Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Are
You Ready for Another ccTLD Re-Launch? Coming Monday -
Sunrise for .SO. Plus, DomainHacks.com Debuts and .Info
Awards Voting Ends Tuesday Night
.CO
enjoyed a wildly successful re-launch
this past summer - now the.SO
Registry hopes a little of that
ccTLD magic will rub off on their extension too.
Unfortunately, .SO has some
big
hurdles in its path. For starters, it is the
country code for Somalia, one of the most
unstable nations on the planet, so many will be
leery of a regime change possibly resetting the
rules in the middle of the game. A similar risk
could be attributed to a lot of third world
ccTLDs of course, but few have a political
atmosphere as dicey as that of Somalia.
.SO
also does not have the large promotional budget
the .CO Registry was able to deploy to spread the
word about their extension, nor the powerful
business connotation that .CO benefits from (.CO
is a common abbreviation for company).
Still,
some will go for for major keywords in any
extension and that will be the case for .SO too.
Administration of the ccTLD was re-delegated to
Somalia's Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications (MoPT) in April of 2009 and
they are in charge of the re-launch that gets
underway Monday (Nov. 1) when the sunrise
period for trademark holders begins. The opening
of Land Rush follows Dec. 16 with
the start of Open Registration slated for March
1, 2011.
The
registry is holding a list of Reserved, Premium
and Restricted domains (available on their website)
with many of those to be auctioned off in a
special sale to be conducted some time after the
start of open registration.
One area in
which .SO could do well is with those who
like domain "hacks" -
names that utilize the extension to
complete a memorable word or phrase. For
example, UsedCa.rs or BabyCloth.es,
two domain hacks that are available at DomainHacks.com,
a new aftermarket sales platform dedicated
to these kinds of domains. .SO examples
could be things like ElPa.so or Paradi.so.
One other
note today - voting for the 2010
.Info Awards ends Tuesday
night (Nov. 2) at 11:59pm (U.S.
Eastern time). The annual contest, that
began in 2007, is staged by the .info
registry operator, Afilias
to recognize the best websites
built on .info domains. The winner will
collect $7,500 with $5,000
going to the runner-up and $3,000 to
the 3rd place finisher. You can get
more details
here.
We need your help to keep giving
domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
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