In my series of posts on new TLDs, the goal has always been to inform and provide insight, from the perspective of a registrar.  With there being so much focus on ICANN and on registry operators during the initial stages of the nTLD process, we felt the voice of the registrar needed to be heard.  This is because, from our perspective, success for any new TLD will greatly depend on its support of registrars.

My first post, “Does HEXONET Have Plans to be a REGISTRY Operator for newTLDs?“, was intended to make it clear that as a long standing registrar, our goal is to make any nTLD a success by doing what we have always done, by being a great registrar and nothing more.  My second post, “Choosing a Registry Operator for New TLDs“, was done to help prospective registry operators think critically about there registry platform, probably the single biggest decision that will affect their registry today and for years to come.  I wanted to give some key insights on registry platforms from our nearly ten years of operational knowledge as a registrar working with these various solutions and technologies.

Making It Easy for Registrars to Start Selling Your nTLD

Today’s post is to take the next step beyond the ICANN process and registry platforms, to start talking about registrars, the gatekeepers to the end customer.  For a prospective registry, the biggest questions about registrars is how to get as many of them on board as quickly as possible.  Most registrars are very busy selling domains, supporting domains, managing systems, and simply running their business.  And for many registrars, engineering resources are tight or non-existent.  As a result, for registrars, choosing to implement a nTLD requires a substantial return on investment.

Given that even adding one nTLD for a registrar is a commitment, how will the possibility of  three, four or ten nTLD introductions in a given year affect that choice?  Registry operators need to be cognizant of possible slow registrar acceptance and implementation.  Sounds a bit scary right?  The good news is that HEXONET has a solution called RegistrarOC (Registrar Operations Center) that helps registrar’s quickly, easily, and cost-effectively add any new TLD.

Help for Registrars in a Crowded nTLD Marketplace

Potentially hundreds of nTLDs will be available over the next years.  Some of them are listed below.  A  more complete list of declared and potential applicants has been published by Kieren McCarthy, CEO of .NXT.

• Community new TLDs: .eco, .gay, .gmbh, .fam, .love, .poker, …etc.
• geo newTLDs: .tokyo, .nyc, .berlin, .paris, .sfo, .scot, .bcn, .china, …etc.
• .brand newTLDs: .canon, .hitachi, .post, .motorola, .aigo, …etc.
• generic newTLDs: .app, .bank, .bike, .food, .free, .music, .web, .videos, …etc.

What if there was a way for registrars to simply add a nTLD to their sales system with little or no technical effort for registry integration, testing and on-going maintenance?  In this scenario, registrars can then offer a nTLD as soon it is available, even offer pre-registration!  This is exactly how HEXONET’s RegistrarOC solution helps registry operators and registrars.

HEXONET’s RegistrarOC solution takes away all the technical and engineering overhead for registrars.  Designed to be plug and play, once a registrar is connected with the RegistrarOC solution, adding a nTLD is as simple as throwing a switch (add an accreditation and go!).  We even help and guide new businesses become accredited or help existing registrars quickly add new accreditations.

HEXONET has successfully managed a comprehensive and extensive portfolio of gTLDs  and ccTLDs accreditations for nearly a decade.  We specialize in inter-operating with all the registry platforms at industry leading reliability and performance.  So with RegistrarOC, not only do registrars plug in to the technology, but more importantly, they also plug in to all the operational and engineering expertise garnered by HEXONET over the years.

How Does RegistrarOC Work?

Customers Responsibilities:

• Integrate with HEXONET’s systems to manage your domains (Add, Transfer, Renew, Modify, ..etc) using a multitude one or a combination of interfaces: Mailrobot,  EPP 1.0, HTTPS-API, SOAP, XML/RPC and Web Interface
• Execute the RAA (Registrar-Accreditation-Agreement) with a respective registry
  
• Maintain a good standing with the Registry and ICANN
• Execute an Agreement with a Registrar Data Escrow Supplier (e.g. Iron Mountain)
• Pay your registry and ICANN Invoices

HEXONET Responsibilities:

• Conduct OT&E testing with the respective registry
• Technically manage your production account
• Ensure your accreditation is always up to date with the latest registry technical developments (DNSSEC, IPv6, …etc.)
• Ensure you are in compliance with various ICANN requirements, such as RDE (Registrar Data Escrow), WDRP (Whois-Data-Reminder-Policy), …etc.
• Ensure your data is always in-sync with the registry – a highly underestimated task by registrars that is potential very expensive future cost

If you are interested in learning more then either visit the “RegistrarOC” solutions page or send us an email at sales@hexonet.net.  We would be happy to arrange a quick conference call to explain the product in more detail.

