This page last updated 2020 Dec 20
.

this unit is in the text "Current Issues in Marketing in the Information Age,  2nd. Edition" on page 233 - 246

..

Domain Names
	marketing issues	witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamesmktg.htm
	registration isses	witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamesregister.htm
	scams and problems	witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamesscams.htm
	scams, phishing	witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamephishing.htm
	domain name hacking	witiger.com/ecommerce/hackingexample.htm
	domain disputes	witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamedisputes.htm
	Verisgn problems	witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamephishing-verisign.htm

..

This web page has audio clips - just click on the icon (like the one to the left) and you can hear Prof. Richardson's voice adding additional information to topics on the page.

turn on your speakers to hear audio clips

...
...

.

.

This page used in the following courses taught by Prof. Richardson . MGT C50 MGT D06 CCT 322 IEC 702 IEC 818 CNET 204 MGD 415 FCA 240 MGS 523 MRK 619 MRK 410 BCS 555 TCS 301 BAM 101   o considerations to buying a Domain - name search   o what is a Domain Registrar   o why buy a Domain - advantages   o ICANN, CIRA, Internic.ca

...
 

	Intro to Domain Names		Domain Name Registration and  Hosting Issues
	How to register a Domain Name TLDs .com, .biz, .mobi		Choosing a Domain Name
			Domain Names Security and  Hacking Issues

 

Domain Name selection and registration basics

..  Antonio M., student in BCS 555 in November 2009, made a good 3 minute intro about some of the important considerations in selecting and registering a Domain Name. This clip is arranged in an informative way and would be useful to view before proceeding further in this unit. Link still works in 2020 and is very helpful information .

 

During the 4th week of December 2007, Richardson's comments to CP about Domain Names were carried at length in an article on the CBC and CTV websites. Richardson was quoted as saying  http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20071226/domains_names_071226/ (not working in 2019) was www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/071226/z122604A.htm

.vqs

"The .ca tag, said Richardson, has become the next logical step for net-savvy users already connected and interconnected on such social sites as Facebook and MySpace. "It's the whole empowerment thing of the Internet,'' he said. "As people realize that the ability to put content on their little Geocities web page and MySpace and Facebook is limited by the built-in software that those circumstances allow, they say, `I don't want to be limited by only putting up five pictures in a square.' "And they realize that they can just buy their own domain and put up their own domain however they feel like it.''

w

As a result of being quoted in the Dec 26th 2007 CP story on Domain Names,   Richardson's quotes ran in a number of newspapers (online and printed) throughout North America, including national sites like Yahoo.ca,  http://news.yahoo.ca/s/capress/071226/technology/technology_cyberfile_personal_domain_1 the Washington Post, and local papers such as the Edmonton Sun, Belleville Intelligencer, Lethbridge Herald, the Thunder Bay Chronicle, Halifax Daily News

.v

Domain Registration - Selecting a Name

"When deciding on a name for your business, think in the long term" Chpt 6, page 107 Creating Stores on the Web by Sawyer, Greely, Cataudella     o make your name easy to remember and short     o choose words appropriate to the circumstances     o don't use cute abbreviations for serious situations     o use your imagination     o try to incorporate nouns and short phrases that match           your existing promotional material

.

How to Choose a Good Domain Name?

Amelia N. Omri A. Raquel O. from MRK 410 in March 2004 found a good site stir.ca about picking domain names Everything You Wanted to Know About Domain Names from  www.stir.ca/webtips/website_domain_names.html (link not active)

m3.
How to Choose a Good Domain Name:

To help your website and business flourish, pick a domain name that:

1. Is easy for Web users to remember and find
2. Suggests the nature of your  product or service
3. Serves as a strong trademark so competitors won't be able  to use a business name or domain name similar to it.
4. Is free of legal conflicts with trademarks belonging to other businesses.

What makes a good domain name?
from  www.stir.ca/webtips/website_domain_names.html (link not active)

Good extension - If a person is surfing around looking for a site, and they know its name, most people will try .com. So, for the web site owner who wants their site to be found, the rule is: if at all possible, get a .com name.

