Site forces quality changes for submitted articles.

One of the sites frequently mentioned as being targeted in Google’s recent quality crackdown is EzineArticles.com.

It should come as no surprise that today the site instituted new rules and checks for quality.

The site lets people submit articles that are free to reprint. The author gets a number of benefits, but backlinks are one of the biggest. As a result, many authors submit quick articles with little substance solely to get the backlink.

The new quality guidelines include increased quality checks, no article submission through the API and WordPress Plugin (which was probably being abused), and a new 400 word count minimum (because longer garbage is better than short garbage.)

Will Google accept after-the-fact changes to site quality? My guess is it takes a while to change a reputation.

Live auction kicks off with pre-bidding.

Aftermarket.com is back in the live domain name auction game this week.

The company will host a live domain name auction in The Bahamas and will simulcast it through its new Aftermarket.com site.

The actual auction will be Thursday, March 3 at 2PM EST. But pre-bidding has already open at Aftermarket.com and will run until 15 minutes before the live auction starts.

You must register for a Premium account into order to bid. It only costs a penny but requires certain ID verification, so be sure to register early.

There are about 65 domain names in the auction. Some of my favorites are:

Pledges.com $2500-$5000
Raises.com $2500-$5000
Bylaws.com $2500-$5000
EmploymentAds.com $5000-$1000
iSign.com $1000-$2500

Not as bad as last year. But not great.

The percentage of people who rate their satisfaction with ICANN as “Good” has rebounded a bit from the past two years. But it still sits at a dismal 21%.

That’s according to over 1,500 people who took the non-scientific 6th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey at the beginning of the year.

25% rate their satisfaction “poor”, down from 40% in 2010.

Although a nice reversal from the past couple years, the results still aren’t great. It likely reflects processes that satisfy only those people who benefit from delay.

It seems that neither side in the new TLD debate is happy. Proponents are upset about delays while IP interests think they aren’t getting enough protection. The struggle to finally “approve” .xxx has been challenging, and the inconsistent treatment of .jobs can’t help, either.

Will satisfaction improve after new TLDs are finally approved?

More survey results are here.

A look back at the month in domaining.

The shortest month of the year is coming to a close. Here’s a look back at the top five stories of the month on Domain Name Wire, ranked by number of views.

1. Is Bit.ly Toast if Libya Shuts Down the Internet? – despite what bit.ly tells you, the company runs a real risk by using Libya’s ccTLD.

2. Joan Rivers Body Double is No Stranger to Go Daddy Commercials – the skinny on Joan Rivers’ body double in Super Bowl ad.

3. GoDaddy.co Girl Is Joan Rivers – In the words of Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock – “Twist!”

4. Pac-10 Asks Arbitrator for Pac12.com Domain Name – but the arbitrator won’t have to decide, since the owner of Pac12.com filed a lawsuit.

5. New Rules Proposed for Expired Domain Names – rules would establish notification requirements and other guidelines for expired domains.

ICANN threatens to shut down .jobs, even after approving its “registry service”.

ICANN has notified .jobs registry Employ Media LLC that it is in breach of its contract at ICANN, and the contract is subject to cancellation if the breach isn’t corrected within 30 days.

That this breach letter (pdf) is going out now shows a massive failure on the part of ICANN. (More on that in a bit.)

In a letter dated February 27, ICANN informs Employ Media that it has failed to establish policies that conform with the “intent and purpose” of the .Jobs Charter.

ICANN notes that the rules for registered a .jobs domain name make it so that basically anyone can register domains, not just human resources professionals. For example, any member of Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) can register domains. But the letter states that all it takes to become a member of is a $40 payment.

ICANN also addresses Universe.jobs, a scheme by which thousands of niche job boards are being created:

It is our understanding that one registrant, who is a member of SHRM, registered forty thousand second-level domain names in the .JOBS TLD for use on this job board. It appears that Employ Media and SHRM, through the Direct Employers Association, intend to use the .JOBS TLD primarily to compete with other internet job boards. Such use is inconsistent with the purpose stated in the .JOBS Charter and represented to the ICANN community. As opposed to numerous, international, human resource management professionals registering second-level .JOBS domain names, it appears one US-based registrant is registering thousands of second-level .JOBS domain names. These registrations appear to serve the interests of the registrant or company causing the registrations, as well as Employ Media and SHRM rather than the interests of the human resource management professionals.

So why is this a massive failure on the part of ICANN?

Because this issue has been in ICANN’s face for a long, long time. ICANN’s board approved a “registry service” that enabled the universe.jobs project. The organization even reviewed its Board’s decision.

Now, at the end of February, after all of this has gone into effect, ICANN’s compliance department brings it up with Employ Media?

It would seem that this should have been addressed a long time ago if it was an issue. ICANN was clearly aware of what was going on.

Although I don’t approve of the backdoor approach .jobs has taken to basically turn itself into a gTLD, I can also sympathize with Employ Media throwing their hands up in the air at this point and saying “WTF?”

(via DomainIncite)