Slashdot Mirror
How Many .com Domain Names Are Unused? (singaporedatacompany.com)
Christopher Forno, CTO at Singapore Data Company writes: When looking for .com names, I've been frustrated by how many are already taken but appear to be unused. It can feel like people are registering every pronounceable combination of letters in every major language, and even the unpronounceable short ones. Is there rampant domain speculation, or do I just think of the same names as everyone else? Let's look at the data.
There are currently 137 million .com domain names registered. Of these, roughly 1/3 are in use (businesses, personal websites, email, etc.), another 1/3 appear to be unused, and the last 1/3 are used for a variety of speculative purposes. I started by crawling a random sample of the domains from the top-level .com DNS zone file, until reaching 100,000 valid domains. [...] For most categories I've included a random sample of screenshots from that category, excluding redundant ones: Content (31% or ~43 million), Ads (23% or ~31 million), No Web Server (11% or ~16 million), Empty (9.2% or ~13 million), For Sale (7.1% or ~9.8 million), Error (5.7% or ~7.9 million), Parked (4.8% or ~6.5 million), Gambling (3.0% or ~4 million), Mail (2.6% or ~3.5 million), Redirect (1.1% or ~1.6 million), Private (0.64% or ~0.9 million), and Porn (0.59% or ~0.8 million).
There are currently 137 million .com domain names registered. Of these, roughly 1/3 are in use (businesses, personal websites, email, etc.), another 1/3 appear to be unused, and the last 1/3 are used for a variety of speculative purposes. I started by crawling a random sample of the domains from the top-level .com DNS zone file, until reaching 100,000 valid domains. [...] For most categories I've included a random sample of screenshots from that category, excluding redundant ones: Content (31% or ~43 million), Ads (23% or ~31 million), No Web Server (11% or ~16 million), Empty (9.2% or ~13 million), For Sale (7.1% or ~9.8 million), Error (5.7% or ~7.9 million), Parked (4.8% or ~6.5 million), Gambling (3.0% or ~4 million), Mail (2.6% or ~3.5 million), Redirect (1.1% or ~1.6 million), Private (0.64% or ~0.9 million), and Porn (0.59% or ~0.8 million).
”Is there rampant domain speculation, or do I just think of the same names as everyone else?”
Yes and yes.
#DeleteChrome
...prefixing with 'www.'?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Same as Land in the US, only tiny fraction is used while 100% is owned by someone. Domain names are just internet real estate, wouldn't expect it to be any other way.
A lot of servers we do security for have stuff at http://domain.com/employeeport... and http://domain.com/he/ or whatever, but nothing on the index page.
Another chunk are non-web servers. Domains aren't just for web sites, of course. Others are only accessible from certain networks and VPNs, something like DellTeamNet.com for Dell employees or whatever.
I wonder how many of the "empty", "error", "unused", and "no web server" are actually used - just not for a public web site with a normal index page.
There are plenty of domains in heavy use for things other than the Web. Classifying these as "unused" is probably not right.
Just because a domain doesn't have a website doesn't mean that it isn't used for something.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
How many of these might be domains that are used only for email or other services other than www?
Interesting, but it appears he manually classified the websites by looking at the content of the top level page. Needs some AI. That way he could go through more than 100,000 of the 137,000,000 domains. I am sure this can be done with Deep Learning Neural Networks.
My last name isn't incredibly common, so I thought I would buy the .com domain. Turns out it is owned by Tucows who offers to rent it to me for $35 a year under their RealNames service. I contacted them about actually purchasing the domain outright and the response I received was that sale of their domain names start around $5000.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
" Is there rampant domain speculation"
Did you just get started on the internet? Where have you been the last 30 years? Under a rock? I remember 20 years ago trying to get a good domain name was a nightmare... I guess now it's impossible.
However a CTO who does not know even the most fundamental basics of the internet, or expects to buy a .com domain in 2019, does not the best advertisement make.
I mean, I fully expect his next post to ask who are these 'hackers' that broke into into his Windows 3.11 computers and stole all his data. I fully expect him to be shocked, I tell you shocked, that someone thug could or world log onto an innocent person remote disks an download all the data.
