Tucows ($TCX) podcast mentions
Timestamped Tucows ($TCX) mentions across our podcast corpus.
Welcome to the Domain Name Wire podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Ollerman, and this is episode number 598. Back on episode number 568, I talked to GoDaddy about the idea of the Agent Name Service. And in an episode 587, I talked to Identity Digital CEO Akram Attallah about DNSID, which the company bills as birth certificates for agents. It's clear that a lot of people think DNS is the perfect backbone for a future full of agents. Today, I'm talking to former TUCOW CEO Elliot Noss and his idea for how to leverage DNS when it comes to agents. It's called Groundmark. On today's show, Elliot talks about the idea behind Groundmark and how decades of experience in the domain business have influenced his vision for the agentic future. Future. First, a word from our sponsor. Our sponsor this week is Sav.com and its domain name auctions. There are a number of ways to try to liquidate your domains these days, but one that's simple, fast, and low cost is Sav's auctions. I've sold a few domains through Sav Auctions. It was quick and easy. There was a great transfer process. In fact, if your domains are already at Sav, they transfer automatically. And best of all, you pay just a 4% commission when your domains sell on Sav Auctions. To learn more, go to sav.com/dnw/sell. That's sav.com/dnw/sell. Let's briefly talk about some news in the domain business from the past week before we chat with Elliot. First up, last Friday, 2Cows, that's Elliot's former company, saw its stock pop nearly 50% as the company said it has reconfigured its debt and also made a purchase between the main 2Cows company and its Ting Fiber unit for a data center that will make it easier for it to sell its fiber business. The company reports earnings this Thursday, so it'll be interesting to see if they expand upon that. And GoDaddy announced earnings last Thursday, and the market was not impressed. As I'm recording this on Friday morning, shares are down 20% today. They landed just above the midpoint of the guidance they had put out there, but really GoDaddy, it's the same story they've been going through. How will AI impact their business?
Andrew Allemann · Domain Name Wire Podcast · Trust and identity with AI agents – DNW Podcast #598 · 2026-08-03Okay. And of course, Tucows started out having nothing to do with domains, right? It was more of a— it was a download, uh, software download site, right?
Andrew Allemann · Domain Name Wire Podcast · Trust and identity with AI agents – DNW Podcast #598 · 2026-08-03Welcome to the Domain Namewire podcast. I'm your host Andrew Alleman, and this is episode number 589. I spent last week in Stockholm at Nordic Domain Days. It was my first time attending the event and I'm really not sure why it took me so long to make this trip. It was an excellent conference and I got to meet lots of new people. I wrote a recap on May 27 that you can check out, and on today's show I have interviews with five people who were at the event. First, a word from our sponsor. Our sponsor this week is Spaceship, where you can build and manage your entire digital world. Transfer your domains to Spaceship to benefit from their always low prices. Every year go to Spaceship Promo to see how much you could save compared to your current provider. By using their comparison chart, your domain renews for a year when you initiate the transfer, and there are often further discounts when you switch. Once you're in Spaceship's domain, tools make it easy to manage renewals and connect to other products like their seller, Hub Domain Security or hosting. Transfer your domains to Spaceship today and save money. Go to Spaceship Promo. Again, that's Spaceship Promo. Let's discuss a few news items from the past week before we get to our interviews. First up, during Nordic Domain Days last week, Stuart Dennays of Verisign presented very interesting data about renewal rates. You might recall that during the Q1 investor conference call, Verisign said that first year renewal rates for dot com domains are typically in the mid-40s range. For second year and later it's in the mid-80s. But here's where things get interesting. If the domain has certain characteristics or is used in a certain way, the first year renewal rate increases significantly. For example, if it's built into a web presence or set up to handle email, the renewal rate is 9% higher. Even a simple domain forward can increase the odds that a domain is renewed, tacking on 13%. But the most interesting thing as it relates to the future is that domains registered for websites built with AI tools think ripplet or lovable, renew at a 20% higher rate. Now, there's a huge caveat here. This is based on a very small subset of domains. Domains need to have been registered for a year before it's time to renew, and much of the growth in Vibe coding tools has taken place in the last six to 12 months. So it remains to be seen what will happen in the long run. But at least for now, this seems like positive news for the domain business. There's some other interesting data about renewal rates in a story I published on May 26. In other news, all domain registrars have to offer a way for people to contact domain owners. Typically, that's providing an anonymized forwarding email address or a web form. Apparently, some people have complained to ICANN about GoDaddy's contact form, which only lets people select from a few pre written options as their reasons for contacting instead of writing something freeform in a form that's sent to the domain owner. Last week, ICANN issued an advisory saying that GoDaddy's form meets the necessary requirements. Interestingly, GoDaddy does not require email verification before sending a form to the registrant, so people can pretend to be whoever they want. Also, in an interesting policy note last week, Tucow has published an analysis suggesting that shortening the timeframe in which registrants must confirm their contact information would not meaningfully impact DNS abuse. Currently, registrants have 15 days to verify their information, typically by clicking on a link in an email. I'm sure most people listening to this show have done just that. If you fail to click that link within 15 days, the domain is suspended. Tukhau has noted that some are pushing for a reduction from the 15 days, or even requiring domains to be verified before they are activated. It analyzed registrant behavior at one of its wholesale registrars it owns, Enom OpenSRS and Astio, and found that shortening the window would impact legitimate registrants while making only a very small dent in abuse. You can see all the details about what they found in a post I wrote on May 27. On a final note, I've learned that Sito has laid off a large number of employees. WIX also announced layoffs of 20% of its staff. That means if you are looking to hire in the industry, it might be worth reaching out to some of those that were affected. Now let's hear from five people who were at Nordic Domain Days last week, starting with the event's founder, L.G. forsberg.
Andrew Alleman · Domain Name Wire Podcast · Domains in Stockholm – DNW Podcast #589 · 2026-06-01