Short - "Less than 7 characters, ideally. A simple name will roll off the tongue more easily in conversation, look more professional, and have less chance of being mis-typed. "

Easy to spell - "Make sure it passes the phone test: if you were to say the domain name of your website to a friend over the phone, would your friend be able to spell it correctly the first time without your having to spell it for them? If not, you’ve failed the phone test and should likely try a different domain name. Also, be careful about double letters. Take CyberRodeo, for example. Their domain uses a double R, as you might expect, but there is an uncertainty there. The two R’s together look a bit strange if written without capitalization, and a good name will not force the user to assume anything about the name. If you must have a double letter, the best solution is to buy both versions of the domain. Avoid using dashes in your domain name. "

Descriptive - "A good site or business name will describe exactly what the site is about. In most cases it's important for a person to be able to get some sort of sense what the website is about just by reading the domain name. Of course that logic doesn’t work for sites like ebay, amazon, ivillage, etc, but then again you likely don’t have a multi-million dollar budget to help you brand your name and teach people what it means."

Keywords – "Include descriptive keywords that describe your business, product or mission in your domain name. This will play a very small part, in some cases, in increasing your search engine ranking for search phrases that include the keywords used in your domain name. "
.
Do's and Don'ts when registering a domain name for your business
 

Wenbin L. in BCS 555 in Sept 2004, found a good site www.associate-design.com about Do's and Don'ts when registering a domain name for your business. The site that Wenbin found is run by Richard Fincher.

rtv

Richard Fincher  www.richardfincher.com Fincher is the original author of this list as posted on www.room101.co.uk/ still active in 2020

j .

How to Choose  a Good Domain Name  for your business?

Do's and Don'ts when registering a domain name for your business from Robert Fincher 1. "Make sure that your provider is a reputable company that has been trading for some years". There have been may takeovers and bankruptcies in this business and you do not want to lose your domain because the registrar no longer exists. 2.  "Think carefully before going with a company offering a "loss leader" service." If the price is too low, they may not be a legitimate company. 3. "Ensure that once you have registered your domain name, you are allowed to transfer it to another provider, and that there are no expensive "release fees" to do this. " Fincher explains "Later, when you have your site built, you may very well need to change provider. Some providers offer a tiny registration cost but a large release fee, so that they " catch you out" down the line." 4. "When you register your domain name, always put the correct legal name for your trading operation." Sometimes it is wise to do a corporate name search to make sure the name you select is not used slightly differently by another existing business 5. When you register your domain name, you will be asked to put down an email address.  Fincher advises "Don't put down an email address based on the domain name you're registering, for instance, if you're registering amce.co.uk, don't put the contact email down as "me@acme.co.uk". Also, try not to put down an email address which is part of a free, quota-limited webmail service such as hotmail. This is because occasionally, very important emails (such as renewal reminders) will come to this address, and if your quota is full on the day such an email arrives, you may miss it and lose your domain name as a result." 6. "If you've registered a domain name in the past, try to make sure that the provider you chose has your latest email address.... which is to ensure that you don't miss a renewal reminder email." permission to link, and quote, was given by R. Fincher in an email 2004 Sept29

.

.

.Keeping your Hosting Service separate and distinct from your Domain Registrar. Usually, in the class that accompanies this unit, Prof. Richardson will explain the advantages of keeping your Hosting Service separate and distinct from your Domain Name Registrar. see also ISP Hosting Service witiger.com/ecommerce/ISPs.htm see also Domain Name Registration witiger.com/ecommerce/domainnamesregister.htm After explaining in class one time about the advantages of keeping your hosting service separate from your domain registration service, I received an email from a student who came up with a good way to explain this. Annie F. in BCS 555 in Oct 2004 emailed to say.. "I just thought of a really good analogy for the difference between a hosting service and a domain name registrar.  Say, you want to make a website.  This website would be regarded as a movie star in our analogy. Then a domain name registrar would be the star's agency because without registering, you basically are nothing.  Then, a hosting service would resemble a movie producer, as this is where all the work goes....I wish I wrote this one the test!" Kindly regards, Annie F.  Witiger responds "yes, thanks Annie, that is a good analogy, and sometimes the Agency and the Producer have different objectives which might not be good for the Star so this is why you want to make sure they are not the same person"

Keeping your Hosting Service separate and distinct from your Domain Registrar

..  Jeff G., student in BCS 555 in October 2005 is a member of a young band (Salemsouth). They were considering getting a domain name to have their own website. Jeff emailed Prof. Richardson Oct 3rd to say " i just wanted to let you know that me and the band (salemsouth) have decided to choose our domain name separate from our hosting service mainly because of what i learned in that class. Now i know that if i have a problem with the hosting provider i can switch to another one without the worry of loosing my domain name. I found that there could be many reason to do this to, slow service, they jack up the prices, or if the band ever changed locations."  Witiger responds - yes, good example Jeff, if your band starts to load a lot of MP3s on the site, and you begin to get a lot of hits, you might want to switch hosting plans in order to get a better rate - if your hosting was also with the domain registrar, they might give you a hard time about cutting off your hosting cause then they'd be losing money if you got hosting someplace else. They might delay switching the IP address, or might incorrectly re-name the DNS servers - any number of things to cause you to think it might be better to just stayy with their hosting.

