A Creative Communications Agency

July 27th, 2006

Categories: Domain Management, Internet Marketing

Whois Hijacking My Domain Research?

Domain names should be simple, but what happens when you lose yours? We always advise our clients to only use reputable registrars when purchasing domains (reputable does not necessarily mean large) but the following article from Larry Seltzer shed new light on even where you search for available domain names. A popular 'net urban legend' for years, it now seems that at least one organization is, in fact, monitoring domain name availability searches and 'claim jumping' open domain names.

Link: Whois Hijacking My Domain Research? (Via eWeek ) 

One Response to “Whois Hijacking My Domain Research?”

  1. John Maskell, on August 1st, 2006 at 8:10 pm Said:

    It appears there are greedy people and companies wherever you go today. The web is no exception.

    The posted article prompted a similar posting I have read by Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of GoDaddy. He talks the term Domain Kiting, another scheme practiced by companies strip-mining the internet for domain names that they use but they never pay for unless they have a return on keywords. Bob says “domain kiting registrars put up mini-Web sites — loaded with search engine links — for domains names for which they never pay. When people land on these Web sites and click on the links, money is made. It’s easy to spot one of these registrars as the number of total registrations they make often far exceed the number of permanent registrations — or names for which they actually pay.”

    Bob also quotes some staggering Domain Kiting figures – “35 million names registered in May. Only 8% of registrations were paid. 32 million were part of a scam.”

    Read about Domain Kiting here: http://www.bobparsons.com/june2006.html

    Heavy-grade fuel for thought!

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