#icann — Web Hosting News

All web hosting articles tagged #icann — 41 results.

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Automattic Is Not an Owner of the WordPress Marks It Asserted in Court, a Judge Rules
Natalia Nowak · 29 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
#automattic#web-hosting#wordpress
The September 24 order brings back four antitrust claims the same judge had dismissed in an earlier ruling. It also holds that Automattic and Mullenweg are neither owners nor registrants of the WordPress marks, so they cannot assert them in their own right.
Articles tagged #icann
1–20 of 41
Industry reports
DropCatch Added 300 Registrars. It Now Holds 45 Percent of All ICANN Accreditations.
by Natalia Nowak · 28 Sep 2026 · 7 min read
TurnCommerce's DropCatch added 300 registrar accreditations in one batch, its first since 2016. IANA's list shows 1,501 of 3,321 accreditations carrying its name, and 1,552 on its infrastructure, against 519 on Newfold's SnapNames.
Industry reports
ICANN Confirms 1,616 gTLD Applications Proceed. Reveal Day Expected by October 14.
by Natalia Nowak · 23 Sep 2026 · 8 min read
ICANN's September 22 count puts the 2026 gTLD round at 1,616 paid applications out of 1,663, smaller than 2012's 1,930. Reveal Day is due by October 14, the schedule promised for mid-September is now promised for the week of September 28, and contention will be settled without private auctions.
Industry reports
Verisign Will Delete 22,000 .name Domains That Are Paid For. Two Registrants Are Fighting It.
by Łukasz Nowak · 21 Sep 2026 · 9 min read
Verisign has ICANN's permission to delete every third-level .name domain in existence, the john.smith.name form the registry launched with, along with the email forwarding service that let a registrant receive mail at [email protected].
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Aruba Applied for 39 TLD Strings. The Private Auction That Won It .cloud Is Now Banned.
by Natalia Nowak · 10 Sep 2026 · 4 min read
Aruba, the Italian host that runs .cloud, told Domain Name Wire it applied for 39 strings in ICANN's 2026 round, among them vps, demo and pec. It won .cloud in a private auction, the route the new rules ban, which leaves an ICANN auction or a free switch to a fallback.
Pricing updates
Verisign Lifts .net Wholesale From $10.91 to $12.00, Effective March 1, 2027
by Natalia Nowak · 31 Aug 2026 · 3 min read
A one-line 8-K raises .net wholesale from $10.91 to $12.00 from March 1, 2027, the first increase since February 2024. With 12.5 million registrations renewing at 78.7%, the step is worth up to $13.6 million a year, and resellers have six months to reprice.
Industry reports
Five Registrars, Half the Blocklisted Domains, and a Dispute Over the Count
by Natalia Nowak · 25 Aug 2026 · 9 min read
Interisle counts 8.5 million of 2025's 85 million new gTLD domains on blocklists, with five registrars accounting for half of them and rates ranging from 3% to 88%. ICANN's scientists dispute the scale and the method, while two policy processes target the bulk registration the report documents.
Industry reports
Namecheap Wants 40 Top-Level Domains, and 15 Overlap With Rival Portfolios
by Natalia Nowak · 20 Aug 2026 · 7 min read
The second-largest registrar is moving up the chain with 40 top-level domain applications. Fifteen of them overlap with portfolios published by rival applicants, though two of those rivals filed more than three hundred strings each, which is most of the explanation.
Industry reports
Telegram Applies for .gram After a Sanctions Listing Took Down t.me
by Natalia Nowak · 19 Aug 2026 · 7 min read
A single Telegram channel address in a US sanctions filing took the whole of t.me offline for nineteen hours. Telegram's answer is to apply for its own top-level domain, but a registry contract does not move a company out of the jurisdiction that caused the outage.
Industry reports
ICANN Banned the Private Deals That Ended Most 2012 gTLD Contests
by Natalia Nowak · 17 Aug 2026 · 7 min read
More than 1,600 applications arrived before ICANN's window closed, but the bigger change is the rulebook. Private resolution of contention sets is now prohibited, and unlike its 2012 predecessor the Guidebook says nothing about where the auction money goes.
