It’s less than a week until NamesCon and I find myself ticking off items on the “todo list”. There’s nothing quite like a big tick next to an item you’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

If you want to attend NamesCon and don’t have a ticket, then here’s something just for you! The ICU registry is giving away two VIP passes to NamesCon. All you have to do is play their slot-machine by going to slotmachine.icu It certainly put me in the Vegas frame of mind 😉

There’s going to be three of us from ParkLogic this time as we have a booth (number 17). Danny Cron who heads up our technical development team is helping to man the booth with Laci (pronounced Lotsi) who plays the role of inhouse DBA and operations.

If you have any questions about how ParkLogic operates or how the platform can benefit your traffic monetization, then Danny and Laci are the guys to speak to. Both would love to catch-up with you so please don’t be a stranger and drop by booth 17. I would also recommend reaching out on the NamesCon App to book a time with either of them.

In June I wrote an article on the new gTLD ICU and I believed that it would be successful not necessarily because of the extension but because two of the founders, Kevin Kopas and Lars Jensen. I thought it was time that I checked in on their efforts and to see if my belief in the both of them was warranted….

For a start, I don’t think anyone has clocked up as many frequent flyer miles as either Kevin or Lars....and that's saying something coming from an Australian like me. In their efforts to promote ICU I think they’ve attended just about every conference imaginable around the world.

If you ever bump into them (and you will) then just ask them what time zone they were in last week. I wouldn’t be surprised if you receive a confused expression, followed by silence and then a reply of which one do you mean? I sometimes wonder whether ICU will be successful simply because of their brute force effort.

Putting aside all of the anecdotes, what are the numbers telling us? I hopped into ntldstats (great site btw) and checked out whether the dynamic duo have managed to get things moving forward. The first thing I noticed is that ICU has cracked the top 50 most popular extensions in just under 3 months….not a mean feat in itself.

As can be seen from the chart there was clearly an initial surge in early registrations and then a constantly increasing number since June. In fact, you could say the graph is getting slightly steeper as time goes by. My guess is this is the result of more registrars taking on ICU and exposing it to a wider market.

I just received a press release from the backers of the new gTLD extension .ICU. I’ve received a lot of different releases from different new gTLDs and it was tempting to put this release in the circular out tray beneath the desk….but then a few things caught my eye that caused me to hesitate.

For a start, the people behind .ICU include Kevin Kopas and Lars Jensen. Both founders have massive amounts of experience in the registry and registrar space with contacts that would leave most new gTLDs incredibly envious. Combine the contacts with their unique energy and drive and you have a formidable combination destined for success.

According to the press release .ICU already has over 100 registrars selling the extension and this is growing rapidly on the back of having CentralNic providing the backend services. So it would appear that despite the inevitable ICANN delays the two founders have been very busy indeed!

And then there’s the extension itself, ICU which is an acronym of “I See you”. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was the blockbuster movie “Avatar” where the main character would say to one another, “I see you.” For those of you that have been living under a rock, director James Cameron, is currently filming the movie sequels so the term “ICU” will be well and truly in the vernacular.