Summary of the Registry Speed-Dating contest, with a downloadable PDF of the results, along with a checklist of what to look for when choosing your TLD registry service provider.

NameSmash is a new blog edited by Kelly Hardy at Marksmen. I give it a quick review and recommendation.

Holly Dunsworth, a traveling companion and paleoanthropologist, does a nice piece for NPR.

And have you listened to the Sorting Out Science podcast? This hardly-known gem reminds me of why I love the Internet.

So says this news bulletin. Via ICANN’s [ga] mailing list.

The US government has called on all federal offices to take measures to prepare their domains for DNSSEC. Starting in January 2009, the US government will use DNSSEC for all .gov top level domains Second level domains for federal offices will [...]

Contestant #11 in our guide to registry operators is Community DNS, which emphasizes robust DNS services and has worked with a number of ccTLDs.

Contestant #10, RegistryASP, operates the registries for .HK, .SG, and .CD. They have proven competence with complicated business rules (.HK in particular), and are doing a good job making a name for themselves as a registry provider. Their web site is one of the more informative among our contenders.

Contestant #9 is CORE, the Council of Registrars. They’ve been around longer than anyone except VeriSign, and have an impressive roster of smart people who have launched both commercial and not-so-commercial TLDs. CORE knows ICANN very well, and have provided useful materials on their site.

An attempt to relieve myself of some excruciating pain by recounting its genesis and effects

Contestant #8 in our domain registry speed-dating contest is AusRegistry International (ARI), a young and aggressive company, best known as the operator of the .AU domain. They’ve also just announced the launch of the new .AE registry for the United Arab Emirates, for which they set up the registry software and hardware, and helped form a policy-setting framework for the ministry of communications. Unlike most of our contestants, ARI has a site that’s focused on their registry services offering, which both customers and the competition (ahem) would be well served to check out.

Aftermarket.com announces its new live-auction service for domain names, with a web site only a domainer could love.