.us DoC to Award .US contract by 10/25

[airwav]

With a month remaining on the Neustar agreement the issue of GD/Alliance takeover seems dead. It seems to me that this should be the time that the supporters of the GD/Alliance takeover should be rallying for this effort.

Any suggestions of what we could do to support this issue?

 

[CreativeWeb]

Can you elaborate on this? You've sparked my interest..

 

[airwav]

Can you elaborate on this? You've sparked my interest..

Search this forum for NeuStar

 

[fonzie_007]

I'm surprised no rep from GD has visited NP to solicit support for this...

 

[NameCharger]

Can you elaborate on this? You've sparked my interest..

http://www.namepros.com/dot-us/359446-contacting-the-doc-regarding-changing-guard.html

 

[CreativeWeb]

I'm not sure what to think of it... I don't think .us has been promoted that well, so I guess it could be good

 

[fonzie_007]

Victoria and others,

Has anyone actually tried contacting their Reps and Senators on this? I'm just curious what experience you had with it and if you had any advice about who to exactly speak with. I haven't had time to do all of my research necessary to figure out the answer to this question.

Fonz

 

[airwav]

Victoria and others,

Has anyone actually tried contacting their Reps and Senators on this? I'm just curious what experience you had with it and if you had any advice about who to exactly speak with. I haven't had time to do all of my research necessary to figure out the answer to this question.

Fonz

I have contacted my Congressman and state Senator.

Seems to me that the DoC position has to be clear, I just hope they take the appropriate action, we should see soon

 

[start me up]

Hopefully the DoC will decide they don't want the United States of America to be associated with a company that uses scantily-clad females and sex to sell their product. While it's true that Alliance would have a built-in retail channel...I think morality is also a major point when you're talking about the internet presence of the country.

 

[dsiomtw]

Yeah, I guess it's better to just have .US languish for another 5 years. Better that no one use it or know it exists than to have GoDaddy promote it like crazy and make it a household name.

 

[acc]

Yeah, I guess it's better to just have .US languish for another 5 years. Better that no one use it or know it exists than to have GoDaddy promote it like crazy and make it a household name.

:lol:
:bingo: Sometimes intelligent sarcasm just makes the point so much quicker. :notme:

 

[Cronus]

Hopefully the DoC will decide they don't want the United States of America to be associated with a company that uses scantily-clad females and sex to sell their product.

Really. And that is only the least of GoDaddy's problems IMHO. I think they are a miserable registrar, and to make them the .US Register would be worse. It is also a conflict of interest -- I don't think a company should serve (or hold a significant stake in) both roles. I realize that .com/.net is run by Verisign, who also owns a big registrar, but that is an unfortunate historical legacy. GoDaddy has all sorts of dirty tricks for denying transfers between registrars already, and I can see them bending the rules as .US Register to unfairly benefit themselves. I can also easily imagine them pulling something like Verisign's infamous Sitefinder initiative. In my experience, GoDaddy is even more mercenary than Verisign. They don't and won't care about what is best for the .US extension, just what is best for their bottom line.

I'm not a Neustar fan either, but I will say that my dealings with Neustar have been much more pleasant than with GD. One time I posted a question to this board related to .US zone file access, and they quickly responded with useful information. How many other registers do that?

 

[acc]

Really. And that is only the least of GoDaddy's problems IMHO. I think they are a miserable registrar, and to make them the .US Register would be worse. It is also a conflict of interest -- I don't think a company should serve (or hold a significant stake in) both roles. I realize that .com/.net is run by Verisign, who also owns a big registrar, but that is an unfortunate historical legacy. GoDaddy has all sorts of dirty tricks for denying transfers between registrars already, and I can see them bending the rules as .US Register to unfairly benefit themselves. I can also easily imagine them pulling something like Verisign's infamous Sitefinder initiative. In my experience, GoDaddy is even more mercenary than Verisign. They don't and won't care about what is best for the .US extension, just what is best for their bottom line.

I'm not a Neustar fan either, but I will say that my dealings with Neustar have been much more pleasant than with GD. One time I posted a question to this board related to .US zone file access, and they quickly responded with useful information. How many other registers do that?

Wow. It seems that when people get a bug up their butt about a registrar it really gets up there. I am sorry for your bad experience(s).
In my many-year and many-domain dealings with GoDaddy both online and on the phone I have had positive experiences. What needs to get done gets done. If you follow procedures names get transferred in and out. It takes place many thousands of times per day. When you register a name with a registrar you agree to their policies. Follow them and there shouldn't be a problem. If there is a glitch once in a while then get it resolved.

What is good for GoDaddy (i.e., profits from greatly increased registrations and renewals of .US names through marketing and promotion compared to the currently-lacking exposure at all) is not bad for the extension or domainers. After five years of virtually-no-promotion, broken promises, and loss of opportunities it is time to get the .US extension rolling and help it get to reach its full potential. (Only 25% of its potential would still be amazing.)

Germany - population 80 million - .de registrations = 11 million
UK - population 60 million - .uk registrations = 6 million
USA - population 300 million - .us registrations = 1.3 million ... ??? million with proper promotion

GDP (in millions): (from World Factbook)
Germany - 2,362
UK - 1,782
USA - 11,750

Anyone else see any room for .US improvement over the current situation?