bb

Keeping your Hosting Service separate and distinct from your Domain Registrar

Another point of view pic submitted by Timur Timur (Tim) .K., student in MGD 415 in Feb 2010 at U of T Mississauga Campus emailed some thoughtful points about why he disagreed with the strategy of having your domain registrar seperate from the hosting service. Timur explains I would like to  summarize my arguments for using the same provider for both hosting  and domain registration. 1) Convenient, all in one place. Choose a provider that you like and  stick with him! Makes finances, logistics and life easier. 2) Provided you keep a back-up of your site (which all webmasters do  by default), the hosting provider has no leverage to 'black-mail' you   at all. 3) The process of registration essentially happens between you and the  registration body directly. I have done this numerously with various  servers and it's always the same process. The provider simply fills  out the paper-work, transaction fee and takes a little cut. 4) The tendencies for comapanies today is to cater to every need, and  reward such consumer choices. By buying everything from one site, you  are ultimately going to run into savings. 5) Hosting ranges anywhere from 5/6-9/10 dollars a month. This means  that the MAXIMUM fluctuation is around 4/month and 48/year. This is  nothing considering how much an effective provider can contribute to  your business. The possible costs of using a cheap/unreliable provider  are likely to exceed 48/year very easily for almost any business. Witiger responds - yes, those are valid points - when i gave the advice about the alternate strategy, it was in the context of not knowing how much traffic you might have on a site, and worrying that you might want to switch to another provider for better rates - kinda like not getting locked into a 3yr plan for your cell phone.

 
 

KEY POINTS

We do we spend so much time and space discussing the registration of domain names? Its a bit like buying an expensive Italian motorcycle and focusing only on financing the cost of buying the bike, without any consideration for licensing and insurance costs which are necessary in order to be "legal" to ride it.   Your web site is first of all a location in cyberspace, www.something.com. If the "something" is not secure, then your web site does not exist. WTGR

.

Reasons for having your own Domain

"You will want to own your own domain for several reasons, the biggest of which is that it will give you a more professional-looking store and a Web brand name to promote. You will be taken more seriously and customers will find you more easily" Chpt 6, page 125 Creating Stores on the Web

.

KEY POINTS

By owning your own domain, you will also have some degree of independence, and can minimize your risk. You can have independence from a particular hosting service. If the service has problems, or increases the fees and you wish to change then your domain has to change from www.hosting company.com/~mybusiness to www.otherhosting company/~mybusiness If you own the domain, then you can change hosting services and www.mybusiness.com hosted by hosting company to www.mybusiness.com hosted by other hosting company is invisible to the viewer/customer Minimizing risk relates to the competitive economic environment in which hosting companies exist. If, for some reason, your hosting company goes bankrupt, or is bought out, then you hosting may change from www.axxent.com/~mybusiness to www.pathway.com/~mybusiness Technically, this would change all the links on your site and would therefore effect navigation. You would also need to re-register with various search engines and directories otherwise customers would be forwarded to the old URL WTGR

th

Domain Registration - Selecting a Name

Some people launching an internet commerce venture are also concurrently launching a business. In this case, the process you go through to develop a domain will involve consideration of the legal name of the company and the "legal entity" under which you will carry out your business.   KEY POINTS . As discussed in BCS 421 www.witiger.com/senecacollege/BCS421.htm Before you incorporate a company, you have to do a Name Search to see if the name you wish to use is available So before you check the various online sources to determine if the domain is available, you need to first begin with the company name and see if that is available. In Ontario, before registering a provincially incorporated company, you need to do a corporate name search. Conducting such a search will also help you determine if there are any other legal entities (companies, partnerships, sole proprietorships) which have a similar name, which might subsequently set up a web site which might be similar in identification with your's. .

.

This is a screen capture from one of the companies that provides NUANS name search services for companies that need a search done - in order to incorporate  click on this screen capture to read more about NUANS

from http://www.legallink.ca/ - in 2009 changed to http://www.cyberbahngroup.com/

"NUANS Name Searches are printouts that are required by Government offices in order to incorporate a company. NUANS is an acronym taken from the words "Newly Upgraded Automated Name Search". It was a system developed in order for Industry Canada to search and maintain its ever-increasing corporate name file.

