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 published in LED Digest 2262: Drop Catchers & List Promo From: Lee Odden Subject: Domain Watching > Are there any "domain watching services" that you know of > that can purchase a domain the minute it becomes available? - Dina Beach Lynch, LED Digest 2261 SnapNames.com is a service that I've used in the past to monitor domain names for purchase once they expire. It is an auction based system where you provide a blind default bid and are given the opportunity to bid higher during a period as the name becomes available. You are not guaranteed the domain name purchase just because you monitor it as others might bid much higher. However, it does offer more opportunity to acquire a name than relying on the registrar to indicate the name has been released to the open market. Lee Odden http://www.toprankresults.com From: Barry Mills Subject: Domain Watching > Everyone remember Adventive? Well, after we sold the company > the new owners didn't use the domain and let it expire. Yesterday > a squatter service quoted me $35,000 for our old domain! Absolutely > ridiculous. - Moderator Comment, LED Digest 2261 I hate to come out of my lurking period by having a pop at anyone, but I was really surprised to read the somewhat emotive comments about "domain squatters", when the "squatters" referred to were all legitimate owners of the domain names concerned. I don't think this is helpful, and comes over as little more than sour grapes that someone else got there first. Domain squatting is bad, make no mistake about that. It's also illegal in most countries and easily reversed. But the posters on this thread don't seem to understand the term. Squatting occurs where someone with no legitimate right to a domain name registers it with the sole intent of extorting money from the brand owner who's IP it would contravene if used on a live site, or otherwise exploiting someone else's IP. It seems that arbitration cases have even started to include typos in the definition see http://snipurl.com/yi21 [searchenginelowdown.com] for an example. Fair enough. But buying a catchy or generic domain name, or one such as Adventive.com which represents a previously trading but long-defunct company, is NOT domain squatting. It's domain speculation, and it's as legitimate as any other form of asset speculation in a capitalist society. It's not something I generally engage in myself, but I can't see any reason to object to it. It actually serves a useful purpose imho, because the fact that most good domain names get grabbed by speculators means that they are more likely to end up in the hands of a serious business that will make the most of them. If speculation were somehow banned, or always had been, almost all the best domain names would be populated by half-hearted start-ups or abandoned web sites that were prepared by students who now have a day job. And they wouldn't be able to sell them on, so the whole internet would be full of this rubbish. I agree that $35k is a bit steep for Adventive.com Adam, especially since I know what the company was sold for and what happened to it afterwards. So don't buy it. But I don't really think you have any cause for complaint, old friend. If you'd wanted it, you should have contacted the previous owner when he shut up shop. There hasn't been a trading business called Adventive for some time now though, and if the domain name is available on the open market anyone is perfectly entitled to register it and ask for what they like if someone wants to buy it off them. If they ask too much, it won't sell, but that's their problem and their choice. Dina asked about domain watching services. The usual term for these services is "drop catchers", and if you search on that you'll find lots of information. The main player here in the UK is www.dropcatcher.co.uk, who I can recommend. I think the main player for global TLDs is www.snapnames.com although I've no experience of dealing with them and couldn't comment on their service. Hope this helps. Barry S Mills, Managing Director Netstep Corporate Communications http://www.netstep.co.uk From: Frank A. Herda Subject: Domain Watching A number of years ago I ran into a problem with a cyber squatter. I and my cousins had TLDs. One of my cousins forgot to renew his and a cyber squatter picked it up. Then proceeded to e-mail telling me that I could purchase it for a unreasonable amount of money. I returned the e-mail telling them I would purchase the name for the cost of the NIC registration. I also told them since the name of the TLD contained my family name that it was no use to them and that they were holding it for ransom. They did not appear to appreciate my comments or offer and returned my e-mail telling me that were considering legal action against me for slander. I promptly responded that they could talk to my attorney and the NIC. Needless to say, I never heard any more from them. Also they continue to renew the TLD, probably just to anoy me. It is a shame that the NIC allows cyber squatters to get away with this. Frank Herda www.herda.com From: Marty R. Milette Subject: Domain watching Some registrars refuse to release domains within a reasonable time of expiry -- effectively holding the domain hostage. (Can anyone say Network Solutions or GoDaddy?) Since July 18th, 2001, Network Solutions (now Verisign) offers the "snap back" service of "snapnames" -- which means if you don't mind paying extortion (rather than waiting for the name to be released to the 'public' as it should be), you can get the name, the first millisecond it becomes available. Failing that, hope for the best. All registrars seem to have different and conflicting policies regarding when names get released. NSI (Verisign) has a favourite and that is to blame 'technical problems' for not releasing names. Marty R. Milette Comments (0)
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