Although a redemption and post deletion transfers may be worthwhile considering - we should first look at the domain expiration policies. It is imperative that a uniform domain expiration policy is installed prior to implementing processes that FOLLOW the event of domain being expired by a Registrar. The issue of domain hoarding by a Registrar is much more pressing and there are statistically many many more domains affected by domain hoarding by a Registrar than domains affected by erroneous deletions.
The issue of domain hoarding by Verisign Registrar and issue of Verisign Registry not releasing the domains in the first place needs to be resolved first. We have prepared a sample to demonstrate the issue and it's urgency: full url and list is at: http://www.eyeondomain.com/__aadomains-tabulated.htm Data compiled on February 21, 2002 A cross sample of 4 letter domains Sample is taken from domains in on hold status beginning with letter A first 100 search results The list is compiled to provide quasi-statistical picture of current domains that appear attractive and might have a potential application to many uses as they could represent acronyms for business names beginning with words like American, Association, All, etc... Based on this table, an interesting picture of domain hoarding and expiration policies across registrars emerged. 2% of domains were expired by Registrar but are still held by Verisign Registry (AKAS.COM and ADIQ.COM) 8% of domains have expiration date dating back to 2000 - held by Verisign Registrar for over 1 year past their expiry date. 47% of domains have expiration date older than 90 days 15% of domain pool expired longer than 90 days belongs to Register.com 85% of domain pool expired longer than 90 days belongs to Verisign Registrar 31% of domain pool expired from 45 to 90 days ago. out of this pool less than 1% is held by Register.Com and remainding 99% is held by Verisign Registrar. 20% of domains fall within 40-45 day past domain expiration date. 78% of the list are domains past 45 day of their expiration date out of this pool 10% belongs to Register.com and remaining 90% is held by Verisign Registrar. How can one deal with post deletion processes when major marketshare Registrar does not release expired domains in a timely manner? 47% of our sample list expired more than 90 days ago, and 8% of domains expired more than 13 months ago ! An ample time for domain owner to notice their domain has been deactivated. Cheers Genie Livingstone eyeondomain.com
