Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
German
GeoDomain Website Wins $7,500 First Prize in the 2009
.INFO Awards Contest
Earlier
this monthwe
told you that final voting was underway in the 2009
.INFO Awards, an annual contest conducted by
.INFOregistry operator Afilias, to
recognize the best .INFO websites around the world. With
$15,500 in prize money up for grabs, the contest
attracted more than 50 entries hailing from 18 different
countries. The last round of voting began after judges
whittled the field to ten finalists with the public then
choosing the three prize winners.
When
the smoke cleared, voters awarded the $7,500 first
prize went to Thueringen.info,
a travel information portal in the Thuringia area
of Germany. The second place prize of $5,000
was awarded to
GPS-Tour.info,
a peer to peer file sharing service where people, tourist
regions or organizations can share and download outdoor
GPS tours. The $3,000 third place prize went to Turkel.info,
a travel and tourism marketing agency in the United
States.
Afilias
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Roland
LaPlante said, “.INFO has proven itself as a useful
and vibrant top-level domain with millions of great Web
sites. Our 2009 award winners embrace the global need for
sharing information on a domain that is intuitive and
makes information easy to find. These unique
characteristics are what make .INFO an attractive address
and ultimately makes .INFO Web sites successful.”
Afilias’ Board of
Directors Chairman Philipp Grabensee, who
was on the panel of judges, added "I was
impressed with the broad range of information
presented in the candidate sites. .INFO is truly a
preferred address for those wishing to get their
information out in a memorable manner.”
Congratulations
to the winners and we also think Afilias deserves kudos
for encouraging and rewarding .INFO development with their
annual contest. For all of the newer TLDs, the key to
growth is widespread adoption and development within their
extensions. Useful content rich websites will attract
visitors and over time build recognition of the TLD,
spurring others to build sites in the extension as
well.
One other note today,
in yesterday's
Lowdown post we mentioned that the
domain CFJ.com had just been stolen from Andrew
Rosener's GoDaddy account. We are happy to be
able to follow up today with news that GoDaddy
helped Rosener quickly recover his domain. This
morning Rosener (who operates MediaOptions.com)
told us, "Getting the word out and preventing
the domain from being resold is the most important
factor in a timely recovery. I must say that I am
really impressed with how Godaddy handled the
situation. It has been just over 12 hours
and they just notified me that the domain has been
recovered and reallocated to my account."
Rosener added, "We
are still trying to sort out how exactly they were
able to get into my account, but it appears to
have been done using Keylogger spyware software
that was somehow installed on my computer.
They
closed a deal with a
buyer on NamePros.com and then went in and
initiated the change of Registrant. Luckily,
I was able to catch it early enough that the
domain, although it had changed registrants, was
still at Godaddy and they could lock it down."
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Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
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