=Andy.Dale of ooTao has posted a firefox extension that we think is well worth a look.
Named “ph-off” and pronounced “eff-off”, Andy’s extension modifies firefox so that your browser looks different when you are on your i-broker’s login page. The idea is to make it really easy to visually tell when you are on your real i-brokers page.
Get the full scoop at the ph-off site and Andy’s original post.
William Tan (=wil) has created a simple nifty extension for Firefox that let’s you type XRIs right into the address bar.
“What’s that?”, you say.
The FoXRI extension lets you forget the “http://xri.net” and simply enter an i-name right into the Firefox address bar. You can check out =wil’s explanation of this on his site.
Astute observers will also note that =wil has done something a little different with his i-name; =wil doesn’t redirect to =wil’s contact page, rather it redirects to the web page with the FoXRI extension. Wil has set a different default page for =wil than his contact page. The capability to have your i-name redirect to other web pages is known as Link Forwarding and it’s a new service that most i-brokers will be providing as of September 11, 2006.
For instance, we’ve set set the following XRI to go to our blog:
Try it out…
A special price of $5 for personal i-names is being offered by participating i-brokers during the DigitalIDWorld Conference; the price is available to anyone who can access participating i-broker web sites (you don’t have to attend the conference).
Special pricing will be available from 10pm GMT September 10th (3pm PST) through 2am GMT September 14 (7pm PST, September 13).
We’re not completely certain if all i-brokers are participating in the promotion but recommend you check them all out anyway. See the list at inames.net.
EZiBroker has a page describing the promotion at iwantmynamenow.com.
For some weeks now the inamers blog has been broken - old posts were still showing but the blog couldn’t be administered. Today we finally bit the bullet and moved it to a different host and migrated to wordpress from typo.
We’re definitely behind in getting some the news out. Expect new posts soon!
The iname global launch has been moved out 1 more week and will now take place on June 20th, 2006 at 4pm PST.
The new launch date coincides with the Identity Mashup Conference taking place in Boston at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and key inames participants will be there to launch it live.
We received an email today from a new i-broker that will commence operations with the global launch on Tuesday, June 20th.
According to the email (below), 1id will offer (at launch) additional services beyond the requirements of XDI.ORG and what other ibrokers seem to be offerring. Their web site has a list of these services. As an iname user I’m very happy to see competition and service innovation starting to take place and I’m looking forward to learning more about 1id’s services.
Like EZIBroker, 1id is offering a pre-order service which should open today. 1id’s pre-order service works a little different from EZIBroker’s version:
Enough of the summary. Here’s the original text of the 1id announcement.
1id.com is a small, but diverse, creative, forward-thinking, and customer-focused new ibroker. Its Principals have always been very interested in privacy, security, and identity as it relates to the Internet and web services. Despite its late introduction to inames, 1id.com has quickly realized the capabilities of the XRI technology and platform and the potential opportunities for providing related services. 1id.com has built its own ibroker systems for iname registration as well as its own iservices and will be the first full-service service global ibroker at launch. Some of the extra-value features that 1id.com will offer include additional security for iSSO, additional methods (Jabber, AIM, ICQ, MSN, YahooIM, ICQ) for iContact, and additional features (click metrics) for iForwarding.Also, beginning on Tuesday, June 13th, 1id.com will launch its pre-registration system to enable interested registrants and companies
to pre-register those inames that are critically important to them. Pre-registration will be available at http://1id.com/1id.com will not turn away any pre-registrations - if a name is already pre-registered, customers interested in pre-registering that name can jump ahead of the queue by agreeing to pay a slightly higher price for the that name.
1id.com invites consumers and businesses to pre-register both personal and business names at its pre-registration site and to visit its primary site (which is still being finalized) to learn about its
services.We look forward to serving you, the global community, as your full service ibroker.
Check out 1id and let =inamers know what you think!
EZIBroker.net just announced a reservation service that will let you request an iname prior to the upcoming global launch. The service will open for taking names at 12 noon PST, Monday, May 22nd.
You can read the full text of their announcement below, but for anyone who has been waiting on an XNS reserved name or has an organizational name in mind, this seems like a good approach.
At this time, EZIBroker is the only ibroker we know to be offering this service, meaning that getting a name on their list provides some good odds of getting the name you want; (plus you only get charged if they succeed). The odds could change if other ibrokers offer a similar service.
If anyone knows of another service like this, please let us know and we’ll post info here.
Update: We just heard from another i-broker that plans to operate a similar service. We hope to provide more details including a link as soon as possible.
=== EZIBroker Announcement ===LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW:
EZIBRoker to offer I-Name Reserve service.
EZIBroker will be one of the first Global I-Brokers selling i-names through it’s various retailers. As a Global I-Broker, EZIBroker is able to directly register names in the global registry through Neustar’s programmatic API.
Starting Monday, May 22nd at 12 noon PST we will open a service that
let’s folks request a name to be registered at the global launch.
This is a good way to obtain names that have been reserved or otherwise unavailable before the global launch.Here’s a quick summary of how it works:
1] Starting 5/22 and continuing until a few days before the registry opens, you can add names you want to the list.
2] Names added to the list must be unique - if you attempt to add a name already on the list it won’t be accepted.
3] When the global registry opens for business, EZIBroker will attempt registration of all names on the list as fast as it can in the order they were added to the list.
4] If a name you “reserved” is successfully registered, you will pay the normal cost of registration plus a $10 premium for the “reserve”
service. You pay nothing if the attempt is unsuccessful.The I-Name Reserve web form will be available Monday at:
http://www.EZIBroker.net/reserve.nsfFor those that want more details, read on…
In order to give everyone an equal opportunity to get their names on the list we will open the list at noon (PST) on Monday May 22nd. The list will work on a first come first served basis. Once someone has put =andy on the list no-one else will be able to. The list will be processed in the order it was received. We make no guarantees about our ability to get the i-names that you want, if you don’t get the i-name, you pay nothing.
We are going to charge $10 over the basic retail price for each name on the list that we successfully procure for you. If we don’t get any names for you, you pay nothing.
When you sign up on the list, you won’t initially have to pay anything. However, shortly after the list opens we will send you a confirmation and payment details; a deposit to guarantee payment in the event your registration will likely be required. Payment details will be sent to you if you put your names on the list. If you don’t like the terms, you pay nothing and we take your names off the list. We need to do this to ensure that all requests are serious.
If you have questions please email: reserve@ezibroker.net
Yours,
EZIBroker Team
Hot off the press: 50-year iname prices will increase May 8.
Get your inames and gift codes for $25 while you can. (A gift code at $25 will be the least expensive way to register an unclaimed XNS name when they become available after the global launch.)
We just noticed that the nifty new inames site inames.net is now online. Check it out!
As reported here last week the iname launch target of May 1 was going to be delayed at least a few weeks.
The new consensus target date from the various project leaders is for a June 13 launch. From our perspective this is doable but still aggressive. We’ll continue to keep folks posted.
An important aspect of this new date is that it implies an end to the “early iname” program of May 31st. This is because the launch project has 2 weeks set aside for the transition from “2idi” only to full “multi-broker” infrastructure. We’re not sure why it takes that long, and hopefully it won’t.
At any rate, we’re hoping that authentication and contact pages will continue to work during that transition period. We’ll try to learn more about the transition period and summarize it here.