Digital Branding Blog

Melbourne IT announced the acquisition of the assets of VeriSign Inc's global Digital Brand Management Services business effective May 1, 2008.

The acquisition will significantly boost Melbourne IT's scale and market share in the digital brand protection and performance market. The VeriSign DBMS business and Melbourne IT's existing Corporate Brand Services division will be integrated to create the global number one digital brand services company. The combined business will help enterprise clients to manage, monitor, protect and optimise the performance of their digital brands.

The full press release is available at: http://corporate.melbourneit.com.au/news/newsfile.php?docid=269

Posted by VeriSign DBMS at 1:50 PM | Permalink

DBMS is now accepting applications for the new Montenegro .ME ccTLD. The Sunrise period for trademark owners starts on May 6, 2008 and extends through May 16, 2008 .ME is expected to be in high demand for both personalized web addresses and for businesses. The extension will enable the creation of numerous catch phrases for marketing purposes, and companies are advised to register early to reserve key domain names.

Due to the expected demand, customers are encouraged to submit applications as far in advance of the Sunrise application deadline as possible. Please note; orders that are placed in advance of the registry processing period will be indicated with an "On Hold" status In the DBM. The status will update once the registry begins processing applications. Contact your client service manager for special pricing for this in-demand domain name.

The complete .ME roll-out schedule is as follows:

May 6 to May 16: General Sunrise Period. During this time, anyone with a trademark is eligible to apply for a .ME domain name. Applicatons must be in by May 16. Five year minimum registration is required.
May 20 to June 6: Sunrise auctions will begin for names that received multiple applications. .ME domain names that receive only one application will be awarded.
June 6 to June 24: Landrush for the general public. Anyone who doesn't have a trademark, but is interested in a specific .ME domain name, can apply during this period. Two year minimum registration required.
June 26 to July 15: Names for which there was only one application during the Landrush Period are allocated. Landrush auctions will begin for names that received multiple applications.
July 17: Open Registration. Domain names are registered on a first-come, first-served basis. Two year minimum registration is required.

Posted by VeriSign DBMS at 1:42 PM | Permalink

New Features and Functionality
DBM 11.0 is scheduled to be released during the week of April 7. The new release adds numerous features and functionality to the Digital Brand Manager (DBM Portal) to improve the efficiency of domain name management.

Many enhancements in DBM 11.0 are the direct result of collaboration with customers, incorporating key features identified during the January 2007 Usability Group Roundtable. In the new release users will have the ability to create custom extension lists and search domains from the portfolio, and modify request home pages to meet specific needs.

Key New Features:
Usability Enhancements for domain and request search.
Improved Reverse WHOIS lookup to enable the discovery of domain names pertaining to specified search criteria.
Order Cancellation is now handled directly through the portal providing more control of orders.
Automated Password Reset.
Custom Extension Search allows users to create unique extension subsets for domain registration.

DBM 11.0 implementation will be done in phases and in most cases will be seamless to DBM users. Should a DBM session be in progress during the transition, the session will be interrupted and the user will simply need to log back into the system.

DBM User Training
VeriSign will be hosting three Web Training Sessions to familiarize users with the new features in DBM 11.0. All system users are encouraged to attend one of the sessions. Refer to the Product Update email for details regarding access to the training sessions

Session 1: Thursday April 10, 2008 at 12:00PM (9:00am PST)
Session 2: Monday April 14, at 4:00pm PST
Session 3: Tuesday April 15, 2008 at 9:00am EST (1:00pm GMT)

Posted by VeriSign DBMS at 4:30 PM | Permalink