Propagation

[FiRe]

Sometimes after I buy a domain name I can see it a few minutes after purchase. They say domain propagation generally takes up to 48 hours, but if I can see it already does that mean it has been fully propagated, or should I still wait 48 hours before launching the site to the rest of the world?

[sitetruth]

If the domain was not previously in DNS, propagation will be fast, because it's not in a cache anywhere. Once you see the domain anywhere, it's good everywhere.

Changes to previously listed domains take longer to propagate, because there are DNS servers with caches all over, and they won't ask for the authoritative info for the domain until the cache times out. Timeout is usually set for 48 hours, so it can take that long before
everybody gets the update.