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Welcome to our monthly Industry News Digest. Explore new online trends and domain industry news to stay up-to-date. Here’s a summary for September 2025.
Cybersecurity research company Interisle published a phishing report for the period May 2024 to April 2025. The company analyzed over four million fraud reports. Phishing is a type of internet fraud in which attackers impersonate a legitimate website and domain, directing traffic to their fake site. The goal is to trick users into revealing personal information such as logins, passwords, and bank card details.
During the period covered, 1,963,390 attacks were recorded, a 3% increase on the previous year. Interisle notes that phishing activity correlates with low domain prices: scammers prefer cheaper domain names.
Source: Interisle
The report also notes that the highest number of phishing attacks occurs on domains registered in extensions that offer the most simplified registration. 37% of phishing domains are bulk-registered.
Fewer phishing attacks occur on domain suffixes that include some form of verification, such as identity or legal entity verification. The cleanest extensions are those that require residency or legal entity registration in a specific country (country-code top-level domains), or regional, professional, and high-security extensions.
The Interisle team notes in its report that the number of attacks using subdomains (third-level domains) has decreased compared to last year.
Why should you care? Phishing, like other forms of DNS abuse, is a problem for the entire online space. It can impact user trust in domain names in a particular domain extension.Therefore, it’s crucial to choose your domain suffix carefully. If you choose a domain extension popular with scammers, you risk not only losing user trust but also losing your domain. Domain extensions that experience significant DNS abuse may be subject to purges, meaning all domains within them will be deleted.
You can protect yourself by choosing domains from registrars that offer verification, researching domain extensions, checking security policies, and avoiding the cheapest option.
At it.com Domains, we are committed to ensuring the safety of our users; we develop specialized AI tools, follow ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) recommendations, collaborating with large and trusted registries and partner with the Brand Safety Alliance.
Source: Interisle
Google updated its search results pages to remove the option to show up to 100 search results by removing the ‘&num=100’ parameter. This made it more difficult to track rankings beyond the top 10.
Third-party tracking tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush are now limited to the top 10 results without the use of workarounds.
While the majority of clicks still go to the first page, tracking positions below the top 10 is important for analyzing progress and identifying opportunities for improvement. Google recommends using Google Search Console (GSC), but after the changes, many website owners noticed a drop in impressions and an increase in average position. This is due to the tool now displaying less data for lower-ranking pages, which can distort the overall picture of a site’s visibility.
Why should you care? It seems that relying solely on positional reports is no longer meaningful. Conversions, retention, and engagement, not just search rankings, will now be key metrics. Companies can achieve results by focusing on content quality and user experience.
Source: Domain Name Wire
Google has launched Live Search in English in the US. It allows users to communicate in real time within the Google app using the camera, voice search, and web page links.
To get started, tap the Live icon below the search bar or select Live in Google Lens.
Source: Search Engine Journal
This feature is useful for planning trips, getting instructions, troubleshooting, supporting school projects, and choosing board games.
Google converts text queries into a camera and voice-based format, providing answers in real time. This is important for engaging users who provide content that answers relevant questions.
Local businesses are encouraged to update product photos and displays, as people can ask questions and get links by pointing to something in real time.
The feature is currently only available in English in the US, but Google plans to expand it to other languages and regions.
Why should you care? For website owners, this is a clear signal: visual content isn’t secondary decoration, but a key asset. Optimized images, accurate descriptions, structured data, and high-quality product photos are now essential parts of a search visibility strategy.
The advent of real-time visual searches is changing the user journey. Instead of typing a query, they can show the object of interest — and the one with the best visual content might have the best conversions.
Source: Search Engine Journal
A study by OpenAI and Harvard University found that 24% of ChatGPT users use it as a search engine.
An analysis of 1.1 million conversations showed that ‘Information Search’ queries increased from 14% to 24%, potentially replacing web searches.
Three key topics such as ‘how-to’, ‘information search’, and ‘writing’ account for 77% of usage.
The share of messages asking questions increased to 49% and the quality of results from direct questions was considered higher than from conventional searches.
Gender differences have narrowed, with the share of users with female names rising to 52%.
Why should you care? ChatGPT is becoming a primary source of information, with 70% of users using it for personal purposes. The fact that one in four ChatGPT conversations is now related to information searches demonstrates that users are beginning to perceive AI as an alternative to traditional search engines.
For businesses and marketing, this means that visibility in AI responses is becoming as important as Google SEO. Content must be structured, reliable, and easy to process by models. Ignoring this shift risks losing traffic and relevance amid the rise of conversational search.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Stay up-to-date with digital trends and news – visit it.com Domains blog and follow us on social media.
Continue reading on the it.com Domains blog...
