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.Com Winners & Losers: A strong month for NameSilo

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

NameSilo has strong month. Here’s how other registrars fared.

Image of man running up column chart with words "Top 10 Registrars"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers June 2019.

NameSilo surged this month, landing at #5 on the monthly list. It’s also nipping at the heels of GMO for #10 on the total .com DUMs chart.

This month I began including Ascio and EPAG in Tucows’ numbers. Previously, I only included Tucows and Enom.

Here’s how registrars did in terms of new .com registrations:

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 844698 (936,916 in May)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 254,177 (244,299)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 188,913 (see note)
4. Alibaba (HiChina) 158,341 (127,090)
5. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 149,951 (86,680)
6. NameCheap Inc. 148,553 (154,281)
7. Chengdu West 128,004 (157,668)
8. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 118,274 (119,903)
9. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 117,245 (127,762)
10. United Internet 61,939 (n/a)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of June 2019.

1. GoDaddy* 51,012,237 (51,026,467 in May)
2. Tucows** 13,265,609  (see note)
3. Endurance+ 6,928,107 (6,981,256)
4. Web.com++ 6,638,229 (6,677,492)
5. Alibaba 6,250,554 (6,308,304)
6. United Internet^ 5,558,557 (5,575,836 )
7. Namecheap 4,855,101 (4,799,244)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,201,902 (3,982,474)
9. Google 2,580,499 (2,506,924)
10. GMO 2,081,293 (2,062,451)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions and Register.com
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

How to give your developer access to just one domain at GoDaddy

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

Here’s a tutorial on granting limited access to a developer to manage a single domain at GoDaddy.

Letting your web developer register a domain on your behalf or have full access to your registrar account is a bad idea.

Unfortunately, not all domain registrars offer an easy way to grant access to a developer to make changes to one domain name. GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, offers a way but it’s not very intuitive. Here’s a tutorial.

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account and click the person icon in the upper right. In the dropdown box, select Account Settings.

Picture of GoDaddy account interface with option to change account settings

2. Select the box to Delegate Access.

GoDaddy account manager with multiple options, including Delegate Access

Click here to read more…

Beware this PayPal invoice for GoDaddy domains

by — Domain Registrars 10 Comments

Scammer is sending PayPal invoices for domain renewals.

Fake domain name renewal emails are nothing new, but some aspects of one making the rounds are.

A Domain Name Wire reader received a fake renewal notice today. Instead of being sent from the scammer, the person sent it as a PayPal invoice. Here’s what it looks like:

A PayPal invoice with the GoDaddy logo on it

A message on the invoice states:

The paid registration period of the domain [domain] expired. It is necessary to pay for the prolongation of domain name within a day from the date of having notice. We would like to inform you that if payment is not made within the specified time frame, domain delegation will be terminated. The domain will be deleted from the registry and can be accessible for registration to other customers.

The link goes directly to PayPal to make the payment, and the invoice includes the GoDaddy logo:

PayPal invoice

Anyone can upload the logo of their choice when sending PayPal invoices. They’re supposed to use their own logo, though.

Clearly, the scammer is harvesting Whois to send these invoices.

The good news is that PayPal offers buyer protection, even for intangible goods. I suspect PayPal will be on to this quickly as it has systems in place to prevent scams.

Upgrading GoDaddy two-factor authentication to a physical key

by — Domain Registrars 4 Comments

It’s a lot faster to log in with a physical key.

Photo of a Yubi FIDO U2F key in a black laptop. The Key is blue with a gold key emblem on a wood grain backgrond

A physical security key, like this one from Yubi, is more secure and also faster to use.

At NamesCon in January, GoDaddy promoted the ability to use physical security keys that use the FIDO U2F standard for two-factor authentication.

I already use a key for Google, so this was interesting to me. Not only is this more secure, but it’s much faster to use than an app-based two-factor code.

Before switching to a physical key with GoDaddy, here’s what my login process looked like:

1. Access GoDaddy
2. Damn, I’ve timed out. Need to log in again
3. Locate my phone (I left it upstairs again!) and open authenticator app
4. Type code from app into my laptop browser window

Using a physical key is much easier. After entering my login credentials, all I have to do is touch the blue Yubi key inserted in my laptop (see picture above) rather than find my phone, opening the app, and typing the six-digit code. (You can also use Bluetooth keys.)

GoDaddy login screen asking to confirm physical hardware key

Until GoDaddy released its new iOS Investor app, you couldn’t use a physical security key to log in on GoDaddy.com and then use app-based login on the app. The new app fixes this problem. Just set up app-based as your backup two-factor login.

.Com winners and Losers: Dynadot stays hot

by — Domain Registrars 9 Comments

Dynadot remains in the top ten registrars for new .com registrations.

Image of man running up column chart with words "Top 10 Registrars"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers May 2019.

Dynadot jumped into the top ten last month and it managed to stay there again this month. Dynadot has stopped its $6.99 promotional price on .com, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the Verisign/ICANN reports catch up to September.

NameSilo nudged its way back into the top 10 this month.

Also notable on the monthly chart is that Web.com (Network Solutions, Register.com) fell out of the top 10.

Here’s how registrars did in terms of new .com registrations:

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 936,916 (970,751 in April)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 244,299 (324,617)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 194,947 (191,620)
4. Chengdu West 157,668 (82,351)
5. NameCheap Inc. 154,281 (152,606)
6. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 127,762 (125,059)
7. Alibaba (HiChina) 127,090 (130,946)
8. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 119,903 (119,976)
9. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 86,680
10. Dynadot 85,307 (104,837)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of May 2019.

1. GoDaddy* 51,026,467 (50,940,640 in April)
2. Tucows** 12,410,988 (12,484,323)
3. Endurance+ 6,981,256 (7,026,808)
4. Web.com++ 6,677,492 (6,713,881)
5. Alibaba 6,308,304 (6,288,135)
6. United Internet^ 5,575,836 (5,609,664)
7. Namecheap 4,799,244(4,745,085)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,982,474 (3,814,331)
9. Google 2,506,924 (2,434,742)
10. GMO 2,062,451 (2,026,751)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows and Enom
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions and Register.com
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you