ideegeo Group Limited

With the successful launch of iWantMyName as a global domain registrar site and then into Germany and the Netherlands last year, we felt it was now time to turn our attention to home. We have had so many requests from our friends to establish in the New Zealand market, because of our unique service offering, friendly user interface and great customer support. Finally we had to say yes and we now have a dedicated Kiwi site at http://iwantmyname.co.nz offering fixed prices in New Zealand dollars.

The Kiwi iWantMyName has New Zealand’s widest range of domain extensions, many of which are unavailable from other local domain registrars. Examples of exclusive domains include the recently launched .TEL and .ME suffixes plus interesting country code top-level domains from all over the world such as .LI (Liechtenstein), .IO (British Indian Ocean Territory) and .FM (Federal States of Micronesia). Customers from the existing site can use the same login details to access their accounts across the iWantMyName platform suite. We also offer the same free services on our Kiwi version so that you can hook up your own domain to customise a wide range of great web applications such as GMail, Blogger and Zoho. In the very near future we also plan to add some cool new Kiwi-made services that we really want to support.

We think it is appropriate that the launch of a new product should be celebrated with some special offers. So until the end of February we are offering new .COM, .NET, .ORG and .NAME domains for only $19.90 NZD plus .INFO for $9.90 NZD. We are also able to offer a FREE one year extension if you transfer your existing domains across to iWantMyName NZ. Transfers can be handled from your personal dashboard once you join up. Please note that all domain prices quoted on the Kiwi site are GST exclusive and that we provide full GST invoicing to all our valued customers.

In addition, we are supporting the Australasian Linux conference LCA2010 which rolls into our hometown Wellington on 18-23 January. Look out for the iWantMyName crew at our stand at the Open Day on Saturday 23rd. We would be happy to demo the new site and discuss how we are supporting the open source movement and other technology communities in New Zealand.

It is with a huge amount of pride that we announce the launch of two new registrar sites. In conjunction with a great partner in the Netherlands we’ve created Ben ik Vrij a Dutch language version of our iWantMyName site. With all the functionality of our existing platform plus full Euro currency integration Ben ik Vrij allows us to enter one of the largest domain markets in Europe.

But we aren’t just stopping there. We’ve also opened a wholly owned and operated German language site and we called it simply Mein Name. The German site is a special achievement because ideegeo in part has its origins in an idea that began in Germany. Mein Name a little bit like a return home for us.

The new sites demonstrate how we can powerfully leverage the underlying technology behind iWantMyName and how we can make other partnerships work in new markets. Expect to see further rollouts and cool new services in the future as we change the face of domain name management.

Lately we’ve been hard at work adding smart services and some cool new domain extensions to our domain management site iWantMyName.

We have also produced a lot of useful articles about domains, domain ideas, tools and web apps. This material is available over on the iWantMyName domain blog. So in case you haven’t visited recently, here is a short summary.

Highlights from the iWantMyName blog worth checking out:

• 50+ New Domain Extensions We Might See in 2010
• 10 Tools To Run An URL Shortener On Your Own Domain
• How Many Domain Extensions Exist Worldwide
• Your First Name Under .COM Might Still Be Available (Upside Down)
• Search IDNs With The Virtual Keyboard
• The Art Of Finding A Domain Hack

We’ve  proudly launched support for the registration of macronised domain names on iWantMyName, our global domain registrar site, just in time for Māori language week.

Indigenous groups around the world are looking seriously at how best to protect their digital identity, as the Internet continues to impact powerfully in both in economic and sociological terms. Providing macrons for the use of Māori language domains is a small but significant step towards preserving the expression of Māori language online.

We are also pleased to be able to provide advice to Karaitiana Taiuru of the Māori Internet Society who is currently building a case to create dotINDIGI (.INDIGI) a new top level domain for all Indigenous Peoples. “We see the opportunity to write Māori macron characters in web addresses as a long awaited natural progression”, said Mr Taiuru recently. “We are glad that an innovative local venture like iWantMyName is offering this opportunity at such an early stage and their support for Māori language week is highly admirable. It is also a significant step forward for all Indigenous Peoples of the world to be able to have their own online identity without character constraints.”

In addition to Māori macronised domain names, iWantMyName has also successfully implemented Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) for other non Latin characters. For example, an individual or company could now secure a dotCOM (.COM) domain using Chinese, Hindi or Arabic characters. This could be an advantage to a business looking to set up an online presence in a non-English speaking market.

Test the iWantMyName Domain Search with IDNs:

http://iwantmyname.com/search?domain=māori
http://iwantmyname.com/search?domain=überümlaut
http://iwantmyname.com/search?domain=任提谋

ideegeo is moving up in the world and not just because we recently moved to the 14th floor at our new office. With global domain sales continuing to grow at around 12%, despite the economic recession, and over 180 million domains now in total, it was no surprise to see rapid sales growth once we launched iWantMyName our innovative domain management service.

In fact, most of our time this year has been involved with extending, improving and scaling up iWantMyName. The website takes a leaf out of Google’s design book with clean lines, high functionality and (best of all) no annoying up-selling. We’ve also created value-adds such as Domains for Apps that allows clients to easily personalise their favourite hosted services. In fact some app developers liked our service so much that we are now talking about how we can deepen those relationships further. Watch this space.

We’ve added other services too such as an updated version of our iPhone App, with speed and interface improvements, and a cool Twitter bot that lets you check for domain availability directly from your Twitter account. Our next big project involves further internationalisation of the platform including non-English language versions of the site and implementation of local currency sales transactions. With some additional developer resources on board now, we expect to spend the next few months hard at work on this. We are also open to new global partnerships in this respect.

Having a view over the city of Wellington is great, but it also reminds us that we are part of a wider technology industry ecosystem. That’s one of the reasons we set about establishing an Erlang user group here in Wellington which is held every month now. We think Erlang has a big future, which is why we have used it extensively within our own products and services and are encouraging local developers to explore this emerging development language.

With much of our technology development being linked closely to the domain industry we were very pleased to hear that the next ICANN event was to be held “across the ditch”. So in a couple of weeks a bunch of us will be jumping on flights and heading to Sydney, Australia. There’s a lot happening with the new gTLD program plus ICANN is moving steadily to progress the issue of internationalised domain names (IDN). So we are looking forward to learning all about these developments and catching up with a few old friends in the domain industry.