Comments on: Who's watching my domain name searches?

Question: Who's watching my domain name searches?

Kibbutz — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:31:14 -0800

I looked up a domain name at networksolutions on February 19, 2008. The .com and the rest of the suffixes (suffi?) were available. I checked back today to find that the .com version had been purchased on the same day that I researched it. It's now hosted at "reserveddomains". 1. Who bought it? Network Solutions? 2. Whatta the odds?

By: crickets

crickets — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:35:40 -0800

Network Solutions has a "feature" by which they register, for 5 days I believe, *every* domain that is looked up using their system. Read about it here:

http://commandline.org.uk/more/squat-for-the-win-2008-01-09-03-36

By: tdischino

tdischino — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:40:45 -0800

This is becoming very common.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:49:47 -0800

Network Solutions is not your friend. Really.

By: jesirose

jesirose — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:03:23 -0800

I always use whois.net for this and I have never had a name stolen, and I have about 100 or so registered. Network Solutions is a biatch.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:03:55 -0800

As per the other answers, the odds are actually about 100% right now because of shadiness being done by Network Solutions (and other registrars I imagine...) That said, like crickets mentioned it should come free in a few days b/c at that point they'd have to start paying for it.

By: TheDukeofLancaster

TheDukeofLancaster — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:29:32 -0800

There were a lot of complaints when this started.

By: raconteur

raconteur — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:39:54 -0800

Usually they float the purchase for something like 10-30 days. If there's no sign of it being profitable, it will return to the open market before they *actually* have to pay money for it. (Sorry, I forget the exact float period by which they have to pay or surrender the name.) So your best bet is to leave it be and check it again in a month.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:39:54 -0800

Yeah, what they said. FWIW, I only do "whois" from the command line (I'm not even sure if that protects me) and if it's a domain name I'm remotely interested in, I register it immediately.

By: zuhl

zuhl — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:23:06 -0800

You are much better off doing a "whois" from the command line to check availability, IMHO.

The practice is called "Domain Tasting" and it's nasty. Give it a couple days (5 days to be exact) and it will probably become available again.

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:34:57 -0800

Just one more thing (all the other answers are right on based on my knowledge): don't give the domain too many hits – any, if you can avoid it – while it's in Network Solutions' control. If you do, they might decide it's worth something and hang onto it for the advertising revenue, or just to extort more money from you with.

And in case you didn't catch on yet, Network Solutions is pure unmitigated evil.

By: jdroth

jdroth — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:03:31 -0800

This has happened to me several times before. I never thought that maybe there were temporary holds on the domains. Maybe I should go double-check some of the ones I wanted. Pisses me off.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:47:45 -0800

If not Network Solutions, with what company should we register domain names?

By: B(oYo)BIES

B(oYo)BIES — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:25:22 -0800

I have always registered my domains with GoDaddy (a lot of people despise GoDaddy) and have never had this problem. I have checked a domain, came back a couple days later and purchased without issue.

By: B(oYo)BIES

B(oYo)BIES — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:26:44 -0800

Plus, there are always promo codes for domains at GoDaddy (never pay more than 6.99 for a domain).

By: bkeene12

bkeene12 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:46:30 -0800

Fandango- no complaints with nic.com that I have seen yet.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:19:32 -0800

In the future instantdomainsearch.com is not only your friend, it's friggin' awesome. It claims not to record your searches, and I've never had a domain poached after using it, not that I'm looking for anything exciting.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:23:58 -0800

If not Network Solutions, with what company should we register domain names?

Register.com was one of their first major competitors. I purchased a couple names through them back in the late 90's. The domains were still $35/year though. I've used GoDaddy lately, and it works well, but the CEO once wrote an essay praising the Gitmo prison, so if I didn't already have a bunch of names there I wouldn't start using it. Yahoo actually has a domain registration service that's pretty cheap.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:59:08 -0800

I moved all my domains from Godaddy to Dotster (recommended by a friend who runs a small ISP) after Bob Parsons wrote in praise of Gitmo.

By: mephron

mephron — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:40:36 -0800

I use pair.com for both registration and hosting and I've only had a problem once, and their support people were able to fix it inside of twenty minutes of me submitting the ticket.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:35:31 -0800

Yay, Dotster!