New domains top 196 million in Q2 2010

Over 196 million new domains were created in the second quarter of 2010, according to the latest figures from VeriSign.

The web registry said that registrations of new domains rose seven per cent compared to the same period last year, and two per cent on the first quarter of 2010.

VeriSign reported that users logged an average of 62.5 billion DNS queries each day, reaching a high point of 83.6 billion. The daily average was up 28 per cent over the 2009 quarter.

Outside the .com and .net domains, Germany's .de was the most popular for new sites. Second on the list was the UK's .uk, followed by China's .cn, The Netherlands' .nl and the European Union's .eu.

VeriSign also posted the results of a report commissioned by the company on the use of the DNSSec security protocol.

The study, conducted by Forrester Research, found that only 43 per cent of businesses had heard of DNSSec.

Some 88 per cent of those that had heard of the protocol plan to budget, or have already budgeted, for DNS security measures, while 51 per cent reported being targeted by attacks on DNS servers.

"With so many factors pointing to the need for widespread DNSSec adoption, one of the greatest obstacles lies in building awareness of the technology and its value among the internet community as a whole," said Ken Silva, senior vice president and chief technology officer at VeriSign.

"The path toward global deployment is a long one but, with the implementation of DNSSec at the root, and the growing call for DNS security measures at companies and organisations, the community has taken a significant first step."