Industry reports
Web3 Naming Bids for the DNS Root, and ICANN Names Its Price
by Natalia Nowak · 13 Aug 2026 · 6 min read
ICANN's study group concluded that blockchain naming can integrate with the DNS root, but only if the same string stays under the same owner in both systems. Days before the deadline, ENS reorganized into a foundation to pursue .ens as a closed brand domain, with the earliest launch in 2028.
Industry reports
Running a Domain Costs About a Dollar a Year. Here Is What Eight Registries Charge for It.
by Natalia Nowak · 6 Aug 2026 · 7 min read
We compiled the published accounts of eight domain registries. Three independent data points put the cost of operating a domain-year at about a dollar; wholesale prices run from €1 for .de to $11 for .org after its first increase since 2016. Governance, not technology, sets the price.
Industry reports
$227,000 to Apply for a New Domain Ending: The First ICANN Round Since 2012 Closes August 12
by Natalia Nowak · 31 Jul 2026 · 4 min read
ICANN's first new gTLD window since 2012 closes August 12: $227,000 per application, country names banned outright, cities needing government letters. Bali wants .bali, and ICANN 87 lands on the island in October, where the bid is due to be announced.
Industry reports
Parked Domains Lost Their Ad Engine. What Replaced It Is Drawing Scrutiny.
by Natalia Nowak · 27 Jul 2026 · 8 min read
For a decade, parked domains earned money showing Google ads. On February 10, 2026, Google ended AdSense for Domains and the parking economy collapsed: Bodis closed, Sedo's revenue fell 66%, Team Internet's search revenue fell 63%. The traffic moved to zero-click redirects ICANN is now examining.
Industry reports
Verisign Finally Won .web. Unlike .com, No One Caps Its Price.
by Natalia Nowak · 24 Jul 2026 · 6 min read
On July 22, after a decade of litigation, Verisign won .web. It arrives as the company posts a record .com quarter, and unlike .com, whose price is capped by a US government agreement, .web has no such ceiling. What a freely priced premium domain under the .com monopolist means for the market.
Industry reports
A Government ID for Every .ru Domain, and a Warning for Every Country Code
by Natalia Nowak · 22 Jul 2026 · 4 min read
From September 1, everyone holding a .ru domain must verify their identity through a Russian government system or lose the name, and foreign owners are the ones most exposed. It is a blunt reminder that a country-code domain carries the politics of the country behind it.
Industry reports
Which Top-Level Domains Are Worth Carrying? The Abuse Data Most Registrars Never Book.
by Natalia Nowak · 9 Jul 2026 · 8 min read
A wide TLD lineup looks like pure margin, but Spamhaus data shows that in extensions like .bond and .lol nearly the whole zone is registered and discarded within months. The reputation, deliverability, and abuse-desk costs are real and unbooked, and ICANN is moving to make them explicit.
Other
Namecheap Ends Handshake TLD Support as Web3 Domain Projects Retreat
by Natalia Nowak · 11 Jun 2026 · 6 min read
Namecheap pulled Handshake TLD support on June 10, five months after selling its Namebase marketplace. HNS trades at $0.005, down from $0.85 in 2021. Unstoppable Domains says blockchain names were "part of the crypto craze" that never crossed into mainstream usage.
Industry reports
ICANN Meets June 8. One Proposal Could Force Registrars to Investigate Every Customer Tied to a Single Abuse Report.
by Łukasz Nowak · 4 Jun 2026 · 7 min read
ICANN is debating a rule that would require registrars to investigate every domain from a customer when one is flagged for abuse. Seville (June 8-11) is where that debate begins in earnest. The gTLD window closes August 12.
Other
ICANN Is Opening the Door to New Domain Extensions for the First Time in 14 Years. Here Is What Hosting Providers Need to Know.
by Łukasz Nowak · 13 Mar 2026 · 6 min read
The application window for new generic top-level domains opens April 30, 2026 — the first opportunity since 2012. With a $227,000 application fee, new rules banning closed generics and private contention deals, and .com prices rising again, the domain landscape is about to shift. Hosting businesses should be paying attention.
Industry reports
Atom plans AI-powered domain registrar
by Mr. WHT · 2 Jun 2025 · 2 min read
Big news for domain investors and startup founders: Atom, known for its domain marketplace and branding platform, has officially become an ICANN-accredited registrar. The company shared the announcement on its LinkedIn profile, marking a fresh start in the domain space.
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