A NUANS report is a five-page document that includes a list of corporations, business names, and trademarks that appear and sound similar to the name you are proposing. This list is taken from a national data bank of existing corporations, business names, and trademarks  in Canada. This report must be ordered and submitted to the pertinent jurisdiction, along with your incoorporation Articles when you go to incorporate your company. The report has a life of 90 days from the date the NUANS report was requested."

The process is to pay $75 to the company to confirm the name you want is available. Then you take the PDF printout of the search results when you go to the Ministry to register your corporate name.
 

Registering  a name - the name search  process

. Vlado M. (younger brother of Igor M. CCT322 2006) was in MGD415 in March 2008. Vlado emailed some helpful information about the process of ascertaining if a name is "free", before you legally register it to incorporate. While you can pay companies like NUANS a fee, Vlado found one site that enables you too look up existing TradeMarked names free. Vlade said in his email "the Canadian Intellectual Property Office(CIPO)  http://cipo.gc.ca/offers a free trademark search. All you have to do is type in the name you are interested in using, and it will provide you with a list of any current trademarks. Furthermore, any attempts to trademark that name will also come up in the search results. It is a really great service and once again it is completely free. The CIPO also publishes weekly Trademark Journals which compile all trade mark applications for the week, and allow the public to review them, as well as file disputes." "The CIPO website offers a lot of great services and should be looked at if you ever plan on filing for a trademark, copyright, or patent."

.

Registering  a name - the name search  process

.

click the audio icon to hear an explanation of more detail describing the difference between how the NUANS and the CIPO cover the list of company names

.
 

Selecting a Name - Int'l considerations

. Naseem Javed , writing in E-Commerce Times May 28th, 2004 discussed some considerations for selecting a domain name that fit international considerations. www.ecommercetimes.com/story/34074.html (link still works Dec 2020) Javed has a list of 6 considerations, a couple of his suggestions are relevant for us to follow

.

#4 global "domainization" and how do you expand your reach? Javed suggests you consider "How many domain names do you have, and why? The art of cyber-branding now demands sharp skills in the areas of domain registration and Web site management. Multiple domain names create multiple problems in multiple markets. There are rules to be followed. Great opportunities are missed by not having a sophisticated naming system for global cyber branding." Javed recommends "... to solve this problem, have a proper system in place to manage global complexity. Be aware that there are too many fancy services offering strange global registrations and localization, and most are flaky, faceless and without references." # 5 linguistics, and why do they embarrass your international customers? Javed exlains "A site name in one country can mean something entirely different when it circumnavigates the globe. How do you tackle such language issues? The answer is to acquire skills and a deeper understanding of global communications. Even if you're a regional player, your sites are still visible and exposed to the entire world. Cyber branding is an extremely global phenomenon."

.

KEY POINTS

When Prof. Richardson was developing www.larkhill.com back in 1999 it was considered that one of the possible markets was Japan - so, the translation of larkhill into Japanese was done in order to understand any possible negative or positive consequences. "Higari ga oka" is what Larkhill means in Japanese and interestingly it is the name for a high class residential neighbourhood in Tokyo, which would fit the branding plans of Larkhill.

sd.

Domain  Names the "new" names                     Domain  Names the "new" names

UPDATE FEB 2002. Web adds seven new TLDs By Albert Leonardo  Feb 2002 "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved seven new top-level domains (TLD) just over a year ago, [fall 2001] and they will soon appear on a  computer screen near you. And with their arrival, laws governing the Internet may soon be getting a serious workout.  The seven TLDs are  .biz,  .info,  .name,  .pro,  .aero,  .coop and  .museum.  Leonardo explains "... despite the variety it is the .name phenomena that has several intriguing possibilities. It is being touted as an individual’s digital identity, as users can create a personal Web site and e-mail address. Pre-registration ended on Dec. 17 [2001] and was to take effect on Jan. 15 [2002]. The approach of assigning the names was done much as with an e-mail account, in that it was on a first-come, first-serve basis. The system works on a two-dot system, Frank Smith’s domain name would become frank.smith.name, and his e-mail address would become frank@smith.name. Individuals have to register with an accredited ICANN registrar, the official registry."

