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.ME introducing internationalized domain names

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IDNs will enable .ME domains to be personal for people around the world.

The .ME registry is launching internationalized domain names (IDNs) on November 12.

While many registries offer IDNs, I think .ME offering them at this point is newsworthy given the registry’s size and because of how many people use .me domains. .Me is technically the country code domain name for Montenegro, but people use it for personal sites for obvious reasons.

A lot of people use (personal name).me for their website, and IDN .me addresses will open up a lot of new names.

Supported languages and scripts include:

Arabic, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Croatian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Montenegrin (Latin and Cyrillic), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian (Latin and Cyrillic), Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Listen to an interview with .ME registry CMO Natasa Djukanovic on DNW Podcast #191.

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Google Adsense now requires site verification

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In a throwback, sites must be validated before showing Google Adsense ads.

Sites must be verified before Adsense shows ads like in the image above. Photo courtesy Google.

Google is now verifying websites before they can use Adsense to monetize content.

In a blog post today, the company said that the process will review sites for compliance with the Adsense Program policies.

There are a lot of policies for Adsense, but I wonder if this change is in part to make sure Adsense ads don’t show up on sites racist or hateful content, or content that incites violence. This has been a hot topic lately after the radicalization of people carrying out acts such as sending pipe bombs and mass shootings.

The verification will also verify that users can own the domain or can modify its content.

Longtime Adsense users won’t find this too burdensome. In the old days, all sites have to be reviewed before they were accepted to show Adsense ads.

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Verisign adds nearly 2 million .com/.net domains in Q3

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.Com continues to chug along.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) reported third-quarter 2018 results yesterday.

On the domain name side, the company processed 9.5 million new .com/.net registrations during Q3. After accounting for deletions, 1.99 million .com/.net domains were added to the domain base. At 151.7 million, it’s up 4% year-over-year.

The results exceeded Verisign’s guidance of 1.3 million to 1.8 million for the quarter.

The company expects to add 0.9 to 1.4 million .com/.net domains to the base during Q4 of this year.

After this quarter, the company will change how it provides guidance on net adds. It will switch from quarterly guidance to annual guidance.

As I’ve noted before, it’s fairly easy to pull levers to hit this guidance mark. Switching to annual guidance will allow the company more time to decide which levers to pull for better long-term performance.

With regards to the Cooperative Agreement between Verisign and the NTIA, Verisign CEO James Bidzos said the company is confident that an amended agreement can be executed before it expires at the end of next month.

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Verisign sells security business to Neustar for up to $120 million

by — Services 1 Comment

The .com registry sends security business to Neustar.

Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) has sold its Security Services business to rival registry provider Neustar for up to $120 million.

The deal is for $50 million up front and a contingent amount of up to $70 million due on the first anniversary. The contingent payment is based mostly on successfully transitioning customers to Neustar over the 12-month period after closing.

Verisign’s Security Services business includes DDoS protection, managed DNS, DNS Firewall and recursive DNS services.

With this exit, Verisign will now focus solely on internet naming and related services

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Google uses .New TLD to create shortcuts for Google Docs

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Type “Doc.New” to easily create a new Google Doc.

Google is using its .New top level domain name in a unique (and perhaps unprecedented) way.

People can now type certain .new domains in their browsers to instantly create Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites and Forms.

If you are logged into your Google account, try going to one of these domains:

doc.new
form.new
sheet.new
slide.new
site.new

This is an interesting idea. It goes beyond the typical URL forward by taking you to an action-based URL.

Here’s a tweet from Google that lists more domains you can use.

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