> One last thing. Someone else on this list recently wrote that > every domain name that's dropped is quickly re-registered, even > those names of low perceived value, so the auctioning of all > expired names doesn't change the current reality re. > unavailability of names. Actually, that may have been the case > a few years ago. It's certainly doesn't seem true any longer, > at least in my experience. The vast majority of domains dropped > by our customers (by choice, or through lapsed accounts or > forgotten renewals) are in fact still available months later. > It seems the land-rush is over. All the less reason, I think, > to tie up thousands of domain names in an auction system, but > what do I know. I guess all those ad views are more important.
Since I'm the one that wrote that, let me clarify. Currently there is fierce competition for expired domain names as they are made available by the registry. A few companies collectively controlling hundreds of registrar credentials fight for the names ordered through their services and auction them off to the high bidders. Some other registrars work for just one client, or are in the domain name game themselves. Each day, after all the "targeted" names have been grabbed, all the remaining deleted com and net names are systematically registered. The majority of these names are worthless, but they are registered anyway. They are pointed at "parking pages" containing advertisements, and their traffic and revenue is tested. Most of them do not generate sufficient income to justify even wholesale registration fees, so they are deleted for a refund within the 5-day grace period. The registry currently does not charge anything for this "trial registration". This is why you see your customers' dropped domains available months later. It does not mean they haven't been re-registered. This type of low-interest name would presumably be unaffected under the new Tucows auction plan, since nobody would bid to buy one. I am assuming names without any interest would be deleted, go through redemption at the registry, and be made available normally. While we're on the subject, let's talk about what happens when a domain name is deactivated (i.e. expired and in registrar hold, or deleted, or non-existent). If you say you want an expired name to fail to resolve and bring up a browser error page, rather than being re-directed to a monetized parking page, for a significant portion of the world you are out of luck. Many ISP's including AOL have their own ideas about how to handle failed DNS lookups, and bring up their own live "error pages" complete with paid advertising. The proposed new contract between Verisign and ICANN may allow for such a "service" at the TLD level (implemented previously as Sitefinder and later shut down at the request of ICANN). In addition to redirection, these operators of large DNS servers can collect information about non-resolving domain names and use it for their own profit. They know how much traffic available and deactivated domain names receive. Remember New.net and their plan to sell alternate TLD's? They partnered with many large ISP's including Earthlink, allowing them to be in the DNS lookup chain for millions of Internet users. They got smart and started tracking the lookups that didn't resolve. Now they own a huge portfolio of domain names and there are no unregistered high-traffic domain names left. We each have our own opinions about how things should be, and I'm not going to argue for any particular outcome. It isn't like any of the plans are really satisfactory - we are faced with choosing from differing degrees of bad. Personally I have accepted the fact that the registrant of an expired name is going to lose it. My attention is on the method used to select the next registrant. I like predictability, and since there is no registry level system in place to address the problem, I willingly accept efforts to do so at the registrar level. _______________________________________________ domains-gen mailing list [email protected] http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen
