Senegal, a small West African country of nearly 12 million people has seen bold economic reforms in the last ten years. These have paid off with annual Gross Domestic Product growth of 5% annually. This has helped to spur a flowering Information Technology sector. Now, that IT sector can lets its growth aid all of Africa. As of May 14, 2007 Senegal has an ICANN accredited registrar.

Kheweul.com is now the second ICANN-accredited registrar in Africa (the first being Internet Solutions of South Africa) and the first in West Africa. Kheweul.com has been accredited to register domain names from the .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, .org, and .pro top-level domains.

Mouhamet Diop, Chairman and CEO of Kheweul.com believes his company can offer a more local service to connect Africans to the world:

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To many in the English speaking world, we take our alphabet for granted. The Latin alphabet as used in English is relatively straightforward: 26 letters a through z. Conveniently, these 26 letters, the hyphen “-“ and Arabic numerals 0 through 9 constitute the acceptable characters for a domain name.

To much of the world this is not nearly as intuitive. While the Latin alphabet is the most widely used, 3 other alphabets are used in large portions of the world. The Cyrillic alphabet is spread through Russia, parts of Eastern Europe and former republics of the Soviet Union. The Arabic alphabet spans from Northern Africa through the Middle East and the Brahmic-derived alphabets of Southeast Asia. Throw in the accents, diacritics and ligatures seen in various languages using the Latin alphabet, and the possible combinations become staggering.

As we’ve reported recently, cybersquatting is attracting increased attention. A report released May 3, 2007 states that it is not just bloggers and business journalists that have taken notice of unsavory practices in domaining.

The telecommunications industry is beginning to grumble about domain tasting, kiting and cybersquatting. This is significant because of the funds and lobbying power available to these companies. Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon, and Marilyn Cade, former AT&T lobbyist and currently a consultant on Internet and technology issues, say the United States Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) is full of loopholes.

The ACPA was enacted in 1999 is also termed the “Truth in Domains Act” and addresses cybersquatting in its simplest form of grabbing a domain name identical or confusing similar to a trademark and trying to sell it to the trademark owner.

Since the Act came into force, ICANN’s Add Grace Period has become the bread and butter of many cybersquatters. The Add Grace Period was created with the best of intentions, to allow registrars to correct domain name entries within a set five day grace period. However, good intentions and good results can often be mutually exclusive.

It's been an exciting week for domainers!

Below is a summary of this week's top stories.

If we missed any noteworthy events, topics or opinions, the comments section is all yours.

• RegisterFly's Implosion Nears Its Bizarre End
  What's next? ICANN is authorized to transfer RegisterFly's domains to a new registrar "as soon as practical", according to an April 27, 2007 injunction (pdf file). So far, ICANN has received four applications from prospective registrars. Once the transfer is complete, RegisterFly will likely collapse. Cogit Group (Report), Frank Schilling and others have tried to buy the embattled registrar but were apparently rejected by Kevin Medina.
• Exodus: 8% of .EU Domains Drop
  Some of our readers believe this is a good sign (the exodus could have been much worse), others blame speculators and bureaucratic management for .EU's massive failure to win the hearts, minds and actual websites of Europeans.
• Skype Goes After Skype-Watch.com
  Skype enrages bloggers and domainers by going after one of its most ardent supporters.
• .mobi Breaks 500,000 Barrier
  dotMobi has come a long way and the registry team has proven to have excellent marketing and PR skills. But not everyone is convinced of .mobi's long-term viability.
• Cybersquatting Attracts Media Attention
  MarkMonitor, a company that specializes in brand protection, alerts brand owners that they are at risk of losing brand value, customer loyalty and revenue to cybersquatters, PPC fraudsters, domain kiters, phishers, and other criminals. The solution? Why, MarkMonitor of course. They offer comprehensive services that safeguard brands, reputation and revenue from brandjacking and other online risks.
• .TV is Turned On… Again.
  Demand Media relaunches .TV and sells $500,000 worth of premium domains within the first 24 hours. But, it turns out that the once-off purchase price is also the annual renewal fee, and even that is "subject to change".
• Microsoft + Yahoo = Pump & Dump?
  Friday morning, the New York Post reported in an exclusive story that Microsoft is in acquisition talks with Yahoo. Widespread euphoria and speculation initially sent Yahoo stock up more than 15%. That same afternoon, the Wall Street Journal reported that the talks are no longer active. Was it all an elaborate pump & dump scheme? As with all such stories based on anonymous sources, it's hard to know what to believe. If Microsoft wants to catch up with Google, acquiring Yahoo certainly makes a lot of sense. So does buying out domainers.

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN®) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* — $.03 has been placed into your Go Daddy® account with this customer number: (Account Number)

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