Sedo.com is hosting a premium no reserve .EU domain name auction,which started on February 9,2012 and will end today .Only four out of 200 domain names have bids so far :

Nal.eu  Current Bid  $100
Pew.eu  Current Bid  $100
Sut.eu  Current Bid  $100
Fnd.eu  Current Bid  $100

The auction includes a wide selection of .EU domain names with a reserve range from $1 – $499 . There are many keyword domains included in the auction,such as :

Sadness.eu
Pickle.eu
RaceCar.eu
Rewind.eu
Revamp.eu
Regs.eu
InfoHub.eu
HtmlCode.eu
Laughs.eu
Length.eu
Grand.eu
Sing.eu
Studios.eu
Ranch.eu
Humble.eu
HomeTips.eu
Wedges.eu
Stub.eu
Spouse.eu

You can still place your bids here .

.ORG,The Public Internet Registry (PIR) has recently released the results of its bi-annual domain name report. The reports revealed that .ORG registrations grew by 9.9% in 2011 .

You can read the press release after the jump :

.ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR)—manager of the world’s third largest generic top-level domain (gTLD)—today released the results of its bi-annual domain name report, “The Dashboard,” detailing the robust growth of .ORG during the second half of 2011. Overall, .ORG registrations grew by 9.9 percent in 2011, reaching 9.6 million total domains under management (DUM) by the end of 2011—a net gain of 411,002 for the second half of the year.

“The Dashboard” also revealed that:

The renewal rate of existing .ORG websites for the second half of 2011 was 75.4 percent.
.ORG has maintained consistent growth between nine and 10 percent annually for the past three years.
ORG DUM rose from 3.9 million in 2005 to 9.6 million in 2011—an increase of 146 percent in seven years.
North America and Europe continue to represent the regions with the most .ORG registrations, with Australia, China and Japan also making the top 10 country list for the second half of 2011.
“With Internet usage continuing to surge worldwide, and individuals and organizations alike placing even greater importance on doing good and promoting their passions online, it’s no surprise that .ORG continued to see consistent and substantial growth during the second half of 2011,” said Brian Cute, CEO of The Public Interest Registry. “We look forward to maintaining this consistent growth, as well as expanding globally in 2012.”

Also highlighted in “The Dashboard” for the second half of 2011 is PIR’s announcement of its intention to pursue the new domain extension, .NGO. This initiative is a major opportunity for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), a community that depends on those three letters to set itself apart from commercial or governmental bodies. PIR believes that NGOs worldwide would benefit from .NGO as an exclusive signature online where they can effectively differentiate themselves and advance their missions. As part of this initiative, PIR intends to make the latest online innovations accessible to NGOs in both developed and developing countries.

In addition, “The Dashboard” underlines PIR’s continued commitment to pioneer and advocate for advanced security standards for the Internet and for finding collaborative solutions to such hot-button issues as copyright infringement and online piracy while still promoting an open, global and unfettered Internet.”

Many applicants for new top level domains have not realised the effort that is required in submitting applications, said Richard Wein, General Manager at the Austrian registry, nic.at, at the Domain Pulse conference in Hamburg, Germany, Monday.

Many of the new TLDs will also have an uphill battle, especially the smaller ones that want the public to buy their domains, to get registrars to sell domains for new TLDs as it will require some expense in introducing the new TLDs into existing registrar systems said Thomas Keller from German registrar 1&1 AG. And for many registrars, it will be difficult to persuade them of the benefit of providing shelf space for more than even just a few of the new TLDs.

One advantage of the new TLDs Wein noted was that when an internet user clicks on a .VERSICHERUNG (insurance) or .REISE (travel) domain name, they will be reassured they are clicking on a website that is involved in the relevant industry. So it is quite possible in this situation new TLDs will not necessarily cause confusion as some are claiming, but rather increase consumer confidence.

As for services offered by any new TLDs, previously Adrian Kinderis of ARI Registry Services has previously talked of his despair at the lack of innovation and new ideas with TLD applicants and he has wondered where the thirst for innovation went.

These views were reflected in comments by Wein who suggested there will need to be new and novel ideas developed. Wein believes a me too approach following existing registry models will probably not work.

But Andreas Schreiner of InterNetWire Communications believes differently, saying innovation will remain an exception for new TLDs and they will probably be used for more profound purposes such as branding, and that innovative concepts may not be their main interests.

Schreiner also believes in countries such as Germany, where there are going on 15 million registrations for the .DE ccTLD, that a scarcity of available names could be a reason people will use choose to register domain names with new TLDs including the city TLDs of which there are probably more proposals that have been made public for German cities than any other country.

But a successful TLD offering registrations to the public will require one key aspect – great marketing, said Keller. The experiences of .CO where they were successful in marketing the relaunched ccTLD, and driving high numbers of registrations, should be a good lesson.