Priority Access Program for Verisign’s First IDN New gTLD, .コム

• By • Domain Names

Guest post from Manish Dalal, Vice President, Verisign Naming Services Asia 

Verisign launched its first IDN new gTLD, .コム – the .com you know, now in Japanese – on Dec. 9, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. UTC. We recently submitted updated TLD Startup Information for .コム to ICANN, extending the end date for the .コム Sunrise Period from Jan. 31, 2016, to March 14, 2016, and shifting the dates of the subsequent registration periods. ICANN recently confirmed the following updated registration periods for the .コム TLD*:

Sunrise Period: Dec. 9, 2015 – March 14, 2016

Priority Access Program Period: March 15 – May 15, 2016

Landrush Program Period: May 16 – June 12, 2016

General Registration Period: Start Date June 13, 2016

Trademark Claims Period: June 13 – Sept. 11, 2016

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Launch of Verisign’s First IDN New gTLD, .コム

• By • Domain Names

Guest post from Manish Dalal, Vice President, Verisign Naming Services Asia

The composition of the Internet’s population continues to evolve toward a more localized Web. Asia has been leading the way forward as the populations in that region come online and begin creating and consuming content in their local languages. According to Internet World Stats, over 48 percent of all Internet users are located in Asia and, according to W3Techs, approximately 45 percent of all websites in the world are in a language other than English.

Still, navigation of the Internet through a URL is primarily in English. Therefore, by enabling more end users to navigate the Internet in scripts representing their native language, and giving more companies the ability to maintain a common brand identity across many scripts, Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) have the potential to make the Internet more accessible and thus more usable to end users around the world. This accessibility is why IDNs have generated considerable attention since Verisign introduced IDNs at the second-level in 2000.

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As WHOIS Transitions to RDAP, How Do We Avoid the Same Mistakes?

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In 1905, philosopher George Santayana famously noted, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” When past attempts to resolve a challenge have failed, it makes sense to consider different approaches even if they seem controversial or otherwise at odds with maintaining the status quo. Such is the case with the opportunity to make real progress in addressing the many functional issues associated with WHOIS. We need to think differently.

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