I bet many of you have seen this site

and got mad

[zeus]

I just got this page again and now I wonder how many sites these person have under not related keywords. Sometime if you type something wrong the page comes out and if you make a focused search and the description or domainname sounds good you click on it and there it is again the same site, they must have 10000 of sites like this.

here is a search I made :
http://www.sportsindex.com

I think it is just to much.

zeus

[Omni]

10000 is too small a number

[Napoleon]

Got mad alright!

A few months ago one of my domains was allowed to expire due to an error by an ISP (yes - I learned the lesson from it!). These parisites were in there within 24 hours, and bought it before I could react (or even knew it had expired). Yes, they stuck the same garbage site on there that you report.

This does show the value of the changes under consideration at present regarding domain name expiry.

[zeus]

thanks Napoleon that will remind me of, to renew my domain, I think they go after succes domains in different categories.

zeus

[garry]

Yep !

These fricks are even in the Outback !
Beat me to a site before it fully expired.

[Omni]

chris_f their site may be poor but you'll be surprised how much money they're "not" making ;)

The company you are referring to I believe is called UtlSearch (Ultimate Search) and they are amongst the biggest players.

[chiyo]

Chris F's Article 2 on the poetry site was a real eye opener. I worry all the time whether our domains are being renewed, but they referred to the fact that "all email was being sent" to Hong Kong. Hey.. I never thought of that. In essence it means that one can never ever trust a website to hold your email address securely. They may just inadvertantly let the domain address expire and cowboys will jump on it in a matter of hours.

I know the responsibility is with site owners to renew domains, but there really just has to be a grace period when a domain cannot be transferred unless permission is received from previous owners, and that registries are repsonsible for contacting owners if a domain expires without renewal. This must just be a case where regulation is essential. I know some people here use the domain expiry alert services, so they can register better domains but I would bet that the great majority of users to these services are cowboys. It does not help anybody except for the domain name grabbers to suddenly have a site start returning a heap of casino/affiliate/porn instead. It just not help the image of the Web as a serious medium.

I feel very sorry for those poetry society guys. Its a simple admin mistake that has cost them thousands in brand building. Not to mention contacts as all their confidential email is going to some very bad guys in Hong Kong. Thousands of email users will be affected, as i guess the new owners will not only be able to read their email, but spam them very seriously.

[Omni]

chiyo each registrars does have their own grace period. With OpenSRS for instance it's 45 days if I remember correctly. With NetSol it's unpredictable. But near the expiry date or on the expiry date the registrars would send an email to the domain owners - and if the email address in the whois isn't accurate well... :)

I know the responsibility is with site owners to renew domains

couldn't have said it better. As for Ultimate Search, last I checked, the "bad guys" were playing by the rules. If not, sue them ;)

[chris_f]

I've dealt with them in the past. They are generally playing by the rules, however, they have been to court several times over a number of domains because of copyright. I guess it's not illegal just uneffical.

They took a domain name right from my clutches. I had arranged permission to buy a domain off someone when it expired and we were in constant communication. The day it expired I got an email telling me I could register it (from the previous owner). The took it before I could get to it. It was an extremely juicy name as well. I could have made a fortune from it.

Chris.

[Omni]

The day it expired I got an email telling me I could register it (from the previous owner).

Uhh that doesn't sound too good and may explain why - a transfer does a better job.

[shanz]

Did anybody notice in the articles above about the poetry society that the old address is now resolving to the new one.

I wonder if the owners of this Hong Kong outfit saw a situation where they would lose?

Shanz