“Let’s face it, the Internet is home to large volumes of adult content that is here to stay … a new Top-Level-Domain called .XXX  … has been created to clearly signpost adult entertainment on the Internet.”

On March 18, 2011 the .XXX sponsored Top-Level Domain (sTLD) received final approval through ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). The approval grants ICM Registry the .XXX web suffix with the same rights as .com, .net, .info and other TLDs. The key difference being that as a sponsored Top-Level Domain, .XXX domains will only be available to the adult entertainment industry. As a result, the benefit for everyone, according to the ICM Registry is, “the creation of .XXX will create a clearly signposted place where adult content can be accessed and allow surfers to have clear idea of the nature of the site before they click, rather than after. .XXX isn’t just a helpful distinction, it’s the progressive new home for adult entertainment online.”

Launch Phases: (A comprehensive overview here)

Defensive Registrations for Brands Outside the Adult Industry:

Pre-Registration of .XXX Domains at HEXONET:
HEXONET has detailed pricing and instructions on how to proceed here.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to our sales team with any questions by emailing us at sales@hexonet.net

Finally, we would like to leave you with a special .XXX promo video that we have just launched. We look forward to getting your feedback on what type of impact the release of .XXX will have on the Internet community.

This Monday, a historic decision was reached that will change the Internet as we know it today. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved the expansion of new gTLDs (Top-Level Domains). Currently there are only 22 gTLDs (.com, .net, .org) and 250+ ccTLDs (.uk, .de, .fr etc).  By 2013, it is expected that we may see several hundred new gTLDs. For example,  .Canon, .Hitachi, .NYC, .ECO, .CAR etc.

“ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top-Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN.  HEXONET would like to congratulate ICANN on reaching this important decision. This decision follows many years of discussion, debate and active engagement with business groups, government and the Internet community.

ICANN’s decision has received huge coverage this week by the mainstream media. It has been very interesting to see the different angles that reporters haven taken on this news.  For example, some reporters have used the headlines like “the shake-up of .com,”   “dotAnything to Take Over the Internet,” and even “So Long dotCom.”   Although these are definitely attention-grabbing headlines, we feel that they are not completely accurate. This leads us to ask our readers for their feedback on a number of interesting questions.

1) What impact will the new gTLDs have on .com?  Most of the domain industry forums and blogs that we regularly follow are abuzz with chatter concerning this. Many will agree that .com (established in 1985 and the largest TLD by far) will always be king.  Many refer to .com as the ‘oceanfront property’ of the Internet.  There is a strong argument to be made that gTLDs introduced to date have actually strengthened the value of .COMs.

2) What will the impact be on other existing gTLDs like .net, .info and .org?

3) And how about ccTLDs?

4) What will the impact be on SEO? This will be very interesting to see how this plays out. However, initial responses are indicating that the impact will not be very significant. According to Catalystonline, a leading search marketing firm, “Search engines like Google and Bing do not differentiate between a .com and a .net suffix, and certainly do not give a .COM any additional ranking power because of it. Where there might be a bit of opportunity would be the use of keywords in the URL itself, however, keyword rich URLS  is only one of many organic ranking factors and are less significant than in the past. SEO requires more than just a great domain name and more TLDs doesn’t necessarily equal more rankings.”

We at HEXONET will be monitoring developments of the new gTLDs very closely.  We encourage you to provide us with your comments to the questions posed above as well as any additional feedback you may have.

Courtesy creative interactive agency Jess3.com