Part 4 of 5; NXDOMAINS, SSAC’s SAC045, and new gTLDs
In 2010, ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) published SAC045, a report calling attention to particular problems that may arise should a new gTLD applicant use a string that has been seen with measurable (and meaningful) frequency in queries for resolution by the root system. The queries to which they referred involved invalid top-level domain (TLD) queries (i.e., non-delegated strings) at the root level of the domain name system (DNS), queries which elicit responses commonly referred to as Name Error, or NXDomain, responses from root name servers.
Royal Baby Fever Hits Domain Registrations
Domain name buyers are often among the first to react to huge international news events. We documented this earlier in the year by highlighting a notable surge in domain names related to the announcement of a new Pope.
The news this week about the birth of the new Prince of Cambridge to William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, is no exception. The Domains observed there has been a surge in royal baby related domain name registrations since the birth announcement was made.
Update on Verisign’s IDN Implementation Plans
The composition of the internet’s population has seen a dramatic shift over the last two decades. In 1996, the majority of end users were based in the U.S.; according to a 2012 Comscore report, the non-English speaking internet population has grown to 87 percent, with more than 40 percent based in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to embrace this population shift, we believe the internet must become multilingual so it can be accessible and relevant to the majority of end users today.
The Effect of Second Screen Media Multitasking
This “second screen” effect is a relatively new phenomenon that has taken off like wildfire among today’s modern consumers who watch their favorite TV shows with smartphones and/or tablets in hand. Chances are, you’ve looked up a URL or tweeted about or searched for something you saw on a show or commercial while you were watching it. If you haven’t, chances are you will.
How Free is your “Free” Video Hosting?
Imagine building your dream home. Maybe it takes months or even years. There’s a good chance it involved a lot of resources including time and money. All your friends know where you live and where to find you. Things are as peachy as peachy could be.
Chances are you would never, in your right mind, build an actual house on a piece of land you didn’t somehow have control over. What if you were offered that land for free, but with the catch that things could change, and you could be booted off the property without notice? What if it also stipulated the actual landowners could put anything they wanted next to you, even if you didn’t agree with it or it competed directly with your own interests? This is similar to the position you are in when you sign up to post videos on YouTube or almost any other video sharing site.
Businesses increasingly using .com domain redirects to brand their Facebook pages
Many small businesses know the importance of having an online presence, but are not ready to build and support a website for their business. Instead, a trend we have seen growing in the last couple of years is companies redirecting their social media or e-commerce site to a domain name. That way, when they are ready to build a company website, they can easily leverage their existing domain name and all of the marketing assets they have no doubt included it on, like advertisements, business cards, letterhead, t-shirts, etc.
Part 3 of 5: Name Collisions, Why Every Enterprise Should Care
Do you recall when you were a kid and you experienced for the first time an unnatural event where some other kid “stole” your name and their parents were now calling their child by your name, causing much confusion for all on the playground? And how this all made things even more complicated – or at least unnecessarily complex when you and that kid shared a classroom and teacher, or street, or coach and team, and just perhaps that kid even had the same surname as you, amplifying the issue! What you were experiencing was a naming collision (in meatspace).
Part 2 of 5: Internet Infrastructure: Stability at the Core, Innovation at the Edge
For nearly all communications on today’s internet, domain names play a crucial role in providing stable navigation anchors for accessing information in a predictable and safe manner, irrespective of where you’re located or the type of device or network connection you’re using. The underpinnings of this access are made possible by the Domain Name System (DNS), a behind the scenes system that maps human-readable mnemonic names (e.g.,www.Verisign.com) to machine-usable internet addresses (e.g., 69.58.187.40). The DNS is on the cusp of expanding profoundly in places where it’s otherwise been stable for decades and absent some explicit action may do so in a very dangerous manner.
Part 1 of 5: Introduction: New gTLD Security and Stability Considerations
Verisign recently published a technical report on new generic top-level domain (gTLD) security and stability considerations. The initial objective of the report was to assess for Verisign’s senior management our own operational preparedness for new gTLDs, as both a Registry Service Provider for approximately 200 strings, as well as a direct applicant for 14 new gTLDs (including 12 internationalized domain name (IDN) transliterations of .com and .net). The goal was to help ensure our teams, infrastructure and processes are prepared for the pilot and general pre-delegation testing (PDT) exercises, various bits of which are underway, and the subsequent production delegations and launch of new gTLDs shortly thereafter.
Improve Website Availability and Performance with Verisign Dynamic Traffic Management
We often hear from companies with cloud applications that ensuring the availability of critical web-based services and applications is a key requirement for enhancing user experience and engagement. After all, customers often leave company websites if they have to wait for them to load, which could result in lost revenue and brand value — all because of something that could be easily avoided.