Or how he left his unencrypted laptop for a minute at the airport to go the bathroom, and even asked the nice kid next to him to watch it, an by the time he landed at his destination all the data was sold on this new fangled thing called the dark web.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Probably 5 letter combinations too... https://whoapi.com/blog/we-are...
This study is flawed and Indemand a recount. From a typical browser history it is easy to exteapolate that at least 1/3 of the .com domains serve porn.
Years back I tried an experiment: put a domain name in a browser and not no response. Went to GoDaddy to register it and was told it was taken. Tried in the browser again and got a 'this address is for sale!' banner and an email to the address I had given GD offering to sell it to me within minutes. GD pretty much exists to suck up domain names people submit and then try to sell their idea back to them.
Man, I can't even get a name for my startup company, even furryballsploppedmenacinglyonthetableinc.com is being park squated by a registrar!
Last company had hundreds of internal subdomains almost none of which have any external visibility to the casual "Internet Researcher"
Externally some domains were just redirects for companies that had been absorbed, or products no longer supported.
That being said, there are a lot of people who spend their lottery scratchers money on squatting on domains, and will probably end up with just as much profit over time.
There is and there has been for a couple of decades. Welcome to the Internet. It's a wonderful place. You may like it here.
I wouldn't have guessed, but not too surprised when it showed that gambling sites were primarily in Chinese. What did surprise me was the same held true for porn sites. My guess is that the great firewall would filter those out, though that was just an assumption. if true, are those sites aimed at ex-pats? Just for research purposes only, I searched Google for the word "porn" and got 4.2 billion hits. Searching for the Chinese word for porn gave me 600 million. Then I searched for the Chinese word for pornography which gave more hits, 700 million. Interestingly, clicking on "images " for the Chinese word for porn showed almost all very explicit images, while the word pornography showed suggestively, but not explicit images. Searching in English is similar, but where porn gives you porn images, searching for pornography gives you mostly anti-porn images.
I work with a 501(c)3 nonprofit. We operate our website off of the .org domain, but also own .com, .net, and .info for defensive purposes. We don’t want someone else to grab them and do something nefarious with them. I should actually check to see if those redirect back to our .org
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
1
2
3
-crunch-
Three, there are three unused .com domains.
Yeah, I have always ever used my domains for e-mail or DDNS for remote access and custom web services. I have never put up a web site on any of them.
Does that mean my domains are "unused"?
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Does that mean my domains are "unused"?
It does to the people who want your domain. I have my own domain for email and have had several requests to purchase it (for peanuts, I might add) since "it wasn't in use" due to a lack of web presence.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
Domains aren't just for web sites, of course.
Indeed. I have a short .com domain that is only used for my for personal email.
Is this an article from 1998?
I'm expecting a follow up article about how all the good King names are taken.
"Richard the SECOND? You expect me to go by Richard the SECOND?"
Back when buying your own domain name was starting to be a cool thing, I checked it out. I figured I'd try it but with no luck. Because my last name is also that of a company. A company that claims to be, among other things, a player in the telecommunications biz. But there it was, so I dropped $35 on it and I've had it ever since.
Once I got it set up, I started receiving e-mail that was directed at the company in question. So I added a note on my page redirecting people to the appropriate address. It took over ten years for someone to contact me from that outfit and ask if I'd be willing to sell*. Nope. By then, I started running my own consulting business from that site and I couldn't be bothered to change all my contacts**. I also figured that anyone in the telecoms business who wasn't smart enough to grab their own domain back when Al Gore invented the Internet didn't deserve it by now.
*Lots of 'domain management companies' offer to take over the maintenance of my domain. But it only costs me a few minutes a year to manage. And I suspect they are either after money or are trying to steal it, since there is a market for it.
**There is nothing better than having your own e-mail domain. No matter how shitty ISPs get, I can always switch without having to update a bunch of contact information.
I have a domain name I just use for internal use on my network, but have the actual domain name so, among other things, I can issue real certs for it. I suspect there's a fair amount of use cases like that. Also probably plenty of domains just used for email, or internal gsuite type stuff.
