Is it just bad luck on my part, not being quick enough, or is there a way some people can track and monitor queries about certain domain/keywords and quickly register it? If so, how do we protect ourselves from this?
The answers are: yes, definitely, maybe, and it depends. In other words, it depends on who you ask and when.
The only real concrete example I witnessed was NetSol's "protective registrations" of domains that people queried. See: [en.wikipedia.org...]
The solution to this issue or fear, unfounded or otherwise, is to have a good idea of what you INTEND to register IF it's available BEFORE you check. It tends to eliminate the possibility of someone skulking up behind you and hitting your candidate domain(s) over the head with a preemptive registration.
We covered this topic many times in the past 1-2 years.
I figured if it was a real phenomenon, I wouldn't be the first to post about this, but I wasn't sure exactly how to formulate a search for it. If there were a few memorable threads, I'd be interested with some links for some further reading.
