Google owns the shortest domain ever

We’ve covered the world’s longest domain, but what about the shortest? That prize goes to g.cn, a name Google purchased some time ago to make it easier for Chinese users to access Google.cn.

There are other one-letter domains, such as Nissan’s z.com and PayPal’s x.com, but both of these are on three-letter extensions. China’s .cn is two, making g.cn the shortest domain in use.

Having such a short domain is important for attracting users unfamiliar with English. But with the upcoming launch of Chinese IDNs, g.cn is set to become redundant. But hey, if Google plans on leaving China, who cares, right?

Source | ValleyWag

Go Daddy to stop offering .cn domains

In a Google-esque move, Go Daddy will no longer offer .cn domains to customers. The announcement was made by spokesperson Christine Jones during a testimony to Congress yesterday.

The domain registrar made its decision in light of China’s increasingly strict registration requirements, including copies of identification and in some cases, a valid business license. According to Jones:

We were immediately concerned about the motives behind the increased level of registrant verification being required. The intent of the procedures appeared, to us, to be based on a desire by the Chinese authorities to exercise increased control over the subject matter of domain name registrations by Chinese nationals.

My guess is Godaddy isn’t really concerned about censorship, but rather found a good opportunity to jump on the PR bandwagon. Although the company has some 27,000 .cn registrations, these names only make up less than 1% of its revenue. It knows that the new requirements will made selling the domains much harder, so it probably opted to drop .cn and look good at the same time.

Photo | pushbeyond

More restrictions placed on .cn registration

China, which has seen rapid growth on its .cn domain, has made news lately for its attempts to cut down on illicit .cn websites. Recently, new rules were instituted requiring prospective domain owners to submit paper application. Now the People’s Republic has gone even further. Domain applicants will now be required to submit a photo ID and possibly meet in-person with the government.

This is all an attempt to regulate content on the .cn extension, which recently saw rapid growth and virtually became the top ccTLD overnight. The new requirements should cut down on the number of new registrations heavily, however, and it is unlikely that China will keep its #1 spot.

Source | Domain Name Wire

China takes more steps to censor .cn domain

China has been cracking down on pornographic and other illicit content on its .cn domain lately, but now the country has taken things one step further. The government has hired some 600 temporary workers to manually check all 14 million names on the extension for pornography and inaccurate registration records.

How long will this take? Not as long as you might think. Assuming each check takes 5 minutes, the process will take 1,944 hours, or 81 days of non-stop checks. This means that unless illegal content is hidden well, expect .cn to soon be the cleanest ccTLD out there. China had previously relied on volunteers to report pornographic content.

China shuts down 775 adult domains

In an effort to put a stop to online pornography, the Chinese government has shut down 775 pornographic domains in the last three days. This swift action is the result of the country’s new domain name complaint center, where concerned citizens can rat out adult websites.

The center is operated by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and is staffed 24/7. The CNNIC has also introduced a new requirement for .cn domain registration. As of December 14, all newly registered domains must be accompanied by a written application. New registrations will not become active until the application is approved by the government.

While China sees the need to rid itself of adult websites, will it really stop people from viewing this sort of content? After all, it can only control the web within its borders. With a simple proxy, anyone can get around the country’s content filter and view objectionable content from any other part of the world.

Source | People’s Daily Online

Domain registrations grow amid recession

Despite the recession, domain names continue to grow. Though the number of TLD registrations last quarter was only 1% more than the quarter before, compared to last year, new registrations have gone up by 9%. This growth easily outpaces most industries.

ccTLDs also saw similar growth, increasing by 1% this quarter and 14% since this time year year. The most popular domain by far is still .com, however. Next in line is China’s .cn extension followed by Germany’s .de.

It will be interesting to see how the new gTLDs affect the growth of current TLDs and ccTLDs. It could lead to a decrease if the system catches on, but my guess is this won’t happen. It will probably have little if any impact on current extensions, for now, at least.

Photo | vilen001

Watch out for the Chinese domain scam

Domainers, take note: a new domain scam is making its rounds across the web. This time, the culprit is a Chinese domain registrar trying to recruit more customers.

The victim will usually receive a seemingly polite and well-meaning email from a “domain name register center” in China. The message will mention the recipient’s domain, then reveal that a local company is trying to register the .cn or .com.cn version.

We are Shanghai Foo Network Information Technology Co.,which is the domain name register center in China.I have something need to confirm with you.

We have received an application formally.one company named “Bar (China) Investment Co.” applies for the domain names(www.example.cn www.example.com.cn etc.),and the Internet keyword(example) on the internet September 17,2009.We need to know the opinion of your company because the domain names and keyword may relate to the copyright of brand name on internet.

we would like to get the affirmation of your company,please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

Needless to say, the goal of the email is to con the cybersquatting-paroid into buying a Chinese domain from the registrar. If you get a message like this in your inbox, delete it and go on your merry way.

Source | Tech Republic

Photo | ZaNuDa

Chinese Language TLDs Coming

China is moving full speed ahead in its plans to introduce a top-level-domain in the Chinese language. Like the current .cn TLD, the new country domain will use two characters. There have been technical hurdles to implementing Chinese characters in TLDs, but the China Internet Network Information Center now seems confident that it will happen.

As part of ICANN‘s push into the future, they recently announced plans to promote country domains in character sets other than the current standard Latin characters. China expects to make the new TLD its standard within two years, fully replacing the current .cn. They also expect them to become the most widely used by Chinese Web users.

China has recently come under a lot of fire for the wide usage of .cn domains to send SPAM and malware. The Chinese government says that it is handling the problem. One reason that cyber criminals prefer .cn, whether they are Chinese or not, is that the domains are extremely cheap, sometimes going for as low as USD$0.15.

Source: ComputerWorld
Photo: Flickr

Germany's .de gains position of top ccTLD

Germany is not only the most populous country in Europe, but is now the operator of the Internet’s most popular ccTLD with more than 13 million registrations on its .de domain.

For years Germany held the number one spot, but recently lost its position to China’s .cn extension, which experienced a huge spike in registrations after the government discounted its price to only 1 yuan per year.

Now the discount program has been discontinued, and .cn registrations are dipping– from 14,082,553 in February to 12,545,589 at the end of July. This decrease mainly consists of domainers who took advantage of the low cost a year ago, but chose not to renew their names at the higher rate this year.

Source | Domain News