How Can Domain Squatting Be Controlled

[anand84]

I am building a new website and I have spent the past two days thinking of several possible domain names that could be relevant. Almost all of them are already taken by squatters. I'm just wondering if the W3C or any other competent body can ever take any action against domain squatting. It is so frustrating that I want to build a genuine website and I am forced to pick a funny domain name..

[piatkow]

That is down to the appropriate registrar for the tld concerned.

Check out the registrar's dispute procedure. There will be a lot of factors involved that could affect the outcome.

[Webwork]

I am forced to pick a funny domain name

You mean like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Yelp, Twitter, Facebook?

Many dream of traveling the road to success. Some start down the road. Few get there.

That you should stop your journey to lament or complain about the first posthole you encounter does not auger well for you or your journey.

Now, collect yourSelf, your tools and supplies, get back in the old wreck of a truck/domain, look ahead (not in the rearview mirror), clear your head, keep your eyes and ears open, grasp the steering wheel, step on the gas . . . and DRIVE.

[encyclo]

Define "genuine website". The low-rent parking pages are a depressing sight, but domains are simply real-estate, and if the domain registrant doesn't develop a website of a quality that meets my standards, that is not a reason for them to lose the domain. What's more, the website itself is irrelevant, it is just one possible service under a domain. My most important domain name doesn't even resolve to a website, but it is in daily use for email. Is that a problem?

The idea that some pseudo-authority is going to make subjective judgment calls over the usage of registered domains is the the last thing we need.

[HuskyPup]

Loads of names have been released by non-renewals this last year, I've let more than 100 go since I knew I was never going to get round to developing them and rather than sit them at an auction house for whatever money I've let them go for someone else to try.

I haven't put them in auction houses because I just feel that many general domain name buyers do not know about them.

[jmccormac]

Over the last ten years or so, at least 130 million domains have been registered and dropped without being reregistered. If you want to build a website that people will remember, then have a distinct rather than a generic domain name. This is why Amazon doesn't call itself 'books.com'.

Regards...jmcc

[wheel]

I am building a new website and I have spent the past two days thinking of several possible domain names that could be relevant. Almost all of them are already taken by squatters. I'm just wondering if the W3C or any other competent body can ever take any action against domain squatting. It is so frustrating that I want to build a genuine website and I am forced to pick a funny domain name..

There's two types of 'squatters'. People who register generic domain names and 'use up' all the good domain names, and those that actively squat on 'your' property, i.e. your company name.

The second type are illegal in most places. The first ones aren't really squatters. They could more appropriately be called 'people who are faster and smarter than you because they registered the domain name first'. On those domains, there's no reason that your crappy content should take precedence over their crappy content.