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Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

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nosh:
I thought of a domain name I liked: digistrom.com, a couple of years back. I checked for availability using a domain name checking site though I wasn't serious about getting it then. The name was available. I had thought up the name myself and a Google search showed negligible hits for 'digistrom'... someone posting in a forum using the nick. I expected the name to be available when I was serious about getting a website. A few months down the line I checked again and... you guessed it: this time it was taken. The home page leads me to believe it's been taken up by squatters. There seems to be no legit presence behind the site even now.

I Googled a little and a comment on this page confirms my suspicions.
# Steve Jones Says:
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:16 pm

The problem is even worse than stated…..domain name checking sites and searches are now being monitored by squatters. I searched and found two available domain names for my site, and within 15 minutes of finding each one, they magically became “taken”. This is BS and needs to be stopped!!!

--- End quote ---

Do we even need a web service to tell us if a name is available? Seems to me the best way to go about it is just try opening the name you like in your browser and if you hit a "server not found" the name's probably available.

I just wanted to put this up as a cautionary tale for anyone who might be thinking of getting a domain name in the future. I've learned my lesson the hard way and the name I like is probably worth a few hundred $, if not more. The ridiculous amounts some people are willing to pay squatters seems to make it worth their while to usurp thousands of domains. Even if a handful of domains are actually bought back the squatter comes out a winner.

 

tranglos:
I had a similar experience a few years back. My wife was setting up her one-person business, required for tax reasons here in Poland. She named the business using a Spanish word ("Adelante"), which sounds pleasantly exotic to Polish ears, and unlikely to have existed as a .pl domain. I checked with one online service (a large hosting provider) and it was available. Now comes the part where I was head-slappingly stupid - I waited two weeks for the paperwork to go through on the new company. Well, two weeks later the domain adelante.pl was gone. Today it's for sale.

To say I was irked is an understatement, especially that I used a supposedly reputable hosting provider to check availability. I have two other .pl domains registered with them, they're not freebies. Either they themselves are in the business of stealing potential domain names, or they outsource the availability checking mechanism to someone who does. It's pretty hopeless these days.

Renegade:
+1 for those cautionary tales.

A number of years ago I wanted to buy this domain:

NSFWhttp://www.fucksatan.com/

I waited... Foolish me... When I went back, it was gone and a Cafepress site was up selling the domain name as t-shirts and cups and crap.

However, after a year, the guy didn't renew it and it became available. Lucky me~! I bought it along with a few others.

Still NSFWfucksatan.biz
fucksatan.info
fucksatan.net
rapesatan.com


A domain name costs between 2~3 cups of coffee or so at a local coffee shop. If in doubt, fall off your wallet and just buy it.

I have a bunch of domains that I want to do something with, but no time to do it.

These are some domains that I bought a few years ago for a project that I'd love to get to, but just never seem to be able to find time:

SEOMETH.COM
SEOONMETH.COM
SEOONSPEED.COM
SEOVERDOSE.COM
SEOVERDRIVE.COM
SEOVERKILL.COM

I've had people try to buy some with stupid bids like $100 or something. Really... WTH? Why would I sell for that? The absolute minimum that I'd sell a crappy domain for is most certainly more than $100. Otherwise it's not really worth the time to bother. Good domains... much more. It's not my core business, so it needs to be worth my while to distract me.

Squatters do this for a living. And they're very good at squeezing you for every penny they can. A lot of these guys have single word domains and have more money than you can shake a stick at. They don't care in the least about selling another domain for a few hundred or thousand because they can sell many of their domains for much, much more.

But domainers are even worse... They buy up millions of domains, then return them within the ICANN 4 (or 5) day return period, then buy them again. They lock up domains and just use them for ads. It's a dirty business, but it's legal. (Kind of like how being a lawyer is legal, but dirty. :P )

I use GoDaddy, and they don't snap up domains that you search for. Other registrars do.


Hey -- what registrars were you guys using?

nosh:
I can't recall which registrar I used, I'd have surely named them in the OP if I did.

Renegade:
I think Network Solutions used to do this stuff -- buying domains when you check for them. Not sure if they still do.

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