Last week I looked-up a domain name that was exactly on-target for the next website I want to do and it was available. Today I look and it's registered to someone else. Is there some way that someone can get a list of what domain names have been "looked-up" to see if they're available (not the registrar I checked with but someone else -- the registrar would WANT me to get the domain name through them). I'd imagine that having such a list and then registering the names that are being looked-up would be a great business...
...or am I not getting enough sleep?
Looks like I've found a decent registrar, and a cheap(ish) one as well.
" I advise clients never to look up a domain name until they are ready to pay for one, on the spot,
there and then... "
That is exactly what I did recently.
When I first got my own domain, the domain name I really wanted was taken by some small nearly invisible site.
So, I registered one with a different TLD, .net instead of .com. That was 4-5 years ago.
Recently, TWO separate entities offered to sell me the original .com domain, fairly cheap, maybe $150.
I did a lookup on the big original former-monopoly registrar.
There was the .com I wanted originally, now available. I IMMEDIATELY registered it for 10 years.
No sales price, just cost of registration, by coincidence about $150 again.
Now safely tucked away, I can talk about it.
I have both domains pointed to the same host, and the host is aliasing .com to .net
Only the .net has any content. Anyone see problems with that? -Larry
Onya
Woz
There was a prized domain .net being pending delete, and that was where I tried to backorder that but failed. The registrar was network solutions.
"We're sorry! A secondary search showed that this domain is not available.
Please enter a different domain name below."
I checked the whois and there the domain has just been registered 1 minute ago.
I guess the title of this thread is correct. I'm not sure though if it's yahoo or someone else has access to what people are searching for domain name is the culprit.
If you want to look at the domain name, pm me.
Which registrars are being used? How scientific is the approach?
Spammers would seem to be one crowd to take a shining to such an idea of registering a domain in order to make a big profit off of it.
Rule #1.) Don't visit the domain name you want.
Rule #2.) Do not look up availability of a domain name you want.
Rule #3.) Be cautious about using whois services.
Until you have the capitol to purchase a domain name through your prefered registrar pinging a domain name via the three rules I stated is a no no if you subscribe to the conspiracy theory.
<edit>
Since anyone can become a registrar it seems rather logical that with a little scripting some list can be made of domains that exist that were checked for availability.
<edit>
So it's a matter of deciding if your registrar is on your side or not. There are ways of doing so but I think that would be better off in another thread by someone a little more qualified in that case).
[edited by: Webwork at 3:39 am (utc) on Nov. 27, 2005]
Google for domain-name
Google kw1 kw2
Check archive.org (especially if domain expired)
type www.domain.com into browser
Browse catagories in Sedo etc
Usually I will grab the domain name right then and there!
I also usually use directnic for searching ... I like the interface. But, I also use bugmenot ...
J
In a couple of instances I've been burned by a fried (banned) domain that I had to purchase immediately to protect.
Otherwise buying immediately works fine. We're just lucky that domain registration is so cheap now-a-days.
Freq---
So prepare for registration before checking whois. I suggest to use [internic.net...]
Why?
Because it is free. They can cancel the domains that they mass purchase within a 3-5 days 'grace period'.
Try going through a droplist of expired domains and none of them will be available the day it is dropped. After they (the registrars) have tested and proven that these names are useless traffic-wise, then it will be dropped back into the pool. So in the end, they keep the high traffic names while leaving the crumbs to anyone who wants it few days later.
Funny thing is, from the first time I did a whois, I thought of this hole and was concerned it could happen.
This industry needs to be regulated and these policies should be illegal.
It may be going too far to blame an actual registrar - it could well be the employees, making a little on the side. (Not that this lets the employer off from their responsibilities!)
(BTW I don't know how to do that quote thing where it puts it in a shaded box...help?)
Clark, I like your idea here but don't totally understand it. How do you know who the "offenders" are? Would there be a bot that generates and checks fake domain names, then checks back in a couple days to see if they're taken?
I don't know much about the history of the industry but I agree it needs to be regulated. Why doesn't a government agency handle all registrations (for .com, .org, etc)?
My experience has been sometimes true, sometimes false.
The results I get when I do a look up would cause me to believe that any whois service queries all the registrars' databases for information, and so you're still querying each registrar's database whether or not you're on their specific website
Clark says: "Evil thought experiment. What would happen if we pooled our resources, built something that spoofs IP Addresses and cookies. That queries the whois of the offenders and follows that up by generating traffic to those domains and get these suckers to buy up a ton of junk domains."
If you want to make these people buy up junk domains, it would be better to randomly hit on their parked page continuously for afew days after the drop rather than querying the domains before that.
One particular registrar will hold on to the domains for afew days through their various proxies irregardless of whether anyone is interested in it or not.
I would be interested to participate in this experiment and it would be better to have a more varied base of 'visitors' to these park pages.
