Domain Tasting Causes Domain Registration Problems

The problems caused by Domain Tasters or Domain Front Runners was explored in an Article posted on Tuesday entitled, “Domain Tasting’ is a Pretty Tasteless Practice”. That article made reference to a post, ‘Who is Monitoring Your Domain Searches’, that surfaced back in February of 2007 and which drew the public’s attention to the unsavory business of domain tasting.

If you have ever used a domain registrar to check on the availability of a domain name, find that it is still available but for some reason do not immediately register the domain name, then return shortly after to register the domain name and realize that it has already been registered; then you were likely victim of Domain Tasting.

Domain Tasters pay domain registrars, or in some cases (ex: GoDaddy,  NetworkSolutions) it is the domain registrar itself, to be informed of searches for Non-eXistent Domain (NXD) data. The Domain Taster then registers the domain name with a domain registrar and keeps it during the 5 day grace period to determine if it will be a profitable domain name. If it receives traffic, they will likely keep the domain name. However, if it receives no further attention, they will likely terminate the domain registration within the 5 day period and the Domain Taster will then have gotten away, Scott Free!

However, there are some ways of protecting yourself from this happening;

1. Delay performing a Whois query, until you are actually prepared to follow through with registration of the domain name.  Search for and register new domain names immediately whenever inspiration strikes you.

2. If you have recently performed a whois query or a blind domain search using Address Bar Guessing, and later return to the previously unregistered domain name and find that it has been purchased in the intervening time, cease traffic to the domain name until the 5 day grace period has passed and then return to see if you can then legitimately purchase the domain name.

3. Conversely, if you are thinking of several different domain names to register for a project, register each of them immediately and monitor traffic during the 5 day grace period (if the register you are using provides such a grace period; examples include Moniker and Dynadot) to decide which of the domain names you want to keep.

4. Do not make a habit of blind domain searching using Address Bar Guessing. There are ISP’s who profit from the business of accumulating this data, Non-eXistent Domain data, to domain registers.

For more information on Domain Tasting, Cybersquatting, and Domain Disputes;

Protecting Your Brand and Trademark,

Entrepreneurs Profit From Free Web Names,

Google to kill Domain Tasting,

Post Domain Terms Not Cybersquatting,

ICANN to open up 400 Generic Top Level Domain names (TLD's) exclusively to Brand Name owners during a Sunrise Period,