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Isn't that what subdomains are for? I.e. instead of registering the separate domain 'dellteamnet.com' they could have stuck it at teamnet.dell.com.
You are assuming that the silos can coordinate with each other efficiently.... Never the case in a mega corp....
Easier for the remote access team to set up their own domain than to try to navigate the waters necessary to open and maintain a sub-domain.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
There's a three-letter domain owned by some friends of mine that does nothing but redirect to a page on my own website (with my permission). I've had several people contact me to try to buy the three letter domain, even though a quick whois would have given them the real domain owner's info.
for any tdl really. You get some pretty interesting names. :)
[($)]
Hell, fifteen years ago when I was setting up a complex of five domains, I made the mistake of doing a search for one of them first. By the time I went to register it, someone had grabbed it and I got an email offering to sell it. It sat unused for five years until lapse, at which time I finally got it.
Yer a little late to the topic, Sonny.
PS: Hint - if you get such an email, do not respond. If you do, you'll never see it free again.
Well how do you know the domain name you want is unused?
Did you scan every port on the address it pointed to?
Did you check all DNS entries to see if there is an active subdomain?
Did you check the MX records to see if someone's getting email from it?
Did you check with all products out there to see if someone didn't just block that domain because they produce a product that relies on hijacking DNS in order to configure, and they registered the domain to ensure they don't end up trampling on a legitimate site?
And even when the silos do communicate, things like trust chains and business units can make it a pain.
While dellteamnet.com might be ambiguous, it might actually be for intranet.storage.marketing.dell.com. For my company, we have two legacy domain names (.com and .net) or our original, rediculously long domain name (20 characters... only took us a month to justify paying for a 6-letter domain), and two backup domains that likely should be retired. That is for just 50 people...
Well, I have five, three of which are related by name and connected to books of mine. One is the 'real' site and the other two are by and large stubs. They have bits of stuff on them but are to keep those particular names under my control.
I used to work at a company that resold secondary domain names. One story was legendary among the sales team. There was a three letter domain name, privately owned, which also happened to be a word which summed up an entire multi-billion dollar industry. One of the main companies in that spaced noticed this domain, and asked our sales people to help them acquire it. They wanted to pay around $500,000 for the privilege of owning it.
The man who owned it had worked in Silicon Valley for a long time, had plenty of money, and didn't need the $500,000. Let's say the domain name was ABC.com, this guy's name would then be ABCowski.com. In his word's, "That's me. I'm John ABCowski. I'm ABC.com. I don't need the money. Stop bothering me." The sales guys, who worked on commission, were tearing their hair out, not able to understand why the guy wouldn't take the money. As a non-sales person, and someone who finely appreciates the fact that money doesn't buy everything, I found this hilarious.
That is all.
I was going to make a joke about goatrape.com not being taken. Then i checked to make sure. That was a mistake.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
That says "Hi" in a very basic HTML index page to visitors/bots. It's the simplest solution that keeps the "your domain appears to be unused and we'd like to buy it for peanuts" emails in check. I'm even nice enough to set up SSL certs.
Or there are those that own our own names as web address. I know I do, I also own a few variations. Not all are in use though, mostly out of protecting myself.
Haris's Lament: "All the good ones are taken."
What's old is new again...
There's an active aftermarket in domains, why not use that? I use https;//www.domainjackal.com and https://www.domainauctionsearch.com for this purpose.
Not quite a 3-letter domain, but this one is provably real: milk.com.
Yeah, I have domains where the base domain just gives a 403 but subdomains are used for various things, or / gives a 403 but other URLs have content on them. My wife's e-mail is on a domain with that server a placeholder page with two sentences of text on it. I had someone asking to buy it off me as I'm clearly not using it and she didn't understand that there are more services than web sites.
Oil
Ore
Gas
Those are my guesses
How is this guy a CTO? Everyone knows there are companies that harvest domain names. Domains with full words are scarfed up by domain harvesters and then sold as a premium domain for thousands of dollars. WTF?