New trend in domain registration January 18th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
There is sub culture of the internet that deals strictly with buying and selling domain names. These individuals are often called “tasters”. They may pick up on a buzz word or use a program that they wrote to buy domains in massive numbers. The more popular the domain name the higher the resell price. I’m not privy to how lucrative this market is but the fact that it occurs on a large scale means somebody is making money from.
Network Solutions is the industry leader in domain name registration. There was a time when they were the only source to register your domain. Now you can find a handful of discount registers all over the internet. While Network solutions charges $35/year for a .com or .net address another registrar will charge only $9/year or less. The cheaper domain name solutions have led to an increase in domain name tasters.
Recently Network Solutions has implemented a new procedure to combat these tasters that has left a sour taste in the mouths of the online community. If you use Network Solutions to check the availability of domain name and it is available Network Solutions automatically resisters that domain so it can not be registered through another source. Go ahead give it a shot think of a random domain name and check its availability then use another registrar to see if its still available. You will find that Network Solutions has already registered the domain. They now own it.
This is called “front running,” and its completely automated. If you want the domain name you just searched for you are forced to buy it from Network Solutions. This costs Network Solutions nothing because registers are allowed a 5 day grace period to protect from credit card fraud. So for the next five days you have to pay the $35 if you want that domain instead of the $9 bucks you might spend with another service. While this is perfectly legal it raises ethical concerns.
Network Solutions has defended their decision to implement this procedure in order to combat domain name tasters.
This does not mean that the domain name is waiting for you to purchase for the next five days as there is no information passed to associate your search with you or your account. In fact it occurs even if you don’t have an account with Network Solutions and your not logged in. This will undoubtedly catch many casual users off guard as Network Solutions has one of easier to use interfaces when it comes to searching for a domain name. They will check for misspellings and names that are similar automatically.
In the past I have always recommended Network Solutions to anyone who is registering a domain name as they are the industry leader. Losing control of your domain name can be expensive and time consuming. Given the recent policy changes my opinion (as well as a large part of the internet community) that has changed. In fact I will be moving a couple of my domain names to a new registrar, which will no doubt be a convoluted and painful process.