Verisign released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief, covering the 1st quarter of 2015 (.pdf file), today.  The report revealed that the total number of domain names registered worldwide across all top-level domains had risen to 294 million by the end of the quarter. 6 million domains were added in 1Q-2015 alone, a 1.9% rise over the previous quarter. Year over year, total registrations jumped 6.5% with 17.8 million names added since the end of 1Q-2014.

Verisign's dominant .com extension, with 117.9 million domains registered, accounts for 40% of all registrations worldwide. Verisign also runs .net, which ended the quarter with 15.1 million registrations. Taken together those two legacy extensions alone give Verisign a 45% chunk of the market. The company said it added 8.7 

million new .com or .net domains in 1Q-2015, a bit higher than the 8.6 million they added in the same quarter a year ago. 

Total ccTLD registrations were approximately 136.9 million at the end of 1Q-2015, after 2.9 million new domain names had been added in the quarter (a 2.2% increase from the previous quarter). Year over Year, approximately 10.3 million new country code domain names were added, a good looking  8.2% jump in year. However, a large part of that can be attributed to the biggest ccTLD - .tk (with over 25 million registrations, attributable to the fact domains in the extension are given away free). If .tk is not included ccTLD year-over-year growth drops to 4.4%.

Their quarterly Brief is always chockfull of interesting information. You will find a lot condensed into one tidy infographic here. The Brief also includes a special article - “‘Mobilegeddon’: Good for Small Business?” which discusses the benefits of mobile websites for business.

The Domain Name Asoociation, an industry trade group whose members include many major registry operators and Internet related corporations, including Google, Amazon and Go Daddy, has taken a novel approach for promoting the use of new gTLDs (a primary reason why the group was formed). A DNA site at InTheWild.domains documents user submitted photos and videos of websites - built on both new extensions and established TLDs -  being advertised by businesses, organizations at individuals around the world.

I think it is a smart way to promote domain registrations across the board. For new gTLDs, the key to wider adoption is people recognizing the extensions and becoming comfortable enough with them to put them to use. The more often they see others developing and advertising their new extension names, the more likely they are to consider the option themselves.

Before I visited the site, I fully expected to see only new gTLDs in the wild and was pleasantly surprised to see ccTLD and even .com websites included. Again, I think this is a smart approach. If you want people to recognize a string as a 

domain name, they need a point of reference. When they see a .com or a familiar ccTLD sprinkled in among the new extensions they are more likely to understand that all of the strings they are looking at are domain names.

Some of the live websites featured on the site's home page as of this writing are FlatironDistricy.NYC, Burger.Melbourne, ARC.Clinic, H2H.Jobs, Coca-Cola.FM and Soap.Club. 

The site describes itself as "a place to highlight and celebrate creative uses of Domain Names," noting "Domain Names (web addresses) are the glue that keeps the Internet connected. They are how you remember and find things, and, more importantly, they are how you brand and market yourself or your business online. Domain Names are the ultimate "call to action" and at InTheWild.Domains we're collecting great examples of attention getting domain names "in the wild." So, if you spot a cool billboard, ad, side of a bus, video, sign etc. that includes a domain name, please share it here. Go wild!"

A lot of people utilize WhoIs privacy services to keep their personal contact details (including name, telephone number, email, and postal address) from being available to anyone who wants to look it up in the public WhoIs record that is accessible through any registrar as well as a variety of independent sites. I've personally never used the privacy option on  my domains but I recognize there are many valid reasons why others might wish to do so. Just one of those is that spammers routinely harvest public WhoIs information for their email lists and unwanted phone solicitations.

Privacy image from Bigstock

Still, ICANN is considering a new program (.pdf file) that if enacted could remove the privacy option for many users. Some registrars and other service providers opposed to the proposed changes have banded together to create a website at SaveDomainPrivacy.org that details all of the issues involved and what is at stake for domain registrants. Among other caveats, the site notes, "Providers could be required to give your private contact details to anyone complaining that your website violates their trademark or copyright. None of these scenarios would require a court order, search warrant, or due process of any kind."

All of the details are on SaveDomainPrivacy.org and I would recommend reading what is on the concise site first then, if you are moved to do so, add your voice to the others concerned about the proposed changes.  

A lot of people wondered what NamesCon would do with the DOMAINfest brand when they bought the rights to that conference from Oversee.net at the end of last year. Since then some successful one day DOMAINfest events have been staged in conjunction with other meetings (with another one set to run Sept. 27 alongside THE Domain Conference in Florida).

