The next set of Initial Evaluation (IE) Results was released by ICANN. ICANN has ramped up the number of results to batches of 100 prioritized applications per week. The total number of passing applicationsis now 720 (was 628 last week). ICANN released Initial Evaluation (IE) results for the next set ofapplications with priority numbers 700-800. There are 92 (some were from previous weeks) applications in this set …

It seems that Pacnames didn’t provide an auth code to the owner within the 5 day time limit. Pacnamesused to catch domains for Snapnames but I am not sure if that is still going on. I used to …

Pool.com will be doing scheduled maintenance on June 14-15 so their website is going to be offline for 24 hours. Any closing auctions, or auctions scheduled to begin, will be postponed by 24 hours. Here is their notice: Between 20:00 GMT (4:00 PM EDT) on …

A few days back Go Daddy had a lot of expiring auctions for .US domain names. Most of them were registered since 2002 and more than 250 .us domains were auctioned off. Total sales were for more than $12,000 USD. And that excludes the …

Microsoft sent a letter to ICANN about Google’s Proposed Dotless Domain to its .search gTLD.Microsoft expressed its continuing concern over Google’s proposed amendment  to run its gTLD application for .search as a “dotless” domain, as Microsoft strongly urges ICANN to follow the advice of the SSAC and ensure that dotless domains are only used in the private space. Microsoft said that “Google’s proposed amendment would interfere …

ICANN sent a notice of termination of registrar accreditation agreement for the registrar Elserver SRL on the 12th of June 2013. Elserver SRL’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) dated 15 March 2010 was terminated pursuant to Section …

Pocket Domain dropped 700+ .info domains from its Alfena registrar a few weeks back. Most of thedomains were registered during the 2003-2009 period. Most of the domains were owned by PocketDomain that used to run a small backorder service calledDropCatcher.Info (or DropCatcher.org). PocketDomain runs a few registrars like Alfena and PocketDomain. …

Sedo rolled out some updates to the “Buyer Control Panel” but this feels more like a bug fix than an update. Sedo’s goal was to make buying a domain name easier, so they just made some updates to theirBuyer Control Panel. Customers now have a more intuitive interface …

This morning I reported that while the Greek National TV and Radio Organization (ERT) was shut down on June 11, 2013, the official ERT website ert.gr was moved to a new server on June 12, 2013 and was run by the employees protesting the …

This week, 746 transactions (690 last week) took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling$1.3 million ($1.08 last week). Only 251 domains (212 last week) were reported by Sedo this week. The other domains were either private sales or domains that sold for less than 700 USD/EUR/GBP. Over 43%(42% last week) of total sales were the …

As reported yesterday, the Greek National TV and Radio Organization (ERT) was shut down in just a few hours after the Greek government’s decision to cease operating under its present model. ERT, Elliniki Radiofonia Tileorasi, is/was the state broadcaster and …

Afilias has auctioned off about 500 premium .info domains in the past 6 months and a lot of these domains are popping up in auctions. Games.info just sold for $20,300 at Flippa. The same seller sold Vacation.info for $11,650 a few days …

ICANN ordered the bulk transfer of domain names from 4 de-accreditated registrars (C I Host, Central Registrar, Power Brand Center, and Dotted Ventures) to UK registrar Astutium Limited. ICANN has authorized the bulk transfer of …

Effective immediately, the .CO Registry is listing its portfolio of two-character premium .CO domainnames for sale with GoDaddy.  The two-character .CO domain names are now available through GoDaddy’s Aftermarket, and soon-to-be via the domain availability check on the front of the website, making these premium digital assets widely available to GoDaddy’s customer …