Category Archives: domain names

Afilias Brings New TLD’s to Life at CES



Afilias logoI’ve been using the Internet regularly now for almost twenty years. Back in my early days online, nearly all website URLs ended in .com. Sometimes, you’d come across a .net or maybe a .org. But that’s changed dramatically over the last two decades. Now, website owners have a plethora of domain extensions to choose from. But where do all of these .info’s, .mobi’s, and .organic’s come from?

Daniel met up with Roland from Afilias. The two had a fascinating discussion about how Afilias sets up new top-level domains. Daniel poses the question, “What if I want to create a .daniel domain extension?” Roland explains that Afilias would take the request to ICANN (the organization responsible for regulating Internet domain names) along with a paltry (!) $185,000 application fee. Then, ICANN would evaluate the application and make a decision. If ICANN approves the application, Afilias would then help the owner of the new domain extension with things like registration policies, DNS setup, and more.

Daniel J. Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast.

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Hover Asks Users to Reset Passwords



hover logoI use Hover to handle all of my domain name registrations. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from the company asking me to reset my password. From that e-mail:

We are writing to let you know that we reset your password today. If you are unable to log into your Hover account, you will need to use the ‘I forgot my password’ option on the sign in page to change your password.

We did this as a precautionary measure because there appears to have been a brief period of time when unauthorized access to one of our systems could have occurred. We have no evidence at all that any Hover accounts have been accessed, but even the possibility that this could have happened moved us to err on the side of extreme caution.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

I’m never surprised to receive notices like this. It seems like we’re being asked to deal with security breaches in our online accounts on a daily basis these days. But I haven’t been able to find any further information online as to what exactly happened at Hover. The company didn’t post anything about the breach on its blog and none of the usual tech-news outlets have mentioned it. I understand that this isn’t exactly the kind of thing Hover would want to publicize. But the company probably has many customers who’ll never see the notice I received, just due to the nature of e-mail and how people use it.

Regardless, I did change my Hover password today without incident. If you’re also a Hover customer, be sure to create a new password for yourself as well.


GoDaddy Acquires Afternic, SmartName, NameFind for SMBs



GoDaddy logo
GoDaddy logo

GoDaddy is continuing their newly found focus of small-to-medium businesses (SMB) by acquiring domain marketplace Afternic, domain parking service SmartName and name generator NameFind from NameMedia. Terms for all deals were not disclosed.

Afternic – a Boston Massachusetts-based company – is the leading domain aftermarket companies. Afternic lists more than 5 million domains and has 75 million searches a month.

NameFind is a new service that helps entrepreneurs brain-storm brand names for businesses. SmartName brings a level of domain monetizations services so SMBs can earn money from domain names without having to build websites.

“Having the right domain name is vital, no matter your venture,” said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving. “GoDaddy is working to bring the ‘domain aftermarket’ together with new registrations and make both super-simple to access. Our customers need an easy way to buy the name they want, regardless of whether it’s new or has been registered previously. This acquisition forms a registrar-led process that creates faster and more trusted transactions across the board.”

All three companies will continue to run in their respected areas at this time.