Now, DOMAINfest is spreading its wings even further with a big four-day event - the first DOMAINfest Asia - that will run September 4-7, 2015 in Macau, China. 

DOMAINfest co-founder Jothan Frakes said, “Many are looking to Asia as a market of robust growth and innovation. Macau is the perfect Asian location for the DOMAINfest caravan. Providing a great experience for regional industry players is central to the DOMAINfest mission, and Macau is easy to 

access for our many friends in the China region, the Indian subcontinent, Japan, Korea, and south-east Asia."

The conference will be jointly organized by DOMAINfest,  DotAsia Organisation (the operator of the .ASIA registry) and China-specialist strategic communications agency Allegravita and it will be supported by the Internet Society of China. DOMAINfest.Asia 2015 is designed to serve as a meeting place for China’s and Asia’s domain name industry to network with sector leaders from around the world. The show will feature the parallel discussion tracks made popular by NamesCon on diverse domain name industry subjects topical to Asian and Chinese markets. 

A full conference schedule and sponsor details will be announced in coming weeks, and full event information will be available online soon at http://domainfest.asia.

Most of our readers buy and sell domains and some take the next step and attempt to develop one or more of their favorites into successful businesses. That is a lot harder partly because  domain investors go at from the exact opposite direction taken by mainstream entrepreneurs. People in the latter group normally come up with a business idea and well thought out business plan then look for an appropriate domain name to build on. The domain investor is more likely to start with a name they love then try to figure out how to make a business work on that particular name (kind of like putting the cart before the horse). 

Since doing it that way is such a daunting task it is good to see examples of people who have done it successfully. On that score, Bobbleheads.com Founder Warren Royal (who was profiled in our December 2008 Cover Story), has done it as well as anyone you are ever likely to find. Warren didn't know a lot about bobbleheads when he bought Bobbleheads.com in an auction for $30,000 in early 2008 but once he acquired the category defining domain name, he decided he might be able to turn it into a pretty nice little business by selling bobblehead dolls on it. 

Warren Royal, Founder
Royal Bobbles and Bobbleheads.com

Warren started out selling bobbleheads from a variety of companies and that worked out pretty well - well enough to pique his interest in manufacturing his own bobbleheads to sell. He even produced dolls of two domainers - Rick Schwartz and Ron Jackson that first year (and as you would expect, both now sell at a big discount)!  The two domainers aside, the move to manufacturing worked out pretty well too - in fact way beyond pretty well. Since debuting his Royal Bobbles line, Royal has become one of the biggest players in the entire industry. These days he is frequently called upon by major corporations to create a doll to their specifications and by celebrities who want one made in their own likeness to sell to fans. A huge number of satisfied customers have found that when it comes to bobbleheads nobody does it better than Royal.

Some of the now famous Royal Bobbles creations spread out on a table in Royal's office.

After a successful debut event last summer in Hyderabad, India, an expanded DomainX Conference will return in August with a plush new location - the five-star Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore, India - a booming city of more than 8 million residents (making it the 3rd largest in India) that is referred to as both the "Silicon Valley of India" (because it has attracted so many major IT companies) and the "Garden City of India" (thanks to its gentle climate, broad streets, greenery and many public parks). The Taj West End also lives up to that name with its own  meticulously landscaped grounds that cover 20 acres near the heart of Bangalore. 

After the one-day inaugural DomainX event was so well received, conference Founder and CEO Manmeet Pal Singh decided to set the bar higher this time around with both a new venue and a new two-day format to accommodate an ambitious show that will run Friday and Saturday, August 7th & 8th, 2015. He has also lined up a compelling list of speakers including Uniregistry Founder Frank Schilling, Esiksha.com's Deepak Daftari and TeachMe Inc. CEO Bill Karamouzis. I will also be there to speak and cover the event for you. 

Though the conference is expanding the cost to attend is not. In fact, as was the case last year, hundreds of free tickets are available (345 as of this writing) as well as a limited

Manmeet Pal Singh
DomainX Founder & CEO 

number of tickets with added benefits priced at $49 or $99, depending on the option you choose. That $0-$99 price range represents a remarkable bargain for an event of this size in a venue of this quality.

Above: an exterior view of the Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore, India 
where the 2015 DomainX Conference will be held August 7-8.

Below: The lobby at the Taj West Hotel (rated by TripAdvisor readers as one 
of the four best hotels in Bangalore (out of more than 500 reviewed). 

