Whirlpool

Has anyone here been hit by domain tasting?

What happens is that when you do a whois search, the registrar keeps a record of the search. If you don't register the domain, they do.

They are allowed to keep the domain for 5 days, at which point they can drop it and incur no costs. This allows them to domain squat with click through ads to see if the domain is profitable. If it is, they keep it.

I bring this up, because I just got hit by this. I searched for a domain on sunday, went to register it today, and it was gone (registered yesterday in the name of a Hong Kong company).

Here is a article about it: www.bobparsons.com/adddropscheme.html

synik writes...

Has anyone here been hit by domain tasting?

Haven't been affected by it so far. However I never do a "domain name search" until I am ready to register it on the spot if available.

Here is a article about it: www.bobparsons.com/adddropscheme.html

Yet another form of cyber-squatting & should not be allowed by ICANN

I wish ICANN were as strict as the AUDA

synik writes...

I searched for a domain on sunday

Where did you search?

I was pretty sure I only searched on melbourne IT, but I might have just googled and searched somewhere else.

I'll wait 5 days then check the domain again.

I can't imagine it being valuable to anyone else.

synik writes...

What happens is that when you do a whois search, the registrar keeps a record of the search. If you don't register the domain, they do.

The "domain tasting" thing is common for people using ad based revenue, but it has nothing to do with your domain searches. If there is a gtld domain that is worth registering, it never lasts very long.

I bring this up, because I just got hit by this. I searched for a domain on sunday, went to register it today, and it was gone (registered yesterday in the name of a Hong Kong company).

So... were you searching for the domain through a HK based registrar, or are you suggesting that the registrar sold/provided the search logs to a third party? Much more likely that the timing was coincidental (good .com's are hard to come by... if it seems good to you, it probably seems good to someone else)

Do you also have any evidence that they are involved in "domain tasting?" - or are you simply assuming this since they are in the "traffic monetization" business?

ICANN could reduce domain tasting by either reducing the add/drop period, charging a small ($0.25) fee to delete a domain and/or putting deleted domains into a pendingDelete period (this presently doesn't happen with domains deleted during the grace period).

Well, the evidence I have is coincidental.

I searched for the domain, and didn't register it
I found it registered the next day by a HK company
I searched for that companies name in google, and what comes up? several other people who had the exact same thing happen to them.

Given that there are registrars who are KNOWN to engage in this practice, it certainly makes sense.

In all honesty it does serve me right for not registering it on the spot, but if the domain becomes available again in 4 days or changes registrar, then that'll pretty much prove it.

registering a domain that was searched through a whois search engine is a pretty sick and it should be made illegal, its just wasting domains and putting more crap on the web that fills your pc with spyware

synik writes...

Given that there are registrars who are KNOWN to engage in this practice, it certainly makes sense.

This is what you keep saying, but they're not... there is a BIG difference between registering domains and dropping them within grace period, and actually going through search query logs to steal peoples ideas.

And how do you know that the HK company "did the same" to other people? If they have ads on the site, that means they are involved in "domain monetization" - not they necessarily created/dropped domains (and again, even if they do create/drop, doesn't mean that they found your search results).

There are many dodgy practices out there, but I think you're just paranoid.

There are many dodgy practices out there, but I think you're just paranoid.

Well you can think whatever you damn well please, but you're wrong.

I didn't say they are registering other peoples domains, merely squatting during the grace period - and quite often doing it more than once for the same domain.

They may not have actually registered the domain, but they have effectively taken it out of circulation.

Halloween writes...

And how do you know that the HK company "did the same" to other people?

Quite simple, I googled their name and found multiple instances of obscure domain names being registered by THAT company after people had performed whois searches.

Here is an article PROVING that the practise is happening:

www.ipwalk.com/blog/?p=35

synik writes...

Quite simple, I googled their name and found multiple instances of obscure domain names being registered by THAT company after people had performed whois searches.

