This is front running. After someone searches a name, you effectively lock the name up in your system. Then the person who has done the search has no option but to register the name through your system.
Is there any difference in price before and after you ‘put the name on reserve’?
Secondly, you say “Due to no fault of registrars, Front Runners purchase search data from Internet Service Providers and/or registries and then taste those names.”
Are you forced to sell this data?

My word, that’s on the short list for most self-serving, hypocritical excuse I’ve heard from a business. We’re front-running in order to save you from the front-runners.

Did he really mean to say that the “registries” sell this data?  In my interview today with NetSol’s head of PR, she claimed that the data was being sold/stolen between where it was queried at the registrar and picked up at the registry.  Nevett’s comments appear to say the registries (e.g. VeriSign) are actually selling the data.

I experienced this today. I USED to use NetworkSolutions for bulk domain lookup—and found SearchEngineOptimizationQuote.com was available. So I went to my usual registrar - 1and1.com to register it only to find out that it was unavailable. A quick check back with Network Solutions showed me that it was available.

What gives? So I checked whois.sc and what do you know “This domain is available at Network Solutions” - the database update showed as having happened 1 minute earlier. So basically any time a domain is shown as available on Network Solutions they lock it down where you have to use them only.

I did go ahead and register and will transfer it to my 1and1 account and will NEVER use NetworkSolutions again for their domain lookup. To do so means that if you happen to find a good domain, you’ve effectively raised the price from roughly $7-$8 (by going through GoDaddy or 1and1) to $34.95. Crazy.

I also was going to register BoycottNetworkSolutions.com, but it’s only available through Network Solutions - they’re offering it up for sale and it is available. So check that out for a laugh.

I am not buying it.

A Network Solutions employee also posted a response to my article here…

NetworkSolutions Scandal: Hijacking User Domain Searches

Yes Andrew, he’s implying that registries sell their lookup data. Who knows if this actually happens.

I first wrote about front running (I called it whois hijacking) about 18 months ago. I never got a clear indication of how it was happening then; my best guess was that someone along the lines was capturing the data and selling it, but I had no proof. I suspect nobody at Netsol has any proof either, unless they have been involved in it themselves. But claiming that someone else is responsible plays into their claim that they are doing this to protect the innocent public.

One more thing, they seem to be emphasizing the angle that front running is about moentizing and they are not monetizing their domains. But by reserving the domain to be registered only at Netsol they are, in a very real sense, monetizing it.

“One more thing, they seem to be emphasizing the angle that front running is about moentizing and they are not monetizing their domains. But by reserving the domain to be registered only at Netsol they are, in a very real sense, monetizing it.”

Larry, one other thing…I looked up a few domains today to make Network Solutions “monetize” the names of a couple competitors. If you go to dotsterdomainnames.com or registeratgodaddy.com, you’ll see a full page at for Network Solutions :)

I don’t care how you spin it, your front running.  A visitor to your website is not a customer.  You provide a tool that effectively locks domains for a period of time which is front running.  Stop spinning stories network solutions.

During this reservation period, the name is not active and we do not monetize the traffic on these domains.

That’s 2 lies in one sentence. The name is active and you’re monetizing by promoting yourself.

This wouldn’t be so bad if you had a reasonable markup on registrations. 450% markup is ridiculous.

Agreed. I can almost guarantee ICANN is going to have to step in and do something about this because of the uproar they have stirred.  That or NetSol submits a public apology and releases all held domains.

Mark Fulton
DotSauce Magazine

Their argument is null and void due to the fact that anybody else can go to Network Solutions and register the domain.  This does not stop front runners, it only makes them spend money at NetSol.

We are analyzing the issue as a deceptive consumer practice.  Because NetSol provides no notice to people using he whois search that they will be forced to register the domain through them during the tasting period, it is clearly deceptive. Read more about the legal ramifications here.

Looks like ICANN is looking into the issue as well:
http://gnso.icann.org/...