Granted with their earlier introductions .de (1994) and .co.uk (1996) have had a head start on the .us (2002) - but given the invisible marketing of the .us extension by the current registry (which has undoubtedly contributed to its underutilization) there is only one way to go - UP.

I hope that GoDaddy and Afilias get to run the .us extension.
.

 

[stscac]

acc, you make a great point about proper promotion. If you take a look, .com is the replacement for .us
volvocars.us is the only promotion that I have seen on television lately for the .us extension.

So, who do you think is going to get the .us domain name extension???

-Steve

 

[Cronus]

Wow. It seems that when people get a bug up their butt about a registrar it really gets up there. I am sorry for your bad experience(s).

I have had plenty of bad experiences with GoDaddy, but I wouldn't be happy with another big registrar such as Moniker, Enom, or Verisign running the US registry either.

GDP per Capita: (from World Factbook)
Germany - 2,362
UK - 1,782
USA - 11,750

Thanks for citing your source, but those Yahoo factbook numbers don't seem credible. Do you really believe that the US per capita GDP is less than $12K or that it is almost seven times as high as the UK?! These numbers from the CIA World Factbook look more reasonable:

United States - $43,800
Germany - $31,900
UK - $31,800

Anyway, I agree with the frustrations many people have with Neustar. I just don't think an Afilias/GD combo would be any better. Take a look at their Alliance Registry site. They posted news for two weeks after their announcement, and haven't bothered to post any in the two months since then. If they can't show any enthusiasm while they are trying to win the contract, what makes people think they will somehow get better once they have already won? Also, Afilias runs the registry for .info, which isn't exactly taking the end-user market by storm. It has more registrations, but much of that is due to 99 cent promotions which allow domainers (and also scammers and some crazy SEO schemes) to register huge numbers cheaply, keeping them out of the hands of actual end users.

 

[airwav]

I have had plenty of bad experiences with GoDaddy, but I wouldn't be happy with another big registrar such as Moniker, Enom, or Verisign running the US registry either.

Well, there is that old saying about opinions err, everyone has one...

As far as GoDaddy customer support, they are great. In comparison, Cronus, have you ever used NeuStar support?

All I have to say is Go Daddy! :sold:

 

[Cronus]

In comparison, Cronus, have you ever used NeuStar support?

I have dealt directly with Neustar support twice this year. In ticket number #512-912, I asked them about zone file access. They promptly sent me a form, which I returned to them, and within a week I had the zone file. In ticket #525-544, they contacted me about .US nexus compliance for several of my domains. I sent them the docs they asked for (I'm a US citizen and resident) and three days later they responded that "as a result of our review, we are satisfied that the document you have provided meets the Nexus requirements. Thank you for your timely response and understanding of this process."

So I can't fault their customer service, at least from *my experiences*. YMMV.

If GoDaddy wants to market .US (and I highly support that!), let them do so as a registrar.

I'd be happy for Neustar to be replaced with a company more enthusiastic and competent. I'm just not convinced that GD/AF are any better from my experiences dealing with all three of these companies.

 

[acc]

Thanks for citing your source, but those Yahoo factbook numbers don't seem credible. Do you really believe that the US per capita GDP is less than $12K or that it is almost seven times as high as the UK?! These numbers from the CIA World Factbook look more reasonable:
United States - $43,800
Germany - $31,900
UK - 31,800

Good catch, the figures were supposed to be labeled "GDP" not "Per Capita GDP". My mistake.
Here are the Yahoo factbook's Per Capita GDP numbers which are similar but a probably just a bit older:
US - $40,100
UK - $29,600
DE - $28,700

Here's the total GDP numbers in dollars. (Note: Yahoo numbers are probably from about 2004 or 2005, as the 2006 US GDP is listed elsewhere as approximately 13 trillion dollars.)
USA - $11,750,000,000,000
UK - $1,782,000,000,000
Germany - $2,362,00,000,000

So while the total US GDP is seven times as large as the UK's GDP, there are only less than one-fourth as many .US domains registered compared to .co.uk
domains.

Lot's of room for .US to grow.
.

acc, you make a great point about proper promotion. If you take a look, .com is the replacement for .us
volvocars.us is the only promotion that I have seen on television lately for the .us extension.

So, who do you think is going to get the .us domain name extension???

-Steve

If the DOC follows the typical path of least resistance like other government bureaucracies - it will remain with Neustar.

 

[Fundraiser]

I'm surprised no rep from GD has visited NP to solicit support for this...

Anyway, I agree with the frustrations many people have with Neustar. I just don't think an Afilias/GD combo would be any better. Take a look at their Alliance Registry site. They posted news for two weeks after their announcement, and haven't bothered to post any in the two months since then. If they can't show any enthusiasm while they are trying to win the contract, what makes people think they will somehow get better once they have already won?

They were smart enough to realize the public site might get some views but perhaps not a lot of activity. Instead, a lot is going on behind the scenes as the alliance has directly reached out to some dot us registrants to engage them in the process, sought input and actually utilized that counsel in strategic initiatives. This alone should provide registrants some assurance that at least they have looked at registrants as key stakeholders. Whether that would continue if they were to win the contract remains to be seen but have you ever heard of another registry actively seeking input and then actually using it? What a concept.