Interisle’s Report: Low-Cost Domains More Often Used for Phishing
Cybersecurity research company Interisle published a phishing report for the period May 2024 to April 2025. The company analyzed over four million fraud reports. Phishing is a type of internet fraud in which attackers impersonate a legitimate website and domain, directing traffic to their fake site. The goal is to trick users into revealing personal information such as logins, passwords, and bank card details.
During the period covered, 1,963,390 attacks were recorded, a 3% increase on the previous year. Interisle notes that phishing activity correlates with low domain prices: scammers prefer cheaper domain names.
Source: Interisle
The report also notes that the highest number of phishing attacks occurs on domains registered in extensions that offer the most simplified registration. 37% of phishing domains are bulk-registered.
Fewer phishing attacks occur on domain suffixes that include some form of verification, such as identity or legal entity verification. The cleanest extensions are those that require residency or legal entity registration in a specific country (country-code top-level domains), or regional, professional, and high-security extensions.
The Interisle team notes in its report that the number of attacks using subdomains (third-level domains) has decreased compared to last year.
Why should you care? Phishing, like other forms of DNS abuse, is a problem for the entire online space. It can impact user trust in domain names in a particular domain extension.Therefore, it’s crucial to choose your domain suffix carefully. If you choose a domain extension popular with scammers, you risk not only losing user trust but also losing your domain. Domain extensions that experience significant DNS abuse may be subject to purges, meaning all domains within them will be deleted.
You can protect yourself by choosing domains from registrars that offer verification, researching domain extensions, checking security policies, and avoiding the cheapest option.
At it.com Domains, we are committed to ensuring the safety of our users; we develop specialized AI tools, follow ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) recommendations, collaborating with large and trusted registries and partner with the Brand Safety Alliance.
Source: Interisle
Google Limits Search Result Tracking Beyond Top 10
Google updated its search results pages to remove the option to show up to 100 search results by removing the ‘&num=100’ parameter. This made it more difficult to track rankings beyond the top 10.
Third-party tracking tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush are now limited to the top 10 results without the use of workarounds.
While the majority of clicks still go to the first page, tracking positions below the top 10 is important for analyzing progress and identifying opportunities for improvement. Google recommends using Google Search Console (GSC), but after the changes, many website owners noticed a drop in impressions and an increase in average position. This is due to the tool now displaying less data for lower-ranking pages, which can distort the overall picture of a site’s visibility.
Why should you care? It seems that relying solely on positional reports is no longer meaningful. Conversions, retention, and engagement, not just search rankings, will now be key metrics. Companies can achieve results by focusing on content quality and user experience.
Source: Domain Name Wire
Google Launches Search Live, Real-Time Visual Search Mode
Google has launched Live Search in English in the US. It allows users to communicate in real time within the Google app using the camera, voice search, and web page links.
To get started, tap the Live icon below the search bar or select Live in Google Lens.
Source: Search Engine Journal
This feature is useful for planning trips, getting instructions, troubleshooting, supporting school projects, and choosing board games.
Google converts text queries into a camera and voice-based format, providing answers in real time. This is important for engaging users who provide content that answers relevant questions.
Local businesses are encouraged to update product photos and displays, as people can ask questions and get links by pointing to something in real time.
The feature is currently only available in English in the US, but Google plans to expand it to other languages and regions.
Why should you care? For website owners, this is a clear signal: visual content isn’t secondary decoration, but a key asset. Optimized images, accurate descriptions, structured data, and high-quality product photos are now essential parts of a search visibility strategy.
The advent of real-time visual searches is changing the user journey. Instead of typing a query, they can show the object of interest — and the one with the best visual content might have the best conversions.
Source: Search Engine Journal
ChatGPT Emerges as a Search Alternative
A study by OpenAI and Harvard University found that 24% of ChatGPT users use it as a search engine.
An analysis of 1.1 million conversations showed that ‘Information Search’ queries increased from 14% to 24%, potentially replacing web searches.
Three key topics such as ‘how-to’, ‘information search’, and ‘writing’ account for 77% of usage.
The share of messages asking questions increased to 49% and the quality of results from direct questions was considered higher than from conventional searches.
Gender differences have narrowed, with the share of users with female names rising to 52%.
Why should you care? ChatGPT is becoming a primary source of information, with 70% of users using it for personal purposes. The fact that one in four ChatGPT conversations is now related to information searches demonstrates that users are beginning to perceive AI as an alternative to traditional search engines.
For businesses and marketing, this means that visibility in AI responses is becoming as important as Google SEO. Content must be structured, reliable, and easy to process by models. Ignoring this shift risks losing traffic and relevance amid the rise of conversational search.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Stay up-to-date with digital trends and news – visit it.com Domains blog and follow us on social media.
Continue reading on the it.com Domains blog...