The patio cafe overlooking the lush grounds at the Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore.

DomainX brings investors, hosting providers, startups & entrepreneurs together to network and discuss industry issues. Over the course of its two-day run more than a dozen business sessions are scheduled. 

I had intended to travel to last year's debut event but major problems with India's visa system prevented myself and several others from making the trip, limiting our participation to Skype interviews. Fortunately, a new streamlined visa system is now in place that has reportedly solved those travel problems, so we I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new people at DomainX in person, as well as re-connecting with old friends from India and other countries in the region who have been coming to the U.S. shows for many years now. I'm also looking forward to giving our readers a first hand view of this key event in one of the world's most important Internet economies. 

The inaugural edition of THE Domain Conference (TDC) continues to take (and change) shape as the September 26-29, 2015 event at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida draws closer. In an announcement that will surprise many, TDC announced today that the venerable DOMAINfest brand (acquired from Oversee.net by NamesCon last year) will be part of the show in South Florida. 

The revised agenda still has pre-show cabana networking kicking things off Saturday morning (September 26), but Sunday, September 27 (when only cabana networking and the opening night party were previously scheduled) now adds DOMAINfest at THE Domain Conference day, 

featuring a full slate of business sessions and networking that will get underway at 10am. That day will be capped with the Sunday evening Networking Welcome Cocktail Party that will get underway at 5:30pm in the famous revolving party room that sits atop the Pier 66 hotel providing a fabulous 360-degree rotating view of  Fort Lauderdale and the Atlantic Ocean beaches. 

A spectacular view of Fort Lauderdale and the Atlantic Ocean  from the top of the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel where the Welcome Cocktail Party at THE Domain Conference will be held Sunday evening, September 27, 2015.

Two more full business days will follow Monday and Tuesday (September 28-29) to complete this first conference staged solo by the Neu family (Howard, Barbara and Ray) who played such an integral role in producing the pioneering T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference that closed with Co-Founder Rick Schwartz's retirement after the 10th anniversary show last fall on Miami Beach.

With T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ending after its decade long run, and NamesCon absorbing DOMAINfest (but keeping the latter brand alive as a globe-trotting one day special event often tied to other major industry functions), only NamesCon and THE Domain Conference remained as the industry's globally oriented multi-day domain trade shows. I think the fact that those two forward thinking companies are now working co-operatively is a very constructive development for the industry at large. In the past there has been some rivalry between the various shows (with Domain Roundtable also part of the mix) but the pairing of DOMAINfest and THE Domain Conference signals that all of the organizers intend to make growing  the industry at large their top priority - a scenario under which everyone wins.

Donuts Inc., the world’s largest registry for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), will begin releasing over 1.3 million previously reserved domain names in the 144 extensions they administer this week. The names are to be released in batches each week between June and September. These are domains that were previously withheld to address the potential for “name collision,” or the possible leakage of Internet traffic from a closed private network onto the broader domain name system ( DNS), an issue no longer of concern.  

Those interested in the more than 1 million frequently searched terms contained in these domains can order them through these accredited domain name registrars. In the final month of the release program - on September 9 - Donuts will also release thousands of two-character combinations across all its gTLDs.

Donuts had another major development to announce this week. On  Tuesday, Lionsgate, the U.S. film studio, began promotion of its latest feature in the wildly popular The Hunger Games series by directing viewers to a name chosen from Donuts' stable of new gTLDs -  TheHungerGames.movie. As Kevin Murphy reported at DomainIncite.com today, that domain was allocated a few days earlier than .movie domains were supposed to be released, but the opportunity for this kind of massive exposure for a new TLD is one that a lot of new registries would have a difficult time passing up. If ICANN does impose any kind of penalty for bending the release rule the cost would likely be worth the reward Donuts will reap from having the extension associated with such a highly anticipated movie release.

Editor's Note: This post was written Friday (June 5) and I planned to publish it that day but due to lack of working Internet access where we were staying I was unable to do so. We returned to Phoenix Sunday night and I was able to post it from there.

I'm away for a week of summer vacation. Diana and I are in Williams, Arizona, a well-known old western town that is famous for being on America's historic Route 66 (that stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles before there were Interstate highways) and as the home of the Grand Canyon Railway.

This morning we will take the railway from Williams up to the Grand Canyon. As much as I have traveled this will be the first time I've been there and people have told me it so grand I should expect a spiritual experience. Of course, wherever you go these days, domains are always close at hand. On Route 66 last night I saw the shop below's URL emblazoned on the trunk of a classic Oldsmobile parked in front. The shop refers to themselves as "The World Famous" Addicted to Route 66 Shop. That may be hyperbole but but thanks to domain names and the Internet, any business and anybody can be world famous!

