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Latest .com rankings report

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

How domain name registrars fared in the most recent monthly data report.

The words "top 10 domain registrars" in purple and yellow text

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers February 2020.

Namecheap had the second most new .com registrations during the month. It’s funny to think that it used to be a reseller of Enom (now part of Tucows), which landed in third for the month.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 970,641 (1,060,845 in January)
2. Namecheap Inc. 203,248 (197,210)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 189,784 (205,518)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 174,972 (140,818)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 132,513 (138,028)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 91,190 (116,153)
7. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 75,407 (77,686)
8. United Internet^ 68,936 (71,196)
9. Chengdu West 61,674 (n/a)
10. West 263 61,482 (73,295)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations under management as of the end of February 2020.

1. GoDaddy* 52,296,013 (52,061,831 in January)
2. Tucows** 12,791,432 (12,807,781)
3. Web.com++ 7,121,051 (7,137,113)
4. Endurance+ 6,851,967 (6,810,266)
5. Alibaba 5,747,031 (5,852,372)
6. United Internet^ 5,512,155 (5,507,431)
7. Namecheap 5,431,296 (5,322,270)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,961,980 (4,136,931)
9. Google 3,282,713 (3,199,382)
10. GMO 2,304,518 (2,296,219)

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, Register.com, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

Laws forcing Google to pay for news “content” hurt small publishers

by — Policy & Law 3 Comments

Google is the lifeblood of small publishers.

Picture of the Google logo above a building with the words "News Snippets"

Australia is the latest country to consider mandating that Google pay news publishers for “content,” even if this content is just a headline and short snippet.

Google and Google News have become a bogeyman for news publishers who are frustrated by plunging revenue due to the move to digital.

People often go to Google News or Google’s cards on their phone instead of a publisher’s home page because Google News provides a broader range of information from multiple sources and viewpoints than a single publication.

But this means publications get more “drive-by” traffic that only views a single article, and might not be a paying subscriber.

This is a real struggle. Yet forcing Google to pay for showing a headline and snippet is a lousy way to fix the issue. Publishers should try to adapt to offer some of the value that Google News provides instead.

Let’s be clear. The headline and snippet are akin to a search engine results listing for any topic. People want as much free traffic from Google as they can get, but large publishers don’t think this way.

When Spain passed a law forcing Google to pay publishers for Google News, Google shut down News in the country. That didn’t help anyone, and it disproportionately hurt small publishers who depend on Google for traffic.

Even if Google has to pay small publishers, it will likely be a nominal amount of money. Only the larger publishers would receive enough to make a line item for it.

I understand why government leaders are responding to lobbying from the publishing industry. It’s a shame smaller publishers’ concerns aren’t also considered.

Google wins fight over “Google Coronavirus” domain name

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Man agrees to give domain name to Google after facing cybersquatting complaint.

Picture of man wearing surgical mask with the word "Coronavirus" overlayed

A Massachusetts man who registered GoogleCoronavirus .com has agreed to hand it over to Google after the company filed a cybersquatting complaint.

Ben Ghosh registered the domain—at Google Domains, no less—on March 13. Google filed a cybersquatting complaint with National Arbitration Forum just three days later.

The domain name had a basic WordPress installation with no additional content.

Rather than fight the case, Ghosh consented to transfer the domain name to Google.

Companies have been registering domain names including their brands and terms like coronavirus and Covid-19 to protect against cybersquatting. For example, Facebook registered over 500 domain names including its brands and these terms.

It’s almost impossible to register every possible permutation. It probably makes sense for large websites to register obvious domains like brandCoronavirus. Beyond that, they can turn to cybersquatting mechanisms under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolutions Policy to get control of domains that people register.

Google also filed a case against CoronavirusGoogle .com, which was registered by Walter Lafky of Oregon. That case is still pending.

.Com rankings: Google tops 3 million .com domains

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Google hits a milestone.

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 November 2019.

Google’s domain name registrar hit the 3 million .com domain milestone. It continues to add over 100,000 domains a month with few outbound transfers, so this number will continue to climb.

As has been the case in recent months, there was a lot of shakeup on the monthly leaderboard. I believe this is due to promotions that Verisign offers that are, in turn, sometimes passed on to registrar consumers.

Website builder Wix managed to make the top 10 list this month. Not because its registrations increased, but because the bar to be in the top 10 dropped. Dynadot and Web.com, which had a surge in registrations the prior month, reverted and Wix took their spot.

When the report for March 2020 comes out, expect a surge at Dynadot. It’s offering $5.99 domains this month with a coupon.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 946,270 (867,828 in October)
2. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 182,250 (189,005)
3. Alibaba (HiChina) 163,419 (121,623)
4. Namecheap Inc. 163,141 (170,249)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 136,518 (146,747)
6. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 127,219 (130,428)
7. GMO 86,969
8. Xin Net 72,991 (128,049)
9. NameSilo 69,171 (76,139)
10. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 62,712

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

1. GoDaddy* 51,629,563 (51,365,334 in October)
2. Tucows** 12,910,915 (12,969,022)
3. Web.com++ 7,096,388 (7,101,250)
4. Endurance+ 6,817,113 (6,863,214)
5. Alibaba 6,013,715 (6,032,936)
6. United Internet^ 5,526,648 (5,547,495)
7. Namecheap 5,182,418 (5,125,801)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,433,678 (4,508,653)
9. Google 3,032,888 (2,939,902)
10. GMO 2,253,907 (2,209,814)

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, Register.com, and Crazy Domains
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

Google’s new search results pages: love it or hate it?

by — Services 17 Comments

Desktop results still show the domain name but mobile results don’t.

Google recently changed its desktop search results to look more like its mobile search results. This includes showing the site’s favicon, second level and top level domain, title, and snippet.

It also bolds the ‘ad’ tag before ads.

I’ll be honest, it’s giving me a headache. The favicons are distracting, and I wonder if it actually makes it harder for people to distinguish organic listings from ads because now all listings have a graphic in front of them.

After the change, Google search liaison Danny Sullivan noted the importance of domain names in search result listings:

But, as you can see from my response, Google still leaves domain names off of mobile search results. So it seems that Google thinks they are important, unless you’re on a mobile device where you’re even more likely to be duped. (Google does show domain names on ads on mobile search.)

If nothing else, Google has certainly elevated the importance of having a good favicon!

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