The practice of "domain" tasting" dates back to 20001, when DotRegistrar and IAregistry began using the five-day add-drop period to test drive domain names for their commercial potential. That's the introduction to The Closing Window: A Historical Analysis of Domain Tasting, an informative article by Frank Schilling at CircleID. Schilling, who prepared the analysis for members of the the ICANN Business Constituency, notes that VeriSign initially resisted domain tasting, and sought to discourage the registrars who were engaging in the practice. His analysis concludes:
VeriSign will have to close the window, just as it did in 2002. Only it may be harder this time because they have permitted the practice for so long. The best solution would likely be for VeriSign to send an email to all registrars announcing a restocking fee effective next-week. Even a 2 cent restocking fee (trivial for real errors) would be enough to curb tasting dramatically.
Posted by RichM 
January 2, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
July 24, 2006
Boing Boing on Kiting: Year Late, Dollar Short
Boing Boing is usually a great read, but this week's item on domain name kiting and the add-grace period (AGP) wasn't its best work. The practice - which Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow called a "new online scam" - has been widely discussed for more than a year (see July 2005 post at Netcraft, among others that mention the practice), and has since been written about by the Internet Stock Blog and Joi Ito (a prominent friend of Boing Boing), among many others.
But no one has been more visible on this issue than Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons, who was the first person to use the term "domain name kiting" on his Hot Points blog on May 10. Parsons then took his case to the pages of Business Week.
Maybe Cory Doctorow wasn't aware of the lineage of the term when he linked to DomainNameKiting.com. A whois search shows that the domain name is registered at Go Daddy and "owned" by Domains By Proxy, a privacy service run by Go Daddy
. Is the domain name really owned by a third party that just happened to use all Go Daddy
's services to register and cloak the ownership info on the name? The related forum, DomainKitingSucks.com is also owned by - you guessed it - Domains by Proxy.
Posted by RichM July 24, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
May 21, 2006
Domains and RSS Services - Perfect Together?
Are RSS services the next business opportunity for domain registrars? Dave Winer believes registrars could be key players in the future of RSS feed management services such as Feedburner, Pheedo and the new FeedPass service, which has prompted renewed debate about the repurposing of feeds. As a FeedBurner user, I love the added functionality it allows me add to my RSS feeds. But I'm also aware that there's huge headache potential if Feeburner fails or is sold. There are serious trust issues in branding my feed with a URL I don't control.
That's where registrars come into the picture. Combining domain management and RSS management would address many of the control issues, as Dave explains in a post titled How to Compete With FeedBurner.
First, I'd either do a deal with a registrar, become a registrar, or merge or partner with one. It's absolutely essential that the user own the domain that their feed is hosted at, so that, in case of emergency, they can switch to a different hosting service. If they don't own the domain, it doesn't matter how many promises the vendor makes, or how well-intentioned they are, an act of god could result in a blackout of
a huge portion of the RSS network. It's irresponsible to host a large percentage of the net's RSS feeds at one domain. I would set it up so it's the other way around. My hosting service won't host your feed unless you own the domain.
Dave emphasizes that he's not launching such a service, but would invest in one.
Posted by RichM May 21, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
March 17, 2006
Goldkey Acquired by BuyDomains
Domain parking and monetization firm GoldKey says it has new ownership:
Today we are pleased to announce that GoldKey has been acquired by Domain Services, LLC (a division of YesDirect, Inc.). YesDirect also owns and operates BuyDomains.com, Seeq and the YesDirect Network, with more than 100 category sites. By joining the forces of these domain name industry leaders, we expect to significantly enhance domain parking performance, experience and overall value. In the coming weeks, look forward to new enhancements, features and opportunities to enjoy the benefits of the new Goldkey.
Posted by RichM March 17, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
June 25, 2005
New PPC Parking Service: GoldKey
GoldKey is a relatively new provider of pay-per-click domain parking that has been advertising on many domain portals. It uses Yahoo/Overture as its advertising provider and describes itself as "the most sophisticated domain monetization service." I signed up a number of domains back on May 17, but GoldKey has experienced extended system delays in processing approvals with Yahoo, and it took more than a month for my domains to be activated. They're working now, so we'll see how it goes.
GoldKey received a strong review from Howard Hoffman at PPCincome, who cited revenue of $90 per 1,000 impressions for domains he parked with the service. "This new PPC service is giving the established players a serious run for the money," writes Hoffman. "With attractive pages and some technical innovations, our test portfolio is earning far more at GoldKey than anywhere else we have tried to date." The lengthy delays are a problem, Hoffman notes, as Yahoo reviews each domain to ensure it doesn't violate any trademarks. GoldKey says the backlog has been resolved. "All domain reviews are up to date and from now on, domain reviews will take less than 24 hours," a system message states. Several additional test domains were approved overnight, as promised.
Posted by RichM June 25, 2005 | Permalink | Newsletter
June 3, 2005
The Future of Pay-Per-Click Parking Income
Is pay-per-click revenue from parked domains a viable business model for the future? Or is it a short-term strategy that will soon fall out of favor? And can the whole business model be dismantled by a policy change at Google?
These questions are significant ones for the domain name industry, as PPC income is playing an increasingly large role in pricing for domain resales and market speculation. It's a big topic, and best discussed in small bites. A good starting point is the longevity of the PPC model, which was a hot topic of discussion at recent industry conferences.
In his updates for Domain Name Journal, Howard Hoffman of PPCIncome expressed surprise that a number of attendees at Traffic West weren't believers in the PPC revenue model that drives so much of the industry. "Some think parking pages are a waste of time," Hoffman said. A session at Domain Roundtable in Seattle looked at the quality of traffic on parking sites. The conclusion: falsified traffic is bad for the industry as a whole and that everyone will benefit when it decreases.
Posted by RichM June 3, 2005 | Permalink | Newsletter