One thing to remember is this is not a whois search but actually checking to see if the domain name is available.  Secondly if you search for it on NSI, it will simply be available 4 days later to register where ever you want.  Really people just need to be patient or use some other site to search for whether a domain name is available or not.

Bob Smith said:

One thing to remember is this is not a whois search but actually checking to see if the domain name is available.  Secondly if you search for it on NSI, it will simply be available 4 days later to register where ever you want…

It is a violation and abuse of consumer trust, not to mention a very anti-competetive business practice.

A searched-for domain (using NSI’s tool) can not be purchased at any other registrar during the locking period, however NSI has not locked it in just for the person performing the original search(NOT a good idea either btw). Anyone may go to NSI during the lockout period and purchase it from under the orginal searcher.
NSI is even going as far as to advertise the domain on the newly registered name…

Bob, if I were to follow your advice and wait for the release of the domain before I am able to purchase it at a reduced cost at one of NSI’s competitors, chances are that by the time it has been released to other registrars it has been snatched up by a third party front runner. I will then either be forced to pay that front runners fee or have to find another domain name.

Also, keep in mind it is very easy for anyone to list all domains tied to certain name servers. I am fairly sure that front runners will consider NSI’s action very generous since now all they need to do to find wanted domain names is to pull domain names registered to NSI’s nameservers (whichever nameservers are being used to register these searched names)

From Slashdot:

by schmiddy:
I Just followed the link to uselessdomain0001.com. Check out the blue globe logo at the top.. now check out this CC licensed SVG image on Wikipedia: Applications-internet.svg. Looks like someone “accidentally” forgot to include the Creative Commons Share Alike license on that page.. hmmmm.

I think it’s pretty obvious that NSI is just a scummy company, through and through.

They’re willing to rip other people off, while ripping you off, in an effort to protect your rights.

Now how honest do they sound?

—WNight thanks to Bug-Me-Not

Someone (@NSI?) please explain how this does not allow a DOS attack on the TLD root servers?

If people are running bots to submit large quantities of whois queries, and NSI is adding DNS records to the .com TLD servers, wouldn’t it be possible to overwhelm the root with updates? - oh and let’s not forget that they’ll all be deleted in four days (while the next batch of bogus domains are on their way up).

I don’t know if sites are able to do zone updates from the TLD servers, but if so, this would be a huge increase in traffic for them (and the Internet as a whole) as well.

Better buy some bigger tubes…

Hi ,

I am Shashi Bellamkonda from Network Solutions .We have been listening to comments here as well as those on other sites regarding our customer protection measure.  Throughout the launch of this effort we have made, and continue to make, improvements to our protection measure.  I want to update you on some of the improvements we are implementing in the near term:

1)  We have changed the current webpage to which reserved domain names resolve to a general under construction page.  Additionally, all new reserved names after tonight will not resolve to any page at all.
2)  This week, we will be making enhancements that will address the concerns related to disclosure of zone file and DNS server information of the reserved names.  This should address some of the concerns recently raised.
3)  Very soon we will remove our customer protection measure from our WHOIS search page, so that no domains searched on this page will be reserved.  We will continue to reserve, however, domains searched from our homepage.

Thanks for all the feedback and viewpoints.

Shashi

Right, I guess we’ll see about that “We will continue to reserve…domains searched from our homepage” thing. Because my guesses are, you’re going to have a few (hundred?) people fired from your company… either that, or hopefully it follows you all the way back to the top where your whole disgusting, slimy company will get shut the hell down.

Whoever even had the nerve to try such a disgusting tactic is about as pathetic, slimy, disgusting, theiving, and backstabbing a person as my grandpa - and that’s a stretch of the imagination. Mr. Burns style.

- Falcon via BugMeNot. :)

“The Registrar who Laid the Golden Domains”
An Aesop Fable for our good friends at Network Dissolution

Once upon a time there lived an old Registrar who had a number of useful tools. She used to send her little sales associates to the meadow every day to take care of domain searchers.

But she had one tool that she never allowed with the others. This one had a little house and yard of its own. It was such a wonderful tool that the old registrar was afraid of losing it.

Each day this whois tool laid golden domains. The Registrar could hardly wait for the new day to come, she was so eager to get the golden domains and sale them at exorbatent prices.

At last she said to herself, “I will kill the whois tool and get the gold all at once.”

But when she had killed the whois tool, she found that it was just like all the other whois tools.

In her haste to become rich, she had become poor.

Moral: Greed destroys the source of domain goodness.

———————

Here’s what Network Solutions must do, if you hope to be in business 3 months from now:

1. Apologize publicly and profusely. You can learn a lesson from Digg (http://blog.digg.com/?p=74) - i.e. admit when you are wrong.

2. Lower your pricing to $8/domain. You will never be able to compete at a price point of $34.95. Your pricing is ludicrous.

3. Stop registering all domains that are searched (regardless of which page of your site we’re searching from - that’s really brilliant PR to hope that we’ll remember which page is ‘safe’ to search from now - I used to use your tool all the time, but I never registered with you because err $34.95 - I can just see the suits conferring “gee, we get a lot of whois searches, but then they go and register with GoDaddy. We could lower our price to at least be less than 400% higher than our nearest competitor…but why don’t we just lock people in and partake of domain tasting ourselves. We can spin in that we are protecting these morons from Domain Tasters. I’m sure anyone would half a brain would gladly pay $34.95 for a domain). You are clearly not protecting anyone. You’re simply trying to gain market share and get more people to register with you, rather than GoDaddy. Please see point #2 regarding your pricing and compare it to that of GoDaddy. They are number 1, not because of their spokesmodels and SuperBowl ads, but because they provide decent tools and a cheap price.

4. If you ignore #3, put a disclaimer or warning on your whois search tool stating that if end users use your tool, you are locking them out of being able to choose any other registrar other than you. Now…which page was it that was safe to search from??? Oh yeah, Moniker.com. I love how in your note that you are addressing “some” of our concerns. Are you even listening? If you continue to lock down domains that are searched from your home page, you are still doing the very thing that we are irate about. Hello? Anyone home? Would I stay with a doctor that addressed only some of my concerns?

5. If I told you that I walked into a car dealership and asked if they had a Green Porsche in stock, and they said that they did - and then proceeded to lock me in a room for 4 days, badgering me that if I wanted the car, it was available on their lot for only 300 to 400% higher than any other carlot in the world, would that strike you as good sales tactics? You try to calm my fears by warning that in the past, as soon as someone comes in looking for a car, some nasty front runner comes in and buys it right away, so in order to protect me, you’re going to lock me in the room for 4 days til I cave and pay your crazy prices. Gee…thanks for the protection…My point is, fire everyone associated with this crazy sales idea and once you’re done apologizing profusely (see number #1 above) consider taking any future new sales ideas out for a test run. Do something crazy like market research, competitive analysis, and get feedback from your dwindling user base as to what will fly and what won’t in this day and age. This is clearly not about front runners, protecting your customers, etc. This is what it is about ... $—- did you get that—- money. Corporate Greed. It’s a desperate attempt to gain market share and raise revenues. The idea was, in this crazy Web 2.0 atmosphere where the in thing is to have the users creating the content and doing the work for you, to have your users search for domains for you so you could register anything that could conceivably be bought, taste it the 4 days and then dump it back in the cess pool before you’re charged. Maybe enough suckers will finally see that $34.95 isn’t such a high price to pay for an $8 item.

Back to life, Post-Network Solutions. It was nice knowing you. If GoDaddy has a brain, I hope their SuperBowl ad this year simply makes fun of Network Solutions. (Gee, how can they afford Superbowl Air Time when they only charge $8 per domain…oh yeah, low margin high volume). Network Solutions strategy—Ridiculous Margin, Low Volume, coupled with a tinge of extortion.

Terry Allen said:

chances are