After thirteen years of publications, the Registro .it magazine published every four months is renewed and becomes DOT – Domains, Opinions, Trends: building on the legacy of Quarter, it broadens its perspective to describe an increasingly complex, interconnected and constantly evolving digital ecosystem. The new name marks the beginning of an editorial phase that fully maintains the magazine’s original mission – to inform, explore and interpret phenomena related to domain names, Internet and the digital world – while strengthening its identity and its ability to read the transformations reshaping the Internet.
The first issue of DOT opens with an overview of the performance of .it domains in the first quarter of 2026. At the end of April, registered .it domains reached 3,578,851, up 1.17% compared to the end of 2025, a growth rate more than double that recorded in the same period of 2024. This figure confirms how an online presence continues to represent a strategic asset for businesses, organisations and citizens.
Alongside the data analysis, the issue explores some of the topics that are shaping the future of the Internet and that featured in the Registro .it LinkedIn live sessions in early 2026: the impact of artificial intelligence on content production and information retrieval, including in the tourism sector, cybersecurity and the implications of the NIS2 Directive, the role of digital infrastructures, and the new challenges of Internet governance.
Among the main contributions, the magazine also features the Registro .it’s work within the CENTR (Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries) Benchmarking Renewal Indicators Task Force, which analysed around 40 million expiring domains in 2024 to better understand the factors influencing domain renewal across European national registries. This work offers new insights into the value and continuity of online presence.
The issue also dedicates space to the 40th anniversary of the first Internet connection in Italy, established on 30 April 1986, retracing a key milestone in the country’s digital history and reflecting on the future prospects of a network increasingly integrated with artificial intelligence. From that pioneering experience, in 1987 the Registro .it was established as the registry of Italian Internet domain names, still managed today by the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council (CNR-IIT).
In this context, the keynote speech by Franco Bernabè on Europe’s role in the global technological competition is published in full, delivered during the 30 April 2026 event celebrating forty years of the Italian Internet.
A focus is also dedicated to the outreach and training activities of Registro .it, with particular attention to the Ludoteca of Registro .it projects and the new board game “Nel Mezzo dei Maghi”, developed in collaboration with CINI (National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics) and IMT Lucca, aimed at introducing younger generations to cybersecurity through educational and participatory experiences.
As in previous editions of Quarter, DOT also pays close attention to the international dimension, with in-depth analyses on Internet governance, European strategies for technological sovereignty, and the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. These are topics that increasingly also involve the domain name system and the role of ccTLD registries in the evolution of the Internet.
With DOT, the Registro .it aims to provide the Registrar community, industry professionals, businesses and all Internet ecosystem stakeholders with a tool for observation, analysis and discussion of the major changes affecting the digital world. A “point” in the Internet ecosystem, but also a privileged vantage point on the trends and innovations shaping the digital future.
To learn more, read the first issue of DOT – Domains, Opinions, Trends.
Happy reading!