Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News

Domain Name Industry News

Featured Domains

Google rolling out link spam update

by — Services 1 Comment

Search giant is rolling out an update to discredit paid and affiliate links.

A graphic with a search box and the words "search results" in white letters on a blue backgorund

Google is rolling out an update to its search results to combat what it calls “link spam”. The complete rollout will take about two weeks.

The search company still places a lot of weight on links that point to a website, counting them like votes for the website that is linked to. Companies try to take advantage of this by buying links on websites.

Google says that sites taking part in link spam will see changes in their search rankings as Google’s algorithm re-assesses those links.

As the listed contact on two blogs, I can say that the amount of requests for link insertion and guest posts has ballooned over the past couple of years. I typically get about 6-8 emails every day, and even bigger brands are asking for these insertions now.

While Google asks website owners to use tags to qualify sponsored links, there’s a fine line between Google putting too much onus on website owners. At some point, Google needs to just figure this out for itself, especially in cases where content is clearly delineated. Which, according to its algorithm update, it’s apparently capable of doing.

GoDaddy and Namecheap add most .com domains

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

These are the fastest growing and largest domain name registrars for .com domains.

Picture of a column chart and a magnifying glass with the words ".com leaderboard"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers February 2021.

There was little movement in terms of rankings this month.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 925,152 (978,334 in January)
2. Namecheap Inc. 264,318 (291,257)
3. Newfold Digital+ 206,774 (212,014)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 181,553 (205,679)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 158,100 (169,363)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 121,647 (154,990)
7. IONOS^ 128,099 (79,960)
8. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 116,995 (73,360)
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 101,812 (113,294)
10. Dynadot 96,021 (98,314)

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

1. GoDaddy*  55,682,410 (55,445,265 in January)
2. Newfold Digital+ 14,503,701 (14,525,308)
3. Tucows** 12,966,924 (12,977,992)
4. Namecheap 7,322,036 (7,175,485)
5. Alibaba  6,089,089 (6,122,968)
6. IONOS^ 5,826,355 (5,773,208)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,704,384 (4,647,632)
8. Google 4,274,969 (4,193,876)
9. CentralNic^^ 3,079,555 (3,000,932)
10. GMO  2,087,633 (2,089,337)

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

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

Latest .com winners report

by — Domain Registrars 2 Comments

Here’s how domain name registrars peformed in January.

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 January 2021.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 978,334 (1,109,061 in December 2020)
2. Namecheap Inc. 291,257 (293,601)
3. Newfold Digital+ 212,014 (203,348)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 205,679 (188,512)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL)  169,363 (140,523)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 154,990 (169,862)
7. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 113,294 (88,149)
8. Dynadot 98,314
9. IONOS^ 79,960 (112,642)
10. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 73,360 (105,075)

I left Hongkong Domain Name Information Management Co off the list even though it had 91,467 new .com registrations. The site ICANN links to for this registrar has a 2017 copyright date, no SSL certificate, and a @qq.com email address. I’m going to assume these registrations are not from a public-facing registrar.

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

1. GoDaddy* 55,445,265 (55,136,925 in December 2020)
2. Newfold Digital+  14,525,308 (14,582,476)
3. Tucows** 12,977,992 (12,967,927)
4. Namecheap 7,175,485 (7,007,290)
5. Alibaba  6,122,968 (6,160,015)
6. IONOS^  5,773,208 (5,763,174)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,647,632 (4,582,174)
8. Google  4,193,876 (4,105,308)
9. CentralNic^^ 3,000,932 (2,951,343)
10. GMO  2,089,337 (2,100,966)

NameSilo crossed 2 million .com domains under management and is slightly below GMO.

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

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

Three takeaways from CentralNic’s annual report

by — Uncategorized 0 Comments

Company provides data about domain arbitrage, domains under management, and how much it earns from Google.

Images of ParkingCrew ad landers

Domain monetization through landers like these is powering CentralNic’s rise.

CentralNic (AIM: CNIC) published its annual report (pdf) with audited results today. The major numbers are all in line with unaudited numbers the company revealed last month.

There are a few additional data points in the annual report that I think are interesting.

First, CentralNic said domain arbitrage within its domain monetization business was up 35% last year. This is in line with overall growth in the monetization business. The monetization business serves 5,000 customers and managed 23 million domains and traffic sources last year. I suspect this includes domains that were monetized after expiration.

Second, it reveals that at the end of the year, CentralNic had about 28.8 million domains under management.

Third, Google accounted for over 40% of the company’s revenue last year. This is mostly due to being the primary monetization ad partner ($95.8 million), but the company also accounted for $4.8 million to its indirect channel (reseller) and $0.8 million to its direct channel. The report does not name Google but states that one company accounted for these numbers.

.Com finished last year with a bang – updated rankings

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

A strong month for .com.

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 December 2020.

Registrars had a strong December for new .com registrations. GoDaddy’s brands topped 1.1 million new .com registrations.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* 1,109,061 (NYSE: GDDY) (832,844 in November)
2. Namecheap Inc. 293,601 (263,785)
3. Newfold Digital+ 203,348 (232,929)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 188,512 (207,024)
5. Alibaba (HiChina) 169,862 (203,286)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 140,523 (144,030)
7. IONOS^ 112,642 (120,167)
8. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 105,075 (80,478)
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 88,149 (96,220)
10. NameSilo 87,778

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

1. GoDaddy* 55,136,925 (54,735,035 in November)
2. Newfold Digital+  14,582,476 (14,595,094)
3. Tucows** 12,967,927 (12,988,434)
4. Namecheap 7,007,290(6,856,440)
5. Alibaba  6,160,015 (6,133,679)
6. IONOS^ 5,763,174 (5,719,043)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,582,174 (4,513,069)
8. Google  4,105,308 (4,052,113)
9. CentralNic^^ 2,951,343
10. GMO 2,100,966 (2,149,198)

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

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News