WhatBox? LLC, the applicant for the new top level domain .MENU, has selected NameJet and Afternic to operate the sunrise and landrush auctions, and offer premium name distribution for the .MENU top level domain (TLD).
According to a press release we received today, .Menu “is targeting restaurants and food enthusiasts in its efforts to contribute to the evolving online culinary experience”.
“Due to a favorable result at the ICANN TLD draw, .MENU and NameJet are prepared to open the sunrise period immediately following the completion of the ICANN evaluation process. Sunrise auctions, the landrush period and premium name sales will begin shortly thereafter”.
.Menu should get a big jump on some of other strings its in competition within the vertical; .Food has 3 applicants so they have to resolved contention and all of the applications have to be evaluated by ICANN, the last of which has a priority number of 1141.
That’s the same case for .Restaurant which has applications, three of which have priority numbers of 1313, 1379 and 1423.
Namejet.com and Afternic.com announced in October of 2012 that they were teaming up to provide domain name auction and aftermarket services to new gTLD registries.
“Last month, Demand Media, Inc. (DMD) announced its intent to spin off its domain services business, and NameJet is one component of its end-to-end solution, in addition to registration, registry and monetization services.”…
