The Canadian domain name registrar and Web hosting provider Avantex (www.avantex.org) announced on May 11 that it has reduced the price of its .com, .net and .org domains to $0.99 per year. The special price is available only to Avantex’s hosting customers.
The Associated Press (www.ap.org) announced on May 10 that the Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman has won control of the Internet domain name MorganFreeman.com (www.morganfreeman.com) in a ruling issued by a United Nations panel. Arbitrators for the World Intellectual Property Organization (www.wipo.org) ordered the transfer of the domain name to the American actor, who had complained that it was being used in bad faith to divert Internet traffic to a commercial search engine.
The North Carolina-based domain name registrar and Web hosting provider AITDomains.com (www.aitdomains.com) announced on May 10 that it is now offering new domain registrations for $1, along with a year's worth of hosting service. The special promotion is part of AITDomains.com’s initial foray into the hosting market, providing low-cost plans geared toward small businesses.
The Irish Web hosting provider Novara.ie (www.novara.ie) announced on May 9 that it has been awarded the .ie Domain Registry’s (www.domainregistry.ie) inaugural Annual Achievement Award. The award, which includes a trophy and a check for 5000 euro, is presented to the customer who made the most significant contribution to the growth and development of .ie in the past year. Novara.ie was chosen for 2004 because the company showed significant growth in .ie domain registrations, while improving service to its .ie customers with the development of an automated customer interface, .ieXpress.
Iron Mountain Incorporated (www.ironmountain.com) announced on May 9 that its Intellectual Property Management business unit (www.ironmountain.com/ipm) has gained ICANN accreditation as a registrar of domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org) is a non-profit corporation that currently manages approximately 470 accredited registrars.
The Web hosting provider The Planet (www.theplanet.com) announced on May 2 that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org) has accredited The Planet as an official domain name registrar, authorizing the company to provide a full range of domain name services. The Planet is making those services available through Orbit (www.theplanet.com/orbit), its customer portal for remote management and control. New .com and .net domain names are immediately available for $5.99 per year of registration. The Planet will soon offer additional TLDs such as .org, .info, .biz and .us.
The domain registrar and Web hosting provider GoDaddy.com (www.godaddy.com) announced on April 26 that it has surpassed Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com) in total domain names under management, to become the world's No. 1 ICANN-accredited domain name registrar for the .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .us domain extensions, according to a statistics reported by the domain industry analyst Name Intelligence, Inc (www.nameintelligence.com).
The largest ICANN-accredited wholesale domain name registrar Tucows, Inc. (www.tucowsinc.com) announced on April 26 that it will host a conference call on Wednesday, May 4, to discuss its first quarter fiscal 2005 financial results.
The Web hosting provider Brinkster (www.brinkster.com) announced on April 25 that it is offering free domain names for life when signing up for a Web hosting plan. With the promotion customers can select up to seven domain names with the extensions .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us and .ws, depending on the plan chosen. Customers have the option of signing up for the $4.95-a-month Personal Plan with three free domain names, the $7.95-a-month Professional Plan with four free domain names, or the $17.95-a-month Developer Plan with seven free domain names. The domain-names-for-life promotion will continue through April 30, 2005.
The Web hosting provider Netfirms, Inc. (www.netfirms.com) announced on April 21 that it is offering .ca domain names for $9.95 per year. In addition to the discounted domain names, customers will receive technical support, Web-based DNS management, Web hosting and Web-based email. Netfirms is introducing its new .ca domain pricing during an unprecedented growth period in the market. This past March, the 500,000th .ca domain name was registered in Canada according to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (www.cira.ca).
