New Domain Name Practice Criticized

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Network Solutions is facing harsh criticism for a new consumer-protection measure that grabs names that people search for on its web site but don't immediately register.

The name is locked up for about four days, during which the person who made the search can buy it directly from the company for $35 a year — a few times more than what many of its rivals charge. After that, the name returns to the pool and can be registered by anyone through any registration company.
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This is why I do my registration through Point Clark networks. Their integration with their open source Linux server platform is great, and they aren't in it for the big bucks like Network Solutions. :)
 
As far as I know there is no large database of all the recent domain searches done on all registrars. If you do a search on Doster for a domain name, only Dotster knows that you did it. The same goes (again, as far as I know) for all registrars. This being said, Network Solutions is blocking nobody from buying the domain name, since no shady registrars are even aware that this particular domain was searched for. In effect, as the article states, they are only doing exactly what most registrars started doing, grabbing domain names they think will be bought very soon.

This is a common occurence: Someone in the office decides they need a domain name, they search for it on any registrar and make sure it's available, then they send me an email to buy it. If I don't get to the email within a few hours (maybe less), chances are that domain will become unavailable.

It's a very dirty trick that goes counter to what the registrars signed up to be. ICANN should take a quick and very severe stance to counter-act this practice. The domains are basically held for ransom.
 
The name is locked up for about four days, during which the person who made the search can buy it directly from the company for $35 a year — a few times more than what many of its rivals charge. After that, the name returns to the pool and can be registered by anyone through any registration company.
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So does Network Solutions pay to lock a name up? If so, this practice could be discouraged through bogus name searches...
 
Just saw someone posted their personal experience to this on Slickdeals. They searched for a name, went to register with godaddy, and it was taken.
 
The whole reason they get away with this is because of the free ICANN sampling period. ICANN allows a period of (I believe) 3 days to use a domain for free. At the end of the 3 days, the registrar can return the domain at no cost. It's this little loop hole that allows companies to temporarily squat domains risk free. They essentially have bots set up to automatically grab these domains that have been searched. Then over the next few days they watch the hits on the domain, getting an idea of how successful that particular domain would be. If the site performs well, they keep it. If it doesn't, they'll drop it after the sampling period is up, losing nothing.

It's dirty and its been done for a while now. Drop the sampling period, for which I see no legitimate use, and this will all go away. My personal belief is that ICANN has been lax on this because in the end it helps them sell more domains.
 
elk5432 said:
As far as I know there is no large database of all the recent domain searches done on all registrars. If you do a search on Doster for a domain name, only Dotster knows that you did it. The same goes (again, as far as I know) for all registrars. This being said, Network Solutions is blocking nobody from buying the domain name, since no shady registrars are even aware that this particular domain was searched for. In effect, as the article states, they are only doing exactly what most registrars started doing, grabbing domain names they think will be bought very soon.
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That is correct, the problem with what network solutions is doing is that if I search on their site for a domain, find its available and then use godaddy to register it. It will show up on godaddy as registered because network solutions took it. So yes they are blocking the domain from being registered by any other registar other than themselves.
 
wfalcon said:
So does Network Solutions pay to lock a name up? If so, this practice could be discouraged through bogus name searches...
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That is what I'm thinking :)


Somone quick, generate a script ;)
 
It's domain sampling. They have 5 days to get their money back on a registered domain.

Ever seen those annoying search pages you get when you make a typo? Some company registers literally tens of thousands of domains, puts counters on them, then decides if they're worth the cost in hits. If not they just use the grace period.

It's basically people taking advantage of the shear mind-numbing stupidity of the ICANN. There is NO reason for this rebate period to exist other then to cater to corporations that specialize in exploiting it.
 
stoney_titan said:
:rolleyes: It's different. They aren't just squatting on www.Disney.com. :p
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So its different if they do it to a big existing company, but its totally okay if they do it to a small company or individual before they register their domain for the first time? :Rolleyes:
 
I think that if their prices were more in line with other companies people wouldn't have a problem. However your only choice is to either pay them $35 per year (assuming 1 year at a time), or wait the 3 days for them to release it so that you can use another company to get the domain.
 
elk5432 said:
As far as I know there is no large database of all the recent domain searches done on all registrars. If you do a search on Doster for a domain name, only Dotster knows that you did it. The same goes (again, as far as I know) for all registrars. This being said, Network Solutions is blocking nobody from buying the domain name, since no shady registrars are even aware that this particular domain was searched for. In effect, as the article states, they are only doing exactly what most registrars started doing, grabbing domain names they think will be bought very soon.

This is a common occurence: Someone in the office decides they need a domain name, they search for it on any registrar and make sure it's available, then they send me an email to buy it. If I don't get to the email within a few hours (maybe less), chances are that domain will become unavailable.

It's a very dirty trick that goes counter to what the registrars signed up to be. ICANN should take a quick and very severe stance to counter-act this practice. The domains are basically held for ransom.
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The problem is network solutions itself is "stealing" the domains. They hold it for at least 4-5 days "sampling" aka holding it for you... and depending on if it makes a profit or not, they will release it but not renew it right away.

wfalcon said:
So does Network Solutions pay to lock a name up? If so, this practice could be discouraged through bogus name searches...
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Yes they pay, but they are refunded if they drop it before the 5 day period is up. They can re-register it right away though and effectively never pay for it.

Ockie said:
That is what I'm thinking :)


Somone quick, generate a script ;)
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People on reddit.com did this the other day:
http://reddit.com/info/64xuh/comments/

http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=network-solutions-stole-my-domain.com&tld=com http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=network-solutions-swiped-my-domain.com&tld=com http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=network-solutions-nicked-my-site.com&tld=com http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=network-solutions-grabbed-my.com&tld=com http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=network-solutions-pinched-my-name.com&tld=com http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?...utions-and-this-is-all-thats-left.com&tld=com
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Just a few examples of it...
 
c.d.e said:
So its different if they do it to a big existing company, but its totally okay if they do it to a small company or individual before they register their domain for the first time? :Rolleyes:
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In my opinion it's the difference between a pop-up and a spyware. Although they are a lot of times related, the simple pop up doesn't exploit. (that is, if the site allows them)
 
wfalcon said:
So does Network Solutions pay to lock a name up? If so, this practice could be discouraged through bogus name searches...
Click to expand...

Maybe if enough people put in a lot of bogus searches, which caused a lot of names to be locked up and refunds given, it might cause too much hassle and ICANN would stop allowing it.

You would need a lot of people though or a lot of scripts running.
 
It is true other companies have done this before though. GoDaddy was one that was busted for it a few years ago.

None of the cases I know of were so direct though where every search pretty much made the domain become locked for 5 days. Most of the others would just randomly lock domains that were searched for on their site.
 
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