I also noticed some dot orgs being reported as "on hold" or "deleted" which I knew were not registered - at least not registered more than a year ago - such that the domain would be expected to pass through expiration > on hold > etc. So, how does a domain that wasn't registered for a year and then allowed to expire go through the deletion process?
What I surmised is that someone simply performed a "dictionary registration", submitting a list of all words - with .Org appended - and then registering all Example.org domains that came up as available. Next, the person would test the traffic level for all the domains registered and simply drop - within a registration grace period - those domains that showed no promise. Naturally, there were lots of them.
Here's an interesting article confirming what has been going on.
[cbronline.com...]
Now, who said the business of domaining wasn't interesting?
ICANN has said they are aware of what is happening, but this does not mean they have plans to intervene.
Most of the activity is with .com's but also .net and even some .info's (as well as the .orgs.)
As long as they feel the PPC revenue will exceed the cost of registering and hosting the domain name the name is kept.
I rushed to purchase all the remaining,decent TLDs that are taken seriously (.net/.org/.com/.co.uk where applicable),to protect us from being dragged into disrepute by spammers or other miscreants.
Mysteriously,not even 6 hours later,the bogusly-reg'd cc & tv domains suddenly became available again.
Go figure.
ICANN has said they are aware of what is happening
Oh not just them. But the registrars themselves.
Well, as long as the registries don't complain about it and no contract violations have occurred,
what's anyone to do?
