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I
was tied up
working on our comprehensive
review of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver
conference so didn't have a chance
to post a Lowdown item Friday (the review
article has show details, plus previously unseen
photos, that we did not have time to bring you in our daily highlight posts from this month's
event in one of the world's most beautiful cities).
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Today
let's play some catch up and bring you
up to speed on some other things going
on in the domain industry. For starters,
the 38th
international ICANN meeting
just got underway in Brussels,
Belgium where it will continue
through Friday (June 25). One of the hot
topics will again be the status of
ICANN's plan to roll out an unlimited
number of new gTLDs. It is
now looking like we won't actually see
any of these new extensions actually
operating until 2012, if then. |
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Today
also marks the start of the .CO
land rush during which the
most desired domains are available at a
premium price before they become
available to the general public. If more
that one applicant wants the same domain
it will go to auction. Land rush
continues through July 13, then
one week later on July 20
.CO domains will become available for
general registration. In a related note,
MY.CO
has
rolled out a gateway solution for registrars
(who are not among the ten major
registrars selected to offer the
extension) that will allow them to offer
.CO domain names as well. MY.CO is
offering an EPP gateway option
for these smaller ICANN accredited
registrars. |
One
other note today - the Castello
Brothers (Michael and David)
have been covering a lot of ground of the
past couple of weeks. They were in Vancouver,
Canada to speak at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. June
9, then, as soon as their session was over, they
headed 250 miles east to visit industry pioneer Garry
Chernoff at his Penticton, British Columbia
home (see our Lowdown
post about that). From there it was on
to Las Vegas for last week's West Coast
Tanning Expo at Caesar's Palace. So,
why in the world were the Castello Brothers at a
Tanning Expo? Well, they happen to be co-owners
(with LZ
Domains) of the nicely developed Suntan.com
website. David sent me a photo of his business
partners hard at work in the Suntan.com booth.
(Left
to right) Toby Hardy, Tanya Fallis and Andy
Botzer of LZ Domains
The
Castello Brothers and the LZ Domains crew know a
winning formula when they see one. There is no
firmer foundation for a business than a category
killing domain name that, along with some hard
work and marketing panache, can be parlayed into a
globally recognized brand name.
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