PALM BEACH, FL -The rise in prominence of artificial intelligence in the tech industry has proven to be a significant boon for Anguilla, which has seen a huge spike – and along with it, a lucrative revenue stream – from companies and organizations seeking to register the small Caribbean island nation’s top-level domain (TLD) of “.AI.” This development has been making headlines in the press, but Anguilla isn’t the only country with a TLD that is desired across the globe for … [Read more...]
Threads.com Acquired by Facebook Parent Meta; Expected to Redirect Soon
MENLO PARK, CA - Meta, the parent company of Facebook (which changed its corporate name in October 2021 to align with its vision for the "metaverse"), has acquired the domain "Threads.com" for its X (formerly Twitter) competitor, Threads. Originally, Meta launched the service using the domain "Threads.net" due to the prior ownership of Threads.com by another company, which was running a cloud-based team communications platform. In June 2024, the company that owned … [Read more...]
How to Write a 301 .htaccess Redirect for URLs Containing Particular Character
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - AI is incredible. It can help you with just about anything, including writing programming codes. I've been blown away several times by the power of Artificial Intelligence these days, and it keeps getting better and better. Recently I needed to write a specific redirect for a weebsite and I was not sure how to do it, so I checked with ChatGPT. The answer was a as easy and writing the question and waiting about 3-4 seconds. How could I write an … [Read more...]
New 2024 Global Domain Report Notes “Game Changing” Industry Insights for “.AI”
CAMBRIDGE, MA - InterNetX and Sedo Have released their 2024 Global Domain Report, which breaks down the domain industry and examines trends and shifts that are expected in the upcoming year, with the main emphasis being placed upon tech developments and the evolution of AI and its growing influence upon the internet. The free-to-download 80-page report – of which this article will provide a brief summary – noted that 359.8 million new domains were registered in 2023, … [Read more...]
Hackers Take Control of Computer Network At Missouri Hospital; Demand Ransom
KANSAS CITY, MO - Liberty Hospital in Missouri fell victim to a grim cyber assault Tuesday when a menacing blackmail message from a hacker resulted in a disruption of its computer systems. A message from an anonymous source targeting the hospital warned, “We have hacked you and downloaded all confidential data of your company. Your reputation will be ruined. Save your business. Contact us within 72 hours.” This message itself was uncovered exclusively by KMBC-TV, an ABC … [Read more...]
Google’s New “.meme” Top-Level Domain Allows Users to “Express Themselves”
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -For anyone who wants to add an element of silliness to their website address, Google Registry is giving them the opportunity to do so with the release of the new top-level domain “.meme.” While a meme is classically defined as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,” in recent years popular culture has put a slightly different spin on the phrase, using it more to identify an amusing or interesting … [Read more...]
How Expired Domain Names Have Been Used to Redirect to Malicious Websites
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Expired domains or domain names which have not been renewed by their previous owner are encountered by all of us often – most times we just don’t notice it. When we do, we open a website only to find out it no longer exists. We are redirected to a site with links on it, or it showcases a sales page for auction of the domain name. These types of websites are generally considered harmless, but recent research proves otherwise. In a report released by … [Read more...]
It’s Only A Matter of Time Until You Need to Be Licensed to Operate A Web Server
PALM BEACH, FL – I have been thinking about this off and on for a few years now, but I have never really posted or written about it. That is because it is an awful prediction that I hate the idea of, but I think it is going to eventually happen. Here it goes…. I predict that to operate a web server sometime in the near future, you will be required to have a license, or have passed a basic course in IT security or Cybersecurity intrusion mitigation. Not at the single site … [Read more...]
Email Phishing Campaign Using Legitimate Top-Level Domain to Evade Spam Filters
PALM BEACH, FL – A sophisticated email phishing campaign is making the rounds while evading email filters by using a Google domain redirect. According to ThreatPost.com, a leading source of information about IT and business security, the campaign uses percentage-based URL encoding to deceive users. The campaign makes use of what’s called percentage-based URL encoding – a basic URL-encoding technique in which normal ASCII characters (i.e., “abc” and “123”) are converted … [Read more...]
.Club Registry Reports 2019 Domain Sales; Let’s Look at What’s Parked vs Developed
PALM BEACH – It’s always interesting to see what people are purchasing in the domain space, and then even more interesting is to look at how much they've spent and what they’re doing with that acquisition, especially when it comes to the controversial new gTLD space. According to OnlineDomain.com, the “.Club” domain registry folks have reported their 2019 domain sales including a big one namely, "Business.Club" - all of which sales are listed at sold.domains. Let’s … [Read more...]
Hallmark Continues to ‘Cash-In’ On Premium Holiday Web Name “Easter.com”, Or Does It?
WEST PALM BEACH – Originally registered in 1998, the domain name “Easter.com” redirects visitors to the Hallmark.com website where conveniently Easter cards and gifts are highlighted. This is a good use of a premium domain name, outside of development of course. Hallmark has owned this domain name since at least 2010 when it was highlighted by Domain Name Wire. Out of curiosity, I decided to visit it this morning to see what’s there. A good question to ask, if even … [Read more...]
Redirecting Domains with Backlinks Helps SEO; Google Doesn’t Want You to Know
NEW YORK – Morgan Linton’s blog caught my eye this morning as it discusses the redirecting of domain names for SEO, an often hotly debated topic. I find this topic especially interesting as it appears to me that Google often dances around the truth with explanations of what works and what doesn’t. Google’s new webmaster PR guy is John Mueller who basically replaced Matt Cutts in a publication relations capacity with webmasters around 2015 when Cutts was on leave. I’ve always … [Read more...]
Google Say’s Don’t Buy Domains for Past Rankings; Knows When They Change Hands
NEW YORK, NY – In an article that came out in Search Engine Roundtable the other day, long-time search marketing expert Barry Schwartz points out that a Google employee named Aaseesh, tasked with monitoring Google’s Webmaster Central Help Forum, posted a comment which suggests that Google zaps a domains ranking juice, not only when the domain expires (which most have already suspected), but also when the domain merely changes hands or is sold. This adds a new layer of … [Read more...]
Alphabet Releases App to Prevent DNS Manipulation, Deter Online Censorship
NEW YORK, - Google’s Alphabet has released a new Android app called “Intra” which prevents “DNS manipulation”, a process used often by ISPs to redirect invalid domain name resolution to their own version of branded search results, usually accompanied by search engine ads – when used nefariously, it is also a tactic of hackers who steal and redirect users to phishing sites or to otherwise dupe them into downloading viruses and spyware. The app is made available by a company … [Read more...]
New gTLD Domain Sales from Major Marketplaces; What’s Developed?
NEW YORK, NY – Another list is being published today; this one is for new gTLD domain names which have been recorded at NameBio. All off these transactions have taken place over the last five years and this list ONLY contains the sales which are listed at NameBio - there are many hand registered and private or unrecorded domain sales which will not be here. Note: I only examined 100 domains max from each extension, highest dollar amounts first. Here is what I looked … [Read more...]