Happy 20th Birthday Coming Soon!

[RedBar]

So I have a few domain names from 1993/94 however I went crazy through late 1994 into 1995 buying all sorts of widget trade combination names and have continued with many of them.

I've just been looking through them all since so many are coming up for their 20th renewal in the next few months and, once more, it looks like a clear-out time again. Some have never been used at all and are so niche specific I doubt they would carry any kind of premium.

It's kind of strange to let these "babies" go since my prediction of the web hasn't transpired for various reasons, trust, spam and certainly the ability of the High Street to fight back, in Europe anyway, has been a bit of a surprise.

I also checked-up on some domain names I let go 5-6 years ago which were all snapped-up immediately, guess what, they're all still for sale!

[engine]

It's ironic that i'm letting the final batch go because i've not developed the pie-in-the-sky ideas I had for them. As you say, the net has changed since the ideas were conceived, and that's the problem. I'm also letting some go because the business no longer exists, and they are not exactly "funky" names to be snapped up by the latest social networking site.

There must be some self-satisfaction in seeing the names you dropped are up-for-sale.

Take a look at the wayback machine for some enlightening history. I was surprised how many people handled one of the domains I let go some time back. The domain has never had a site on it, according the the archive. That's rather sad, and it's the main reason i'm almost done clearing out.

[lucy24]

which were all snapped-up immediately

But they weren't snapped up by humans who wanted the name for themselves; they were seized by domain-name dragons. They've undoubtedly got some simple formula that says, grab any name that's been registered for longer than X period of time, and/or that has been in actual use (assuming there's a way to tell). The arithmetic is pretty straightforward.*

Idle query: Under what circumstances would a dropped domain name be allowed to truly disappear, as in, gone, no DNS record, belongs to nobody? Does it even happen any longer?


* Out of curiosity I detoured here to try a typo name that people occasionally used to mistype when my personal site had a different name. It's selling for $2495, which is approximately $2495 more than the correctly spelled name ever made me. If it makes them happy...

[Swanny007]

I've hung on to some domains for 10+ years with grand ideas. I too am letting some domains expire pretty much every year. I know I will never get around to developing the idea and I may as well let someone else have a shot at it, even if it is a sleazy domain company. Sigh.