Domain  Names the "new" names .MOBI

UPDATE FEB 2006. Ecommercetimes.com reported the launching of .mobi "New .mobi Domain Approved but Challenges Remain" title of a story written by John P. Mello Jr. in July 2005 "The new domain will be administered by a company called mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd, of Dublin, Ireland, which reportedly will have 20 to 25 people and an annual budget of US$10 million to run the operation."

Domain  Names gTLD ccTLD

UPDATE Sept 2009.  gTLD and ccTLD gTLD means the global Top Level Domains, like .com. net .org ccTLD means the country/region TLDs like .ca .uk .jp  . click on the screen capture of the wikipedia page to see an easy layout of the current gTLDs  and the  ccTLDs

Domain Registration Process Apex Organizations

ICANN    The internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsability for IP address space allocation,  protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract. .  KEY POINTS ICANN is at the top of the complex pyramid of the global domain name and Internet addressing systems. you are required to go to the ICANN site and read  www.icann.org/general/ .

Domain Registration Process in Canada an example  of a  domain  registrar

Below, we feature Internic.ca. There are now (2009) several ways people can sign up for registering a domain in Canada, we feature internic.ca because they are one of the largest, and the people involved with the company were part of the initial efforts to register dot.ca domains in the 1990's. Robert Hall is owner of Internic.ca which allows companies to register domains as .ca or .com. Hall says many good .ca names are free and weren't taken because of the longer regulations to register them. Hall's people at Internic.ca are allowing people to pre-book new .ca names when the system gets opened up in November 2000.

At the same time, 41,000 dot.ca domains that were registered under the old system had not re-registered, which means there may be a lot of really good dot.ca domain names become available.

Domain Registration

if your name is not available in .com, .net or .ca, then you can check it with other countries +, if you do not want to be "found" in whois, you can register your domain name privately, this is used when people want to avoid dealing with cybersquatters

.
 

Domain  Names . the "new" names

NSI - Network Solutions Inc. In the beginning, NSI was contracted by the U.S. government to assign domain addresses for .com, .net, .org etc. Europeans didn't like this and other regions protested as well. In June 1998 NSI's monopoly ceased. The company created a registration system which is shares with other companies. "Deadline's Counting Down on .ca Domains" is the title of Toronto Star writer Rachel Ross' Sept 18th, 2000 article In the past, Canadians wanting to register a .ca name had (typically Canadian) a lot of rules and regulations. As a result, 80% of the registrations Canadians were taking out were going to the .com space - which is "money going out of the country" said the president of Tucosws (which also does registrations).

Domain  Names the "new" names

The following information was supplied by Jennifer W. from MRK 610 Feb 2003 . "Making Choices: Should I Register a dot-com or a dot-ca Domain Name?" from  http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ee00175e.html .  Until December 2000, most Canadian companies registered dot-com names instead of dot-ca names. This was partly due to stringent registration rules for dot-ca domain names and to dot-com’s general Internet popularity. However, today, dot-ca domain names are increasingly becoming the number one choice for people and organizations.[in Canada] As the registration rules for dot-ca domain names became less stringent in the Fall of 2000, people, businesses, and organizations of all types began to choose dot-ca names over dot-com names. In December 2000, CIRA had 60,000 dot-ca domain name registrations. By January 2002, that number had increased to over 260,000. That’s still a far cry from the millions of registered dot-com names, but it means that Canada’s Internet name space will be there for you when you need it. Odds are that a domain name you may want to use will be available as a dot-ca but not as a dot-com.  Having a dot-ca name immediately identifies an organization as being Canadian. This is useful for companies targeting markets within and outside Canada because Canada is well respected and liked around the world. Despite a wider selection and availability of dot-ca names, organizations should consider registering, if possible, a domain name in more than one domain using some of the available TLDs. This approach will help ensure that potential customers can easily locate the organization’s website. "

On this page there are several quotes from ecommercetimes.com. Permission was given by Richard Kern, Associate Publisher of the E-Commerce Times,  in an email to Prof. Richardson 2004 Dec 10th,
a hard copy of the email is kep on file in Richardson's permissions binder.

witiger.com	CONTACT I MAIN PAGE I NEWS GALLERY I E-BIZ SHORTCUTS I INT'L BIZ SHORTCUTS I MKTG&BUSINESS SHORTCUTS I TEACHING SCHEDULE
	.
	MISTAKES I TEXTS USED I IMAGES I RANK I DISCLAIMER I STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS I FORMER STUDENTS I PUBLICATIONS I TIPS I
	.

  Prof. W. Tim G. Richardson © www.witiger.com