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Google's new domains can really put a price on a .meme
Nyan Cat and Grumpy Cat already have dedicated websites.
Google's domain name registrar is out of beta after seven years
To mark the occasion, you can get a discount on a single domain registration.
Microsoft bought corp.com to keep it away from hackers
To save its corporate clients potential security-related headaches down the road, Microsoft has purchased the domain corp.com. First reported by security researcher Brian Krebs, the company confirmed the purchase on Tuesday but didn't say how much it had paid to acquire the domain. It had a $1.7 million starting price when it was first listed in February by a man named Mike O'Connor who had owned it for about 26 years.
New York orders Craigslist to remove ads for fake COVID-19 treatments
It's no secret that coronavirus-related scams are flourishing (the FCC put out a guide to avoiding them), and New York is now applying legal pressure to stop them. State Attorney General Letitia James has ordered Craigslist to "immediately remove" ads that either sell fake COVID-19 treatments or engage in price gouging on items like hand sanitizer. James also asked Craigslist to outline all its "proactive efforts" to spot and clamp down on these ads.
The price of a .com domain is set to rise, and some sellers aren't happy
If you're the sort who buys domains for fun, or to inspire you to start a future project, your hobby's about to get a little pricier. ICANN is just days away from ending a consultation into the future of the .com top-level domain that'll put an end to Obama-era price freezes. If successful, it'll see the cost of a .com address rise by two bucks by the end of 2026, and potentially more thereafter.
Congress worries sale of .org could harm non-profits
Control over the .org internet domain is close to changing hands, and American politicians aren't happy. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden have joined Rep. Anna Eshoo in sending a letter demanding answers over the Internet Society's sale of .org and the Public Interest Registry (which manages the domain) to a private equity firm, Ethos Capital. The congresspeople want everyone involved to both outline how transparent they'll be as well as assurances that they'll keep the domain accessible, neutral and safe for non-profits.
Google’s .new shortcut now works with sites like Spotify and Microsoft
Last year, Google introduced .new shortcuts that made it easier to create a new Google Doc, Sheet, Slide, Site or Form -- simply enter the file type you wish to create into your browser and tack .new onto the end. Last week, Google brought the feature to Calendar, and now it's expanding it to other sites like Spotify. Soon, any company or organization will be able to register a .new domain to help their users start tasks faster.
GrubHub is buying web domains for the restaurants it lists (updated)
GrubHub's bid to conquer app-based food delivery may be hurting the web presences of the restaurants themselves. New Food Economy has discovered that GrubHub and its Seamless sub-brand have been acquiring "thousands" of web domains linked to restaurants, over 23,000 of which belong directly to GrubHub. Most of them are close or identical to the eateries' actual names, effectively preventing the locations from buying an address they might want to use.
Google makes mobile-first search indexing the default for new domains
Google started its mobile-first search indexing over a year ago, and now it's ready to make that approach the law of the land. As of July 1st, 2019, Google will index the phone-oriented sites by default for any new web domain it registers. If you're starting a new site, you'll want to be sure its mobile version is polished and full-featured -- that's the version Google will use to parse the site's structure and extract useful snippets.
'State Snaps' founder convicted over armed plot to steal a domain name
Last year, the man who staged an armed robbery in an attempt to seize control of doitforstate.com was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Soon, the court will also sentence the mastermind who asked him to break into the domain owner's home and force a domain transfer at gunpoint. A jury has convicted Rossi Lorathio Adams II of "conspiracy to interfere with commerce by force, threats and violence." The Iowa native founded a social media company called State Snaps while he was attending Iowa State University, where students would shout "do it for State!" when their peers would do things they'll later regret.
Google's fast-loading AMP tech won't hide original web page links
You might like Google's quick-loading AMP pages, but site owners aren't always thrilled when it frequently buries their web domain. They might be more receptive in the future, though -- Google is rolling out support for a feature that displays the original domain while maintaining that speedy AMP tech. It relies on signed exchanges that let sites trust documents (such as pages and cookies) as if they belonged to a given site's origin, ensuring that you see the actual page address without losing functionality.
