Several interesting notes have come in about Google entering the registrar business. One astute reader pointed out that Google already has a business unit targeting the domain name industry: Google Adsense for Domains.

From the Google page: "AdSense for domains allows domain name registrars and large domain name holders to unlock the value in their parked page inventory. AdSense for domains delivers targeted, conceptually related keywords and advertisements to parked domain name pages by using Google's semantic technology to 'understand' the meaning of each domain name. Powering over 3 million domain names, AdSense for domains is the industry's leading parked page service."

Allen Weiner, research director with the Gartner market research firm: "I will boldly tell you this threatens an already declining radio market...The only things that will be left for the radio market are live sports and very topical news talk things.''

Literally. The First Annual Tournament of Books (via Mighty Girl).

This is interesting: scroll down to No. 895.

EFF: Endangered Gizmos! Must reading. How many do you (did you?) own? (via Susan Crawford).

And, special bonus reading from Wendy Seltzer: "With just five months left until the broadcast flag, EFF is staging a build-in: Build your own high-definition video recorder that lawfully ignores the broadcast flag."

ICANNMardelPlata.com: "The April 4-8, 2005 ICANN meeting will be held in the city of Mar del Plata – ARGENTINA, a city located on the Atlantic seaboard 400 km. South of Buenos Aires....In order to make sure your hotel reservations, and domestic travel arrangements to get to and from Mar del Plata once you are in Argentina, are correctly coordinated, please follow the instructions on this website...."

From the 'Whoa' Department: The Social Customer Manifesto: Another Baby Step Forward: A Zero Configuration, All-In-One Podcasting Device For About $25 That My Mom Could Use. Very cool.  I like where this is going.

MEETING NOTICE:  "The gNSO Council has approved the organization of a meeting to develop comments on the ICANN Strategic Plan by interested attendees from the constituencies. The meeting may also include guests from the At Large, other SOs or the community who have indicated an interest in attending...."

Five .NET applications for review and comment here.

Or at least that could be the headline after ICANN's January 24th Board Meeting. On the agenda is possible decision on the acceptance of the sTLD bids for .ASIA, .CAT, and .XXX. They each present unique issues, and it's no surprise that they are among the last of the sTLD bids to reach a decision point.

.ASIA and .CAT are both proposals to represent regional and/or cultural areas through a sponsored top-level domain, and they're on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. Catalonia is exactly the sort of small, specifically defined area for which a sponsored TLD is perfect, while Asia is the largest, most populated area in the world. Is a "sponsored" TLD appropriate for both? As regional areas, both proposals also brush up against the concept of ccTLDs. Personally, I hope they are both accepted. But if they are, I would expect that the idea of carefully defined countries, governments, and boundaries on the Internet -- now embodied in the country codes -- quickly will give way to an incredible diversity of regional and cultural sTLDs. That's not a bad thing. How about .ONEWORLD?

The decision on .XXX may be one of the most difficult ICANN has ever made, and you can expect ICANN to be criticized whatever it decides. I imagine that many of the countries participating in the GAC aren't ready to be part of a decision that will endorse a space for pr0n on the Internet. The fact that .XXX could be a political hook on which the governments of the world could hang Internet zoning laws could make the decision more palatable, but it's still a political minefield for ICANN. Again, I hope the proposal is accepted, but it's going to take a great deal of courage to do that.

Kieren McCarthy, writing in The Register: "[T]the issue of who will get to run a big chunk of the Internet is far bigger than ownership and power - it also has an intriguing political angle...."

From the "Oh, Really, Tell Me More" Department: "'The transition to NGN breaks apart all our current regulatory schemes for interconnection, and this is going to bring major challenges for policy and regulators,' says Robert Shaw, the ITU's Internet strategy and policy advisor. 'There is a lot of important technical work to be done to ensure that various parts of the NGN work together and the ITU is in a pole position to coordinate that work,' he says. 'The Ciscos, the Junipers, the big telcos and Internet service providers, they all want to do this work at the ITU,' says Mr. Shaw."

ICANN Press Release: ICANN Receives Five Applications to Operate .NET / 19 January 2005 / ICANN today announced that in response to a request for proposals (RFP), it has received five applications to operate the .NET Top-Level Domain for a term no less than six years....(bidders identified below)   more »

The next meeting of the ICANN Board will take place on Monday, 24 January 2005, by closed teleconference. The agenda includes:

• sTLD Applications Review: .ASIA, .CAT, .XXX;
• RegistryPro Request to Launch ENG.PRO Domain for Engineers;
• Delegation of .TL (Timor-Leste);
• Redelegation of .FK (Falkland Islands (Malvinas);
• ALAC Appointment Confirmation;
• ICANN Strategic Plan Update;
• .NET RFP Update;
• Other Business.

A preliminary report on the results of the meeting should be published by January 28th.

Jothan Frakes, writing on CircleID: "As of my last count, there are five companies that I am aware of that submitted proposals for the .NET rebid...."

From IDG News in Australia: "Melbourne IT has acknowledged that it was partially responsible for a Web domain hijacking that left a New York Internet hosting company without an Internet address over the weekend...." Very detailed report.

Marketwire: "Public Interest Registry announces the availability to register .ORG domain names containing the umlauts ä, ö and ü. The technical systems transition to the IDN standard went exactly according to plan....."

Cööl.

DENIC Submits Bid for Management of .net Top Level Domain