The .us tld is up & running. I just locked-in the .us for my main domain -- purely for protective purposes.

Only a few registrars are handling .us thus far -- one of them is bigdaddy. I have never used big D before, but have often heard good things about them. Ergo, I got my .us from them.

Big D registers most domain.tld's for $8.95/yr, but .us costs $14.95/yr. I checked a few other registrars & they're all charging the same amount for .us

In addition to being a registrar, Big D is also a web host. As I went through their registration procedure, their hosting ads grew larger & more frequent.

AFTER I had registered my domain, I discovered that the ONLY free service that big D provides is to allow you to park your domain. They charge a goodly sum for just about everything else, including a simple redirection.

Ergo, big D's $8.95 fee is a good deal IF AND ONLY IF you require none of the other services that many other registrars provide for free. There are several excellent, ICANN-certified registrars who charge only $10/yr & offer a slew of free services.

In the long run I think .us will be a prestigious tld. What do you folks think?

Well I think I was screwed out of my .us domain registration.

I registered 2 PROMINIENT .US names in early April, around the 7th. The pre registration cost me 19.90 for 2 years. I was told that the real registration period was to begin April27th.

Lo and Behold, my names are taken, and what does the www.whois.us say... the names I "registered" with Go Daddy were taken on April 25th.

All I know is I better receiove my 19.90 for both of those names BACK like their site said if thery were unable to register them. Can I dispute this, becasue registrations were not suppose to be done until April 2

7th, and the names I chose were done on the 25th. That wass Thursday.

So Someone misled me into thinking I was going to have a clear shot at my names I chose way before anyone else chose them.

Big Daddys site stated that on April 27th, 2001, when the .US registrations opened up, their hi speed systems would try and regsiter the names, and if on that date they could not get the name in time, I would be refunded my money $19.90 x 2.

Well on April 25th, the damn names were registered. There is some type of discrepency here.
I have not received any notice in my email about any refunds due me because the names are not available.

Something is fishy here.

Here are registration records from both doamins

domain 1
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Created by Registrar: FUNPEAS MEDIA VENTURES, LLC Domain Registration Date: Wed Apr 24 14:32:37 GMT 2002 Domain Expiration Date: Fri Apr 23 23:59:59 GMT 2004

doamin 2
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Created by Registrar: GAL COMMUNICATIONS LTD. Last Updated by Registrar: GAL COMMUNICATIONS LTD. Domain Registration Date: Wed Apr 24 14:13:16 GMT 2002 Domain Expiration Date: Fri Apr 23 23:59:59 GMT 2004 Domain Last Updated Date: Thu Apr 25 10:31:59 GMT 2002

I thought official registration after the sunrise period was April 27th????????????

And these doamins names have nothing to do with any company's copyrighted name, so they can't be registered to a company who has a patent.

Urban - dirty deal! My sympathies.

Per the ICANN website, you can submit a complaint about a registrar to...
http://www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi

Bellgamin
----------------------------------
Illegitimi non carborundum

Official registration opening for .US domains was Wednesday, April 24th at 10am EDT. You're wrong about the 27th.

I guess there a lot of bureucracy in all of this. Someone got "business.us" in the trademark registration period and other top names were all gone. God only knows (or uncle sam) how in the world one can own a trademark for a generic name like that. I am not sure if one really owns a trademark for that and if so, it is just foolish on the part of USPTO to grant trademarks for those kind of names. Needless to say PTO is still in the 18th century and I don't see any hope for them to catchup and be current.

Do you mean GoDaddy? ;)

GoDaddy is a good deal to me. A registrar's job is to provide the ability to register domain names and name servers, not to provide URL redirection, e-mail forwarding, DNS, or anything else. While other registrars might provide those for free, those are bonus services offered by those registrars. GoDaddy allows you to do everything a registrar is supposed to allow you to do, and that's all most people need. If you know of an ICANN accredited registrar that includes bonus services for the same price as GoDaddy, then tell me about it. :)

Golly, yes... I meant godaddy.

bigdaddy was a Freudian slip, I suppose [blush-blush]

The thrust of Toastyx's comments (as I interpret them) is that I can't have it all for $8.95.

Maybe not, but for just a buck & a nickle more, I CAN get registrars that offer free redirection, a service for which godaddy charges $9.95.

Besides, no matter what godaddy says, my gomommy told me I CAN have it all.

So there.:stickout

Originally posted by Gurudev
I guess there a lot of bureucracy in all of this. Someone got "business.us" in the trademark registration period and other top names were all gone. God only knows (or uncle sam) how in the world one can own a trademark for a generic name like that. I am not sure if one really owns a trademark for that and if so, it is just foolish on the part of USPTO to grant trademarks for those kind of names. Needless to say PTO is still in the 18th century and I don't see any hope for them to catchup and be current.

Business.US, Jobs.US, Travel.US.... I would love to know the payola process that was involved in stealing these domains. :angry: