Information & tips for Domain Names
Ever wondered what the oldest domains ever registered are?
I’ve come across a list of the 100 Oldest Currently Registered .com Domains (that’s a mouth full) list… There are quite a few domains you wouldn’t have thought would have been on that list but they are.
The oldest domain was registered on 15 March 1985.
posted by Ben Sinclair @ 3:51 PM
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A new top level domain for mobile phones has been released... .mobi
What is .mobi?Although mobile devices and the networks that support them are improving, it seems like the mobile Web is almost a secret these days because sites can be hard to locate and have little content when you find them.
And yet, with four mobile phones purchased for every one personal computer, there’s a world of people whose main access point to the Internet is a mobile device.
Beginning in May 2006, there is finally a solution: dotMobi.dotMobi is the first – and only – top level domain dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices. dotMobi will revolutionise the use of the Internet on mobile devices. dotMobi is designed to guide mobile users to made-for-mobile Internet content and services that can be accessed with confidence.
Why .mobi?
Worldwide, there are more digital mobile phones than televisions and PCs combined. According to recent research, from Mobinet mobile communications study, April 2005, A.T. Kearney/University of Cambridge more than half of mobile handsets are less than a year old, with most having full Internet capabilities. In emerging markets where fixed line communications are scarce, analysts predict wireless will be the communication channel of choice.
That’s where dotmobi comes in - we make the mobile device as useful as a PC for browsing and data services, but far more portable.
Dotmobi provides the critical link between the mobile operator, Internet services and the users to make their mobile devices the Internet and communication tool of choice.
posted by Ben Sinclair @ 1:11 PM
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Found an article on pre-owned domain names. Check it out.
I don't know about you, but sometimes it seems like all of the best domain names have already been taken. On more than one occasion, I've come up with a great domain name for a site, only to find that someone else had already purchased it. I can live with that, but sometimes I've found that it has been purchased by some scum domain scavenger, and that's really annoying.
posted by Ben Sinclair @ 12:20 PM
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I found this great article over at igoldrush.com... Guide to Expired Domain Names...
Ownership (or more precisely, control) of domain names is granted for a limited period of time, subject to the appropriate registration or renewal fees being paid. Once the owner of a domain name declines to pay the renewal fee to maintain their registration, that domain name will expire - that is, it will eventually be deleted and returned to the "pool" of unregistered names.
While originally domain names were registered for a fixed period of 2 years, most Registrars now offer the option of registering a domain name for a period of 1-10 years, often with substantial discounts for extended registrations
A domain name that is approaching its renewal date is said to be "expiring soon" and a domain name that has passed its renewal date (also known as its "expiry date" - it's just a matter of perspective!) without the renewal fee being paid is said to have "expired".
Expired domains solicit a lot of interest since essentially they form a new supply of domain names returning to the market, sometimes for the first time in many years...
Once a domain name has expired and been deleted, it is available to be re-registered by anyone. It is at the exact moment of deletion that the real battle begins for the control of the newly-available names - a battle that can only have one winner.
Before we look more closely at the process for "grabbing" (i.e. securing the rights to) an expiring domain name, and the tools and services available to improve the odds of obtaining the desired name, it is worth taking a closer look at the domain name expiry and deletion cycle.
The domain expiration cycle (the process in which the domain name is expires, and then is made available for re-registration) differs significantly from registrar to registrar, so we will content ourselves with a detailed overview of the expiry/deletion process.
Once a domain name has passed its expiry date, a number of things happen. Firstly, the domain name is typically put on hold - that is, its name server information is deleted or modified so that the domain name no longer points to the website it is associated with. Secondly, the domain name is put in the registrar's deletion queue for processing according to its procedures for handling expiring domains (as mentioned previously, these vary significantly from registrar to registrar
Some registrars give customers very little leeway, choosing to delete domain names within ten days of the expiry date. Others hold on to names for longer periods, typically 30 or 45 days. Still others don't release domain names back into the pool at fixed intervals, but in large batches at irregular intervals.
To understand this process further, let's look at the typical paths a domain name can take during its "life-cycle":
1) A domain name is registered for a fixed period of 1-10 years
2) As the expiry/renewal date approaches, the owner of the domain name is sent one or more reminders that they must pay the domain name renewal fee
3) If the domain name owner renews the name, then the domain name returns to its status in Stage 1)
4) At the renewal date, since the domain name has not been paid for and the registration has run out, the domain name is put on hold. The domain's nameserver information is deleted or modified to point to the registrar's homepage or to a page explaining that the domain name in question has expired.
Another effect of the "hold" being placed upon a domain name is that the domain name is no longer transferable to another registrar (for example, one with a lower renewal fee!)
5) Most registrars have a "grace period" (sometimes detailed explicitly on their site or by email, oftentimes applied without comment) after domain names have expired.
During that grace period, the original owner of the domain name can pay to renew their domain name (and hence remove it from "on hold" status and reactivate it). Some registrars may impose an additional administrative "penalty fee" to renew domain names during their grace period. If the domain name owner renews the name during the grace period, then the name returns to Stage 1)
6) At the end of the grace period, the existing owner can no longer renew their domain name and has lost all control over it. What happens next depends on the registrar...
Some registrars will delete the name immediately following the end of the grace period. Some will hold it for a certain additional time-period before releasing it. And some will change the ownership information on the domain name so that it becomes registered to the "Unpaid Names Department" or similar, and continue to hold the name for an extended period of time before it is finally deleted..
Once a domain name has reached Stage 6), it is about to return to the domain market i.e. it will once more become available for registration. If the domain name is considered valuable, there may be many interested parties lining up to try and grab it i.e. to attempt to secure it as it is deleted.
The key to successful recovery of a domain name is two-fold: first, awareness of which domain names are about to expire, and when they are going to do so (the research process) - since this varies significantly from registrar to registrar - and second, mastery of the tools and services available to assist in securing dropping domain names.
As we have seen previously, domain names expire to different schedules, depending on the original registrar they were registered with. Since desirable domain names can be grabbed in seconds once they become available, the only way to have a chance of securing a domain name of value is to be prepared by arming yourself with the knowledge of exactly when it will become available.
There are several sources of expired domain name information, some free and some that require the payment of a subscription or membership fee.
One of the best free resources is DeletedDomains.com. From this site, you can research which domain names have expired in the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 60 days. The search tool is limited to 2000 results, so if you're searching for a very popular term, you'll want to limit the results you get by specifying a prefix or suffix, narrowing the timespan under consideration, or ignoring domains containing a hyphen or number.
DeletedDomains, while free, still requires a modicum of initiative: you have to come up with the queries to run on the site. If, however, you prefer to simply be informed of ALL domain names expiring on a given date, then you'll want to turn to other resources.
NameWinner.com, as well as offering a domain name grabbing service which we will be covering in the next section, also issues lists from time to time of names that are about to expire. These lists can be viewed by visiting the site and going to the "Starting Line" section in the left-hand column. There, you'll be able to search, view and download the latest list of expiring domain names, if one is available.
If you are willing to pay for expired domain information, there are a number of sources, such as UnclaimedDomains, which mails out a weekly list of all domains expiring that week and LocalWhois, which sells a variety of domain lists and online domain lookup tools.
There are many other similar services out there; try searching for "expired domains" on your favourite search engine.
Always bear in mind that trawling for interesting expired domain names requires effort, whether it's thinking up search terms and feeding them into a search engine, or painstakingly stepping through a long list of expiring names. With over 20,000 domains expiring some days, the hunt for quality names can often feel like searching for a very small needle in a towering haystack - but the effort becomes worthwhile should you succeed in tracking down and registering the expiring domain name you've always wanted...
Which names should I be looking for?
One assumes you're hunting down expiring domain names for one of two reasons: to use the name or to invest in the name for possible resale later. If you're hunting for names to use in building a site or service, you'll already have a list of criteria as to what makes a good name, including suitability to the product or service it is intended for, length and memorability.
When hunting for expiring names, you also need to bear in mind who the previous owner of the name was, and what they were using the name for (if anything). While generally, expiring names can be considered "fair game" in that they are available to be registered by anyone, you doubtless wouldn't wish to fall afoul of the legal department of a giant corporation such as Microsoft or IBM - even if you eventually proved to be in the right.
So, often, a little research into who the previous owner of an expiring domain name was, and what they were using the name for, can be both rewarding and reassuring.
Many times, a simple Whois search is sufficient to reveal the current owner of a domain name that has been placed on hold ready for deletion. However, there can be times (such as when the original Registrant's information has been deleted in the domain record and substituted for information provided by the Registrar) when the ownership information is not as readily available.
This is where the "Wayback Machine" offered by Archive.org can come in handy. This site allows you to view stored "snapshots" of millions of sites around the web as they appeared at different points in time. To check for information on the expiring domain name you're interested in, enter "www.EXPIRINGDOMAIN.com" into the search box at Archive.org's main page, and see if any snapshots have been recorded for an old site at that domain. If some snapshots exist, you can browse the snapshots to try and get an idea of who the previous domain registrant was - and what they were using the domain name for.
While it is still possible to manually "grab" (i.e. register) some expiring domain names at the moment they become available, the competition surrounding the most desirable names has become so heated that manual methods alone are unlikely to do the trick.
An entire mini-industry has sprung up around the grabbing of expiring domain names; while none of the solutions below provide an infallible solution to the problem of securing expiring domain names, they can all help even the playing field a little.
The biggest firm in the expiring name acquisition game, and perhaps the most well-known, is SnapNames.com. For a fee of $69, they provide customers with a "SnapBack" on the domain name of their choice. SnapNames will attempt to register domain names with SnapBacks placed on them at the exact second that they become available, and they have partnered with a number of Registrars, both large and small, to help boost their chance of success.
By purchasing a SnapBack, you are essentially buying into the possibility of obtaining an expiring domain name, since SnapNames doesn't operate at 100% efficiency. SnapBacks last for a year before they expire, so you can "move" a SnapBack onto a different name if SnapNames failed to grab the domain name you wanted. If an entire year elapses without the SnapBack being used, it will expire and you will - essentially - have wasted your money.
NOTE: Because SnapNames only accommodates one SnapName per domain, you need to get into the queue very early for some of the more desirable names. That's why doing the research into expiring domain names is imperative.
Another company that has been having some success in the grabbing game is NameWinner.com. NameWinner operates on a very different model to SnapNames, in that its services are priced fluidly according to an auction model, and that they only charge if they have been successful in obtaining a domain name.
To use the NameWinner service, you need to first go to the site and create an account, then select the domain or domains you want them to monitor, and the price you are willing to bid to get hold of these domains (all bids start at $25). Note that you can only bid on domain names that have already expired, so you'll have to be quick on your feet if you want to get in line for a name (SnapNames.com allows you to place speculative SnapBacks on names that have NOT expired)
As with most auctions, NameWinner allows you to specify both an initial bid and a proxy bid; the latter will be used to bid against others should they decide to contest a domain name.
It's worth noting that NameWinner locks its auction mechanism between 10:00am and 12:00am Pacific Time (essentially, while it is focused on grabbing domain names that are expiring) so you are limited to whatever bid you can place by the cutoff time.
If NameWinner has been successful in obtaining the domain name(s) you requested, they will be held temporarily in limbo until your credit card has been debited, then released to you.
Another player in the domain grabbing arena is ExpireFish.com. The lack of uniformity among expiring domain services comes into play here, as they have yet another method of pricing and conducting their service.
You first open an account at ExpireFish, then set up a second account with their back-end partner site, RegisterFly.com. You have to pre-fill your RegisterFly account with money in order to ensure that ExpireFish will trigger and grab names on your behalf. Note that since the domain names you'll be "chasing" will almost never all expire on the same day, you don't have to pre-pay ALL the domain names you're after - a prepayment to cover 3-4 domain registrations should suffice unless you are a particularly avid grabber.
ExpireFish allows you to monitor an essentially unlimited number of domain names - though you can only monitor a domain name if it is not already being monitored by a different user. As such, it is the most flexible system for monitoring large numbers of domains, though its success rate to date appears lower than NameWinner or SnapNames.
If ExpireFish successfully obtains one of the domain names it was monitoring on your behalf, that domain name is transferred into your RegisterFly account, which is debited the appropriate registration amount.
To maximize your chances of grabbing an expired name, try and get yourself positioned at the front of the queue for all 3 services listed above. Since NameWinner and ExpireFish only charge for success, you won't be out of pocket if SnapNames grabs the name you're after on your behalf - and if one of the other two services gets it, you can move your SnapBack on to the next target.
Good luck grabbing the domains you want!
posted by Ben Sinclair @ 5:45 PM
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According to DeletedDomains.com, all the best domain names were registered years ago... However, every year, thousands of domains don't get renewed by their owners and get "deleted".
posted by Ben Sinclair @ 10:13 AM
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