ICANN policy decisions cast cloud over domain name industry.

A non-scientific survey of over 1,500 people in the domain name industry suggests that ICANN policy decisions represent the biggest issue facing their businesses in 2011.

30% of survey respondents cited ICANN decisions such as those affecting new TLDs and IDNs as the biggest issue facing the industry in 2011.

The question was asked as part of the Sixth Annual Domain Name Wire Survey.

Domain investors are also concerned with anti-domainer interests such as overreaching trademark interests and reverse domain name hijackers.

1. ICANN policy decisions 30%
2. Anti-domainer interests 16%
3. Overall economy/recession 14%
4. Changed in pay-per-click market 13%

Other concerns include renegade registrars and resellers, registry wholesale price increases, and domain theft.

More results from the survey are here.

Survey says Rick Schwartz has most influence on domain name industry.

Each year on the Domain Name Wire annual survey I ask an open ended question:

Which person has the most influence on the domain industry?

This is a fill-in-the-blank question, which means fewer people answer the question. But they have to give it some thought, too.

This year Rick Schwartz received the most responses with 62. A lot of domain investors also believe Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons exerts a lot of influence; 43 people wrote in his name.

Of course no list is complete without Frank Schilling, who showed up 33 times. Rick Latona was chosen 23 times despite taking some time off from the spotlight to work on his next domain name product.

Other people receiving at least 10 write-ins include me, Michael Berkens, Ron Jackson, and ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom.

You can view more results from the Sixth Annual Domain Name Wire Survey here.

Service enables web sites to target content based on visitor’s location.

Root Orange, which launched a geo-splitting domain name service a year ago, announced a private beta for a new geo-splitting technology today.

GeoSkipper makes it easier for web site owners to target messaging, pricing, and other content based on the visitor’s location.

One of GeoSkipper’s first clients is Chicago.com. Chicago.com will use the service to display a real estate search box to visitors from the Chicago area while it shows hotel searches to people outside the area.

RootOrange will debut the service at this weeks’ LAUNCH conference in San Francisco.

Aging rock group wants .com equivalent of existing domain name.

English rock group The Moody Blues have asked a World Intellectual Property Forum panel to give it the domain name MoodyBlues.com.

The group’s official web site is MoodyBlues.co.uk. It has sold over 70 million albums worldwide since forming in the 1960s.

Some of the aging group’s more popular songs are Nights in White Satin and Ride my See-Saw.

MoodyBlues.com was registered way back in 1999, which makes you wonder ‘what the heck took these guys so long?’ They’ve been actively touring for the last several years.

MoodyBlues.com currently doesn’t resolve. TheMoodyBlues.com forwards to a celebrities web site.

Recommendations would make existing best practices of major domain name registrars a requirement.

The Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) Policy Development Process Working Group has made 14 recommendations for the handling of expired domain names.

The recommendations are part of the group’s proposed final report and may be used as part of the Policy Development Process.

Among the recommendations: requiring domain name registrars to change the DNS on an expired domain name for at least 8 days.

The working group believes that changing the DNS — which has the effect of taking down an active web site — is one of the best ways to attract the attention of a domain registrant. A placeholder page that replaces the original web site must notify visitors that the domain name is expired and refer to instructions for renewing the domain name.

Another recommendation would set a timeframe for two required expiration notices to be sent to registrants.

Also, the group proposes that all unsponsored gTLD registries be required to offer a Redemption Grace Period.

The working group included representatives of the three largest domain name registrars: Go Daddy, eNom, and Tucows.

The working group is seeking public comment on its final report until April 7.