Swiss school classes. At the award ceremony for the SWITCH
Junior Web Award held at Kongresshaus Zürich, the young talent received
rapturous applause and attractive prizes. The projects submitted impressed from
a content and visual perspective, with this year’s jury prize and first prize
both going to a primary school class (year 5/6) from Uster.
Double award for fantasy town
Year 5/6 from the education programme for gifted youth at Primarschule Uster were the clever minds behind the website "Futuretown", winning both first prize and the jury prize. The story of their fantasy town won over the jury thanks to the clear concept with its socio-critical aspect and a pinch of black humour. "The website Futuretown demonstrates a perfect command of the art of storytelling, has a top-quality concept and exhibits a high degree of emotionality, commitment and fun," is how the jury put it in its encomium.


NASK publish Q1 2013 Report on Polish Domain Market
NASK, the Registry for the Polish Domain .PL have published their Q1 2013 report. The in-depth report covers domain registrations, IDNs, renewals, transfers, DNSSEC, .pl ranking in EU and many more metrics.
Go to the report here