Computer Business Review: "While an IPO seems likely at some point, Go Daddy going public would essentially reverse the trend of the last couple of years, which have seen the company's two biggest competitors shuck their ticker symbols in favor of a return to private life. Register.com Inc, for example, fell to a bid from boutique turnaround firm Vector Capital last year. The $200 million deal took the company off the Nasdaq, although Vector's track record would suggest a return to public life is likely once Register has been sufficiently shaken down. Two years earlier, VeriSign sold all but 15% of Network Solutions, the former incumbent domain name registrar, to Pivotal Private Equity, for about $100 million. The only remaining US-listed company primarily known for domains is Tucows, of Canada."

Rachel Rosmarin, writing in Forbes: "What Makes GoDaddy Go?"

RTTNews: "NeuStar Inc., an essential communication services provider to the Internet and communications industry, revealed that it entered into a definitive merger deal to acquire Virginia-based UltraDNS Corp., a domain name systems - DNS provider for $61.8 million in cash. The company expects the acquisition to be accretive by the first quarter of 2007, inclusive of the amortization of intangibles on acquisition."

A lot of people seem to believe that registrars monitor the availability queries at their sites and, for those queries that don't result in a sale, register the name for themselves. Here's a recent thread on just this subject. Every registrar employee to whom I've spoken about this denies it happens and says that with tens of thousands of availability queries every day and tens of thousands of registrations every day, the issue of someone querying for availability, walking away, and then having someone else register the same domain name days later is bound to happen....frequently. Perhaps someone can post a comment below or link to an article that could explain the registration process and why domain name "sniffing" doesn't occur.

The Nominating Committee has issued a formal call for Statements of Interest.

Here's a new Board-type I'd like to see: the young Internet user. The Board needs someone under the age of 25. Seriously. These are the kids people who have grown up on the 'net, and they use it differently than the old folks we do. They are not represented on the ICANN Board, yet they represent the majority of sophisticated Internet users. So don't be shy about putting your name in just because you have a full head of hair and can still read 8-point type. ICANN needs you.

Public Interest Registry: "Public Interest Registry (PIR), the .ORG registry, a not-for-profit corporation, announced today the first of multiple planned .ORG outreach initiatives in Latin America, commencing in Quito, Ecuador on May 18, 2006. 'ORGanize 2006: Strategic use of the Internet for the .ORG Community' is designed to create confidence and build awareness in the Internet as well as educate the not-for-profit community on the benefits of the .ORG domain."

If you've been reading Mike Arrington's TechCrunch, which focuses on the so-called "Web 2.0," you've undoubtedly noticed a resurgence in the creation of fanciful company names. Fanciful, no doubt, because more descriptive names have already been registered in .COM. Take a look at just the last week's entries: Renkoo, Zillow, Automattic..... What's interesting, to me, is that the names are new, not aftermarket.

Marketwatch: "Go Daddy Group Inc., an Internet-domain registration company infamous for its risqué television ads, has hired Lehman Brothers to manage an initial stock offering, according to three people familiar with the firm's plans."

Motley Fool: "Go Daddy has been able to carve out an edgy marketing campaign but it is still, ultimately, working in a cutthroat commodity business. Let's just hope that if the company does in fact go public that it's not just an exit strategy, but rather an approach to fund expansion into more lucrative areas."

From Computerworld: Lack of communication from ICANN could prove fatal.

Bob Parsons: "What happens when you match an inept registry with crafty businessmen? The answer is a really large scam."

John Kane: "I'm sorry Bob feels the rules weren’t slanted towards him."

Elliot Noss: "The registry was well-warned as to what was going to happen. And then it did; it was no surprise."

fortinbras47: "I think the basic issue is that the price of a domain name is significantly below the market value.... A more efficient way to initially allocate major domain names might be to run an auction." (via Slashdot).

spietreser: "Today .EU went live! I thought it'd be nice to start a thread where everyone can show off the .eu names they got. So... who got what?" (via DNforum).

John Berryhill, writing on the ICANN Registrars' list: "As of this morning, we are one million registrations into the first TLD designed to be a mis-type of another TLD. Go check the status of your favorite .EDU name in the .EU registry."

He's right. Check the .EU whois. EUrid received landrush registrations for university names like "ucla.eu" (University of California at Los Angeles) and "uark.eu" (University of Arkansas) and "utexas.eu" (University of Texas) and, my law school alma mater, "vanderbilt.eu" (Vanderbilt University). In fact, my not -so -scientific random -sampling study of university -names -not -likely -to -have -equivalents -in -Europe (like "uidaho.eu") suggests that every university name in .EDU was registered in .EU in the TLD's first days of open registration.

The U.S. Government has extended the current phase of ICANN's IANA contract for six more months. Importantly, this is not a renewal of the contract, simply an extension of the existing contract. The extension ends on September 30, 2006, the same date that ICANN's MOU with the United States expires.