A WHOIS search is not the same as the a DOMAIN LOOKUP. The latter queries the registry to see whether it is available. You were suggesting that these people get a hold of your searches. You are wrong.

Domain tasters test the "worth" of a domain by registering a domain, and seeing how many people visit. The create/drop (repeatedly) is an extremely dodgy practice that should be banned. I have suggested ways in a previous post that ICANN could limit this, as did the first article you linked to. But this has nothing to do with your searches for domain AVAILABILITY.

Try to learn what your talking about before quoting articles you only half understand.

I understand the full article mate.

Go back and read the article.

Domain tasters ARE testing the worth of domains using the create/drop method, that is a fact.

Ok, yes I was referring to DOMAIN look ups.

People *do* get a hold of searches, depending on how and where the search is done. If the search is done via a compromised DNS server, or a online search tool which keeps track of searches, then it is more than possible - surely you would agree with that?

When querying WHOIS for the the current owner of the domain I searched on, I found www.wangleedomains.com

Note that the page says automated domain registration.

When I do a search on the same person/site I have found several other individuals who performed a search, and within 24 hours found that the domain name they searched was taken.

Do you allege these people are lying?
or do you think it was all a coincidence? these people (and me) just happened to search for a domain, not buy it, and have wangleedomains grab it with 24 hours?

synik writes...

Domain tasters ARE testing the worth of domains using the create/drop method, that is a fact.

Yes, I know they use the create/drop method to test the worth.... they do this by seeing how many visitors they get during the grace period. This has nothing to do with domain availability searches.

And to put the "automated domain registration" comment in context, what the page actually says is:

"The domain are registered using automated method that makes impossible to verify if they are similar to existing trademarks.
If you believe a domain is infringing on your valid trademark, please email at: contact@wangleedomains.com"

All domain registrations are "automated" in this fashion, and do not perform trademark searches.

Do you allege these people are lying?

No, they're not lying, and it's not a coincidence - just simple mathematics. Anybody with any experience with .com's knows how quickly they go... Even "fsdfdsf.com" is taken for goodness sake! You think your domain was less popular than that?

The domains would have went regardless of if they searched. Like you, they are too ignorant of how things work, and would rather blame some intricate conspiracy on how they missed out on their domain, rather than their own lack of action.

Stop being so condescending.

You should full well know that it would not be difficult to set up a site offerring domain searches, and then automatically snap up any that show as free.

Do you allege that the obscure domain I wanted just happened to be registered within 24 hours of my search for it? The other people that lost domains in the same way were also using obscure domain names.

Perhaps this registrar has a strange knack for thinking up domain names within 24 hours of people searching for them.

Halloween writes...

All domain registrations are "automated" in this fashion, and do not perform trademark searches.

No, I would think he has an automated system (eg, a domain search page) that flags available domains for him, then registers them automatically.

Have a look through this discussion on the same topic:
www.webhostingtalk.com/a...ad/502438-1.html

Halloween writes...

This has nothing to do with domain availability searches.

Certain registrars will use availability searches on their website as the basis for new registrations. There are simply too many obscure domains (and by obscure, I mean long and unwieldy) registered after searches on .

I'd like to do a quick experiment on this, so I'd appreciate it if everyone could whim me all the registrars you know of, good and bad.

synik writes...

Perhaps this registrar has a strange knack for thinking up domain names within 24 hours of people searching for them.

Got any examples?

The lesson here, use a registrar that does no participate in this practice. Such as... godaddy.

As expected, the HK company released the domain today (5 days after they snagged it).

I just registered it through godaddy.

Glad it worked out in the end for you.. phew :)

I lost a domain when doing a search back in about 2000, 2001. I've been hearing of various people gitting hit by various companies since then as well.

Ever since then I've done the following on a linux box.

whois -h whois.geektools.com <domainname>

Geektools provide a somewhat free/unlimited whois proxy. Works well enough for me.

There have been very few occasions where I've had a domain not showup there and yet still be unavailable.

