Drop-Catching Domains Is Big Business

WebsiteMag brings us news from the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) about a recent study of drop catching —'a process whereby a domain that has expired is released into the pool of available names and is instantly re-registered by another party.' The eleven day study showed that 100% of '.com' and '.net' domain names were immediately registered after they had been released. CADNA has published the results with their own analysis. Quoting: "The results also show that 87% of Dot-COM drop-catchers use the domain names for pay-per-click (PPC) sites. They have no interest in these domain names other than leveraging them to post PPC ads and turn a profit. Interestingly, only 67% of Dot-ORG drop catchers use the domains they catch to post these sites — most likely because Dot-ORG names are harder to monetize due to the lack of type-in traffic and because they tend to be used for more legitimate purposes."

Comments

Tasting may be on the way out

[gujo-odori]

At a recent ICANN meeting, it was voted that ICANN will cease to refund the ICANN domain fee. The result of that will be that registrars won't refund it either, which in turn is expected to be a bullet to the heart of domain tasting.

ICANN's fee is not a lot - 20 cents (US) per year - but that is expected to be sufficient to make domain tasting unprofitable.

Article here: http://www.circleid.com/posts/81299_domain_tasting_ends/

Re:What needs to change

[CastrTroy]

Maybe you should switch to a different registrar if you forget to renew your domain. My registrar sends me email notices 2 months before mine expires, then again at 1 month, then a couple more times after that. They make it really hard to forget. Also, if you don't remember to renew it, maybe it wasn't worth that much to begin with.

Re:Make em expensive again

[larry bagina]

Copyright? No. Trademark? Yes. But you need to have a registered trademark, then you need to dispute to with ICANN, which costs $5000 or so (plus your lawyer fees), which means it's cheaper to buy it from a squatter (or not let it expire in the first place).

Re:What needs to change

[Anonymous Coward]

Godaddy does the same thing. I had a domain with them that I don't want any more and it just expired recently. I got many warnings in the months leading up to it and even up to the very day it expired I got an email saying "warning, expiring TODAY!!" There's no way somebody using Godaddy can bitch about forgetting to renew their domain. Come to think of it, I have another domain that doesn't expire until late March and I've already received 3 reminders from Godaddy...

No one should take that as a recommendation.

[Futurepower(R)]

Exposing the Many Reasons Not to Trust GoDaddy with Your Domain Names

Re:The real problem is phony "registrars"

[mspohr]

I don't know how you judge junk and 'bottom feeders' but I just checked about five sites that I know are legitimate and they all came up as red and yellow... you may need to refine your methods.