I’ve been watching the issue of domain tasting ever since metapredict.com stole my friend’s domain name.
The Register just reported that Network Solution is now domain tasting, with the dubious excuse that they are “protecting their customers”.
Network Solutions began self-registering domains in early January. Basically, if you search its website for a particular domain but don’t immediately buy it, the company registers the domain on its own and holds onto it for the next four days (under current ICANN rules, it can do so without paying a registration fee). This means that you can still purchase the address from Network Solutions, but you can’t purchase it from any other registrar.
You could argue that this likely to boost the company’s profits. But Network Solutions continues to insist that it’s simply trying to protect its customers from certain unnamed miscreants who’ve found a way to monitor searches on its site. If customers show interest in domains without actually purchasing, the company says, these unnamed front runners are sure to snap them up. So Network Solutions is snapping them up instead.
Network Solutions referred to a “secret proof” that other companies were snatching up their customers’ domain names:
Though ICANN pointed out that it sees no evidence of domain front running, Nevett continued to insist that customers are constantly complaining about the practice. He even said that some front runners are attempting to squeeze some extra dough from his customers.
“We also had some complaints where the customer said they looked at a name, they didn’t purchase it, and then they got a phone call a day later, asking if they want to purchase the name at a highly inflated price.”
Is Network Solutions’ secret proof Metapredict.com? Metapredict is the company that is stealing/tasting a lot of domain names at the moment.
The full story is on the Register’s Network Solutions domain tasting article.
See also, The End of Domain Tasting.