Rudy Giuliani blames Twitter for his spectacular typo fail
Rudy Giuliani, once Trump's "cyber advisor," has again demonstrated his lack of even the most basic internet knowledge. In part one of a three-act blunder, he tweeted about special counsel Robert Mueller, but left out spaces between the sentences, accidentally creating the random link "G-20.In." (Twitter automatically generates clickable text out of valid links.)
Man goes to prison for attempting to hijack web domain at gunpoint
Internet domains are becoming increasingly desirable, especially as the web becomes crowded and it becomes harder to find memorable addresses. However, one man unfortunately took this to a violent extreme. Iowa resident Sherman Hopkins Jr. has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for attempting to steal control of doitforstate.com (which doesn't currently point anywhere) in an armed robbery.
France faces lawsuit for seizing France.com
When a country or company seizes a web domain, it's frequently to kick out squatters who do little besides place ads and hope they'll get a giant payout. However, France is taking on someone who was actively using a site -- and it may have crossed a line. The country is facing a federal-level US lawsuit from ex-pat Jean-Noël Frydman after it seized France.com from him in March. Frydman had been using the domain as a "digital kiosk" for France-loving Americans ever since he bought it in 1994 and had even partnered with French government agencies, but his homeland sued in 2015 as part of a bid to take control. While an appeals court ruled in September 2017 that France.com violated French trademark law, there was no warning ahead of the seizure from either France or Frydman's registrar Web.com.
Google auto-detects your whereabouts to get local search results
The country codes in Google's top-level domain names don't mean anything anymore. The tech titan has moved away from relying on country-specific domains to serve up localized results on mobile web, the Google app for iOS, as well as Search and Maps for desktop. Now, your location dictates the kind of results you'll get -- you could go to google.com.au, for instance, but if you're in New Zealand, you'll still get search results tailored for your current whereabouts. You'll know the location Google recognizes by looking at the lower left-hand corner of the page, as you can see above.
Twitter suspends account used for 'Daily Stormer' updates
The white supremacist website Daily Stormer keeps popping up, and like a bad game of whack-a-mole, the internet keeps trying to rid itself of the stain. Web hosting company GoDaddy dumped the domain itself, and even though the neo-nazi site briefly resurfaced as a Russian .ru domain, it is no longer available on the regular web. Now, Twitter has suspended an account, @rudhum, that provided Daily Stormer updates.
Elon Musk buys his old X.com domain from PayPal
Elon Musk is without a doubt the most famous single-letter domain owner ever, as his company X.com eventually became PayPal. Unfortunately, when Musk was pushed out, the domain (with its aught-tastic logo, above) stayed behind with PayPal. However, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has bought it back for an unknown sum, according to Domain Investing and a tweet by Musk. Nobody's saying how much he paid, but as a term of reference, Z.com sold for around $6.8 million three years ago.
Apple buys and shuts down Asian social network iCloud
In a bid to direct every conceivable iCloud domain towards one website, Apple has bought the rights to iCloud.net from a small Chinese social network.It was one of the few iCloud related sites not owned by Apple, and AppleInsider reports that the tech giant paid $1.5 million in order to acquire the domain. With its network no longer having a home, the Chinese company announced that it is shutting down its services for good on March 1st. The independently owned social network had been operating since 2011.
Facebook, Google urge Congress to hand over internet control
On October 1st, the US is supposed to hand the "keys" of the internet to ICANN, and Congress is not happy about it. The mostly Republican lawmakers, led by Ted Cruz, feel that ceding control will stifle online freedom and give power to authoritarian governments. However, technology companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter penned an open letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to hand internet domain control to the international community as promised.
Apple is buying up Apple Car domains
If reports are to be believed, we can expect Apple to enter the automotive market by 2019. Before then, it appears the company is doing what it can to stop opportunists from derailing its plans. MacRumors reports that it's begun buying up domain names related to the fabled Apple Car, snatching up including apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto amongst others. A quick WHOIS search confirms they've been registered by staffers at 1 Infinite Loop over the last month.
