names

An outage that broke hyperlinks on Twitter yesterday evening originated with a simple human error at a Melbourne, Australia-based hosting firm that was responding to an abuse complaint, CNET has learned.

Twitter last year began to abbreviate all hyperlinks using its t.co domain name -- which had the side effect of introducing a central point of failure where none existed before. That failure happened last night around 11:30 p.m. PT when t.co went offline, meaning millions of Twitter users received "non-existent domain" errors when trying to follow links.

A spokesman for Melbourne IT, a … Read more

When Apple released the latest iPad earlier this year, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said that naming the device iPad 3 would have been so predictable. "We've had many products where we've never used numbers," Schiller said. "Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't."

Some people don't care what the next iPhone will be called, but some people do. If you're in the latter camp, the big question is whether Apple will follow the more predictable route and go with iPhone 5, the name just about everybody has been calling the upcoming device, or once again throw us a curve.… Read more

YouTube is now encouraging video uploaders to use their real names. Is this the first sign of what's to come? Will our anonymity on YouTube become a thing of the past?

For now, users still have the option to opt out of disclosing their true identity, but a world in which YouTube videos are no longer anonymously uploaded appears much closer to reality than ever before. Of course we've seen things like this before. Most of us seem to have no problem giving away our personal information to Facebook, right? … Read more

YouTube thinks that maybe all those cutepuppies99 and origamiboys1981 might be ready to grow up. Google's online video platform is now giving users the option to start using their real names on its service, along with hooking up their Google Plus profile up with their YouTube channel.

"One Google-wide identity was something that proved popular with new YouTube users when we began offering it in March, so we are now extending it to existing users," YouTube software engineer John Fisher wrote in a recent blog post.

Here's more on how Fisher describes how it works:

ICANN, the organization in charge of basic Internet name and addressing technology, today announced a new chief executive, Fadi Chehade.

The move was expected since last August when outgoing CEO Rod Beckstrom announced his eventual departure (PDF) from the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

But ICANN also announced that the leader of a controversial change, the expansion of generic top-level domains (GTLD) to include everything from .google to .sucks, also is stepping down. Hundreds have applied to operate the new GTLDs, and ICANN now is evaluating the applications.

Chehade, a 50-year-old citizen of Lebanon, Egypt, and the United … Read more

You ready to play the tech name game?

For starters, it's a juicy day for iPhone 5 rumors. The next iPhone could have a smaller dock connector with 19 pins, instead of Apple's typical 30-pin port. TechCrunch is reporting that three manufacturing sources say Apple will be using a port that's roughly the size of a micro USB. If there's truth to this, get ready to dish out money for new accessories. It won't fit that pretty little iHome charging dock anymore. (But hey, Apple fans always dish out money for new accessories. So no … Read more

Father's Day is coming up on Sunday. What's the ultimate gift for a dad who has a little one on the way? Relieve him of the burden of the baby name selection process, provided mom is willing to go along.

The mechanism for achieving this comes from the unlikely source of Groupon. The self-proclaimed "World's Foremost Authority in Baby Naming" will name your baby Clembough. Yep, Clembough. Boy or girl, it doesn't matter. Clembough is what you're getting.

Even better, this deal costs $1,000. Groupon isn't paying you for naming rights, you are paying it for the name Clembough. Let's savor that for a moment. It doesn't really roll off the tongue. It could be pronounced Clem-baw or Clem-bow. Maybe it's a combination of Clem Burke (drummer for Blondie) and "bough," the word for a tree limb.… Read more

Get ready to be a bit more confused about Web site addresses.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers today revealed which generic top-level-domains that companies and organizations have applied for, a major step in the six-year-long process to expand the domain name system to create more competition in a world dominated by dot-com names. For consumers, it means a new way of typing in URL, moving beyond the standard .com or .url addresses.

"It's a historic day for the Internet," said ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom. "The internet is about to change forever."

For … Read more

If the team at domain registry company Donuts has its way, Web users will be able to enjoy domain names as they do doughnuts -- for the variety.

The company announced today that multi-billion dollar private equity and venture funds are investing more than $100 million in capital to aid Donuts' quest for a more diverse Web. Donuts has applied for 307 top-level-domains or TLDs (the word to the right of the dot) that the company said will be more descriptive.

"The Internet is ready for some diversity," Mason Cole, Donuts' VP of communications and industry relations, said, … Read more