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Registry-based .IO backorder service to shut down

by — Expired Domains 3 Comments

Change comes as backend registry services are transitioned.

Afilias is taking over backend registry services for Internet Computer Bureau (ICB Registry) and its three ccTLDs .AC, .IO, and .SH. This transition will take place on June 10.

As a result of the transition, there will no longer be a registry-run backorder service for .IO.

In DNW Podcast #136 I interviewed Mike Carson, who runs Park.io. Park.io is a country code drop catching service that made a name for itself with .io expired domains.

The current .io registry began offering its own backordering service after he started Park.io. However, the registry service wasn’t very domainer-friendly: there were no refunds if the current owner renewed the domain.

Nevertheless, .io shutting down its service should be good news for Park.io.

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The accidentally successful top level domain names

by — Uncategorized 19 Comments

Is there a lesson for new TLDs in the success of .io and .ly?

Over the weekend I was listening to last week’s DNW Podcast again and thinking about Mike Carson’s thoughts on ccTLDs that have taken off compared to new TLDs.

One thing struck me as I thought about this: some of the most used “repurposed” country code top level domain names actually weren’t marketed at all.

Let me explain.

By repurposed, I mean country code domain names that have been adopted by groups that like the extension but have nothing to do with the country. Examples include .io (adopted by tech companies because of the I/O connotation) and .ly (adopted by companies as a sort of domain hack adding -ly to names).

British India Ocean Territory and Libya didn’t set out to make their extensions the next cool thing through a marketing campaign. Instead, companies decided the names were cool.

We’re seeing the same thing with .AI right now.

This is a little bit different from a couple other remarketed domains like .co and .me. In both of these cases, entrepreneurs decided to repurpose the domains and market them. (This might be open to some dispute. I don’t recall if .me was taking off on its own before GoDaddy stepped in to inject marketing muscle behind it.)

Is there a lesson in this for new TLDs? Maybe. I’ve seen some success getting end user adoption through marketing. .Live comes to mind. So seeding a domain with marketing efforts makes sense.

But at the end of the day, you also have to be offering an extension that people want to use.

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About those .io domain names…

by — Uncategorized 1 Comment

Few tech startups understand the origins of their clever domain names.

David Meyer of Gigaom published a story this morning titled “The dark side of .io: How the U.K. is making web domain profits from a shady Cold War land deal.”

The story explains the country code top level domain name nature of .io and the history of its people. Technically, .io is for British Indian Ocean Territory, and the money flows to the British government.

The article is likely to be an eye opener for some of the tech firms using .io. Not just because of Meyer’s angle on how the people of the islands got screwed, but that the domain name stands for a location.

Country code domain names have become quite popular in the past decade. Some have risen to popularity as they’ve been commercialized (e.g. .tv, .me, .co). Others have become popular because they’re catchy (e.g. .ly, .io).

Few people realize the origins of these domains. I suspect that people would have been much more concerned with funding the government of Muammar Gaddafi than funneling money to the UK government for islands involved in a land deal that displaced a small number of inhabitants.

That’s not to mention the real threat owners of these domains faced during the Arab Spring.

If nothing else, I hope Meyer’s article opens up peoples’ eyes to the origins of their domain names.

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