Getting my kicks on Route 66
in Williams, Arizona Thursday evening.

I like Route 66 so much I decided to see if I could find the exact term available for registration at a low price in any extension. Thanks to Uniregistry I did, getting Route66.click for under $5. Now I can get my clicks on Route 66! :-)  It makes a nice pair since  had picked up GrandCanyon.click when we were planning our trip and both domains cost me less than a coffee mug in one of the Route 66 gift shops.

When we return to Williams Saturday afternoon this old steam engine will be pulling our train back from the Grand Canyon. We'll be exploring some more of Arizona for a few more days, then I'll be back with you here Wednesday (June 10), refreshed and ready to see what the ever changing domain industry has in store for all of us this summer!

With the inaugural edition of THE Domain Conference coming up this summer, key positions on the agenda are rapidly being filled. We've learned that veteran domain investor, developer and blogger Morgan Linton will deliver the keynote speech at the event that will run September 26-29, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Most recently Morgan and his wife, the equally talented Daina Linton, has been busy growing their award-winning startup, FashionMetric.com, into a disruptive force in the fashion industry. Their new company, based in Austin, Texas and backed by billionaire entrepreneur (and Shark Tank TV Star) Mark Cuban, is an SaaS solution for apparel retailers and brands to gather intelligence about their customers and personalize the online apparel shopping experience.

From the first time I met Morgan in person (at the 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver 

Morgan Linton to deliver keynote
speech at THE Domain Conference

conference in Canada), I was impressed by his drive, intelligence and unbridled optimism. We had been in touch frequently online before that but as soon as I spent a few minutes talking with him face to face I thought "this is a guy who is going places" and he has certainly done that. 

I've really missed geodomain conferences but, after a 5-year hiatus, that hole in the show calendar's heart will finally be filled in May 2016. I got word from Josh Metnick, the co-founder of the original GeoDomain Expos (the last of which was held in New Orleans in 2010), that he is organizing a new event called GEO.CEO, that will put geodomains and apps front and center once again. The event will be staged May 4-6, 2016 in Los  

Angeles at the Hyatt Regency LAX Hotel which currently has a massive $60 million remodeling project underway (the property was known as The Concourse before Hyatt purchased it last summer and began the renovations expected to be completed in 1Q-2016)). This will be the first geodomain specific conference since an event called the GeoPublishers Expo was held in Chicago in 2011. 

• Some variation on Geo.com vs. word.Geo vs. Geo.gTLD -- with a positive tone. i.e., "Plenty of room for innovation, plenty of room everybody"

• The future of mapping technology integration & 3D/VR mapping 

• Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam, Space -- marketing online to formerly closed destinations

• Special sessions on monetizing State.com's and State-focused websites

• "Micro-moments" -- designing for micro-attention spans

• Implementing cohesive web/mobile/app strategies

• Best Geodomain software platforms (including insight into how Tommy Butler manages to maintain 900 websites around the Glasgow area alone)

Tours of the L.A. offices of ICANN and Google are also on the preliminary agenda. With so many new gTLDs based on geo locations now live (like .nyc, .london and .berlin) and many more coming, plus the continuing and even growing strength of .com geodomains, Metnick, the former owner of Chicago.com, thinks the time is right for a new geo focused show. It looks like he has landed a great venue too. The renovations underway at the Grand Hyatt LAX include a brand new conference center and the largest ballroom space in the LAX area. While Metnick is planning for 500 attendees, there is enough room to accommodate as many as 1,500.

Artist's rendering of the new ballroom at the Grand Hyatt LAX Hotel

The Grand Hyatt LAX will also have a new Event Lawn providing open air space in an oasis like setting and state of the art guest rooms featuring 55” flat screen televisions in all rooms. You couldn't ask for a more convenient hotel to the Los Angeles airport either. The Hyatt is the closest hotel to LAX and it has a complimentary shuttle that runs every 10 minutes (though the hotel is  closest to the airport, the rooms have been sound-proofed. It is the only property at LAX that has double-soundproof windows to eliminate airport noise). 

Registration for the CEO.GEO is already open with a $699 early bird ticket available (after that sale ends the door price of $1,599 will be in effect). You can get GEO.CEO updates as they are posted by boomakring either GEOCEOConference.com or GEO.CEO.