[Infowarrior] - Google leads, ICANN follows

[Richard Forno]

Google leads, ICANN follows: domain tasters can now eat dirt

By Nate Anderson | Published: January 30, 2008 - 01:53PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080130-google-leads-icann-follows-dom
ain-tasters-can-now-eat-dirt.html

Domain tasting might sound like a leisurely Sunday afternoon activity, but
ICANN isn't amused, and it has just proposed a crackdown plan that could
make "tasting" and "front running" of domains an unprofitable activity.

Under current ICANN rules, anyone who registers a new domain name has a
five-day grace period to back out and receive a total refund. The policy is
in place to prevent hassles if people mistype domain names during signup or
simply have buyer's remorse at signing up for ilovespaminacan.com. But
because a five-day registration is free, some users "taste" millions of
domain names in order to see how well they perform as marketing vehicles.
The sites that don't perform are then deleted and the cash refunded.

It's a practice that thrives on mistyped and expired domain names, and it's
no longer limited to small operations. ICANN's own numbers show that in
January 2007 alone, the top 10 domain tasters requested refunds on
45,450,897 domains.

ICANN's simple solution? Charge the small ICANN registration fee even for
these registrations. The goal is to make widespread tasting uneconomic while
still allowing regular users to get nearly complete refunds for domains.

"Charging the ICANN fee as soon as a domain name is registered would close
the loophole used by tasters to test a domain name's profitability for
free," said Dr. Paul Twomey, ICANN's CEO, in a statement.

The plan could also put a dent in "front-running," a practice where
searched-for (but not purchased) domains are snapped up with the goal of
selling them to the searcher at a later date and for a higher price. Network
Solutions was recently accused of the practice after it became public that
the company was holding onto searched domains for four days before releasing
them. During that four-day period, the domain could only be purchased from
Network Solutions.

The ICANN change still needs to be approved as part of the organization's
annual budget.

Google has also moved to make tasting less economic and will refuse to offer
AdSense revenue to sites until they have been registered for more than four
days. The crackdown begins in February and is expected to cost Google
millions in lost ad revenue.