This wang lee guy from hong kong registered some of my unique .com registrations
that i have been researching for 2 months, all through godaddy.com.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he could not have randomly selected
my domain choices in different fields ranging from banking to dating to diets.
We need to report him for kiting. The worst part is that he has to have had access to godaddy searches because i only searched for these sites once over the last 2 months.
I hope he releases mine today (the fifth day) when he sees no direct navigation traffic
will come from my .com domains. The sites need to be built up. This infuriated me to no end.

i signed wang lee up for over 100 mailing lists and gaypon sites in return for the lovely favor he did for me.

synik writes...

They are allowed to keep the domain for 5 days, at which point they can drop it and incur no costs.

Thanks for this thread...

I had tried about 2 weeks ago to register an expiring domain name and had been watching it for a while. Within a 12 hour period the name expired and was snapped up by someone else who then put a parked page on it.

Due to this thread I just rechecked the domain and the .com, .net and .org were all available again.

I now have the domain,

thanks.

kevg77 writes...

gaypon sites

You went to a gaypon site?

Interesting thread. I came across it after having pretty much the same experience using www.godaddy.com to search for a domain that was snapped up by www.wangleedomains.com. I searched for a .com domain, waited a few seconds for the status to pop-up. godaddy.com told me it was registered so I checked who had registered the domain and it was www.wangleedomains.com. The amazing thing is that it was registered at the EXACT SAME TIME that I did the search. There is no way in hell this is a coincidence. Makes me wonder if godaddy.com has some shady deal with Wang Lee Domains or if Wang Lee Domains is intercepting domain searches and has a automated script to register sites that people do domain searches on that have a combination of popular words. Can anybody out there explain how this could happen and if it is legal?

Can anybody out there explain how this could happen and if it is legal?

It's really easy:

basically,

If Instr(1, domain.search, "Nice Profitable Keyword", 1) <> 0 then
If Len(domain.search) < 6 then
register domain
end if
end if

And viola.. Yummy tasting domains for no work :)

Is it legal? Yes. It's up to the user to find a reputable registrar.

Found this thread because I just had the same experience today.

I've ordered a domain name, but hadn't payed yet, so it wasn't registered yet.

Yesterday I did an extra check through godaddy and betterwhois.com to see if the domain was still available. There was no problem at all. I've just did my payment, thinking everything would be fine, but a couple of minutes later I've received an email from my registrant that someone else had registered the domain yesterday. Guess who... wangleedomains.com

Well luckily, my registrant gave me a full refund :)...

synik writes...

What happens is that when you do a whois search, the registrar keeps a record of the search. If you don't register the domain, they do.


Well, you know how to stop that, don't you?

whois aaaaaaaaaaaaa.com
whois aaaaaaaaaaaab.com
whois aaaaaaaaaaaac.com
whois aaaaaaaaaaaad.com
whois aaaaaaaaaaaae.com

Echelon shot, but it might make it no longer worth their while. :)

This happened to me.  I lost a good domain name.

Here is a list of domain name suggestion tools; possibly safer than a simple whois.

If you're concerned, quicklode, use a whois program to query the whois servers directly.

GNU Whois is free and available on most Linux distributions; it can also be installed on Windows through Cygwin (in the Net category in the installer.) There are also many other similar programs out there.

Check out www.domibot.info - apparently a few of these companies somehow have hooks into the WHOIS system - most likely an on-the-sly commission deal with one of the registrars. Extremely dodgy, as they say.

Bob Parsons is probably not all that "innocent" in this regard, though that should not be construed as a specific accusation in relation to this.

Achromatic writes...

Bob Parsons is probably not all that "innocent" in this regard, though that should not be construed as a specific accusation in relation to this.

I tend to agree with you. If the practice of snatching these domains is not illegal, then it is a shrewd businessperson who capitalises on the opportunity to make a few bucks by referring the queries to someone willing to pay for the information. GoDaddy certainly has made a few bucks.

I should also reiterate what Achromatic said: don't construe my statements as an accusation directed at Bob Parsons.