It looks like South Sudan's Top Level Domain is going to start allowing direct registrations! Long-time readers of this blog will know that it's possible to register .me.ss domain names - there are various other 3rd level domains you can buy. But, from the 1st of August 2024, you'll be able to apply for a 2nd level. So you'll be able to grab example.ss. Here's the official announcement. As …
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In linguistics, a "False Friend" is a word which looks similar in multiple languages, but means something different in each of them. For example the word "gift" in English means "a present", in German means "poison", and in Norwegian it means "married". The Internet uses Top Level Domains (TLD) to organise information into hierarchies. This website uses .mobi - you may also be familiar with .com …
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Many years ago, Google applied for the .zip Top Level Domain. ICANN, in its infinite wisdom, granted it. And now, I think, bad things are going to happen. You see computers try to be helpful. They see you wrote "visit example.com" and autolink the thing which looks like a domain name. That's handy - especially as most people don't have the time or skill to write HTML. So what happens when…
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I'm concerned about the longevity of the domains I register. I want my domains to be available for as long as possible. But it seems that every year prices rise - and the discount often provided for a new domain rarely continues into subsequent years. So I recently started renewing them for as long as possible. It turns out that most domains can be registered for a maximum of 10 years. A…
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Short domains are useful for security testing. If you only have a limited number of characters, you need to be able to reference code on a remote server in as few characters as possible. A few years ago, I tried to find a Minimum Viable XSS. The conclusion that I (and others) came to is that 20 characters is the bare minimum. But it requires you have a 2 character domain name on a 2-character…
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The ridiculous proliferation of TLDs (Top Level Domains) continues unabated. I wondered how much you'd have to spend to secure your name on every TLD. tl;dr;tld Over $300,000! (Roughly €280.000 / £245,000.) But... This estimate is pretty rough. A few caveats: This only covers one version of your domain name - it doesn't cover misspellings. I've assumed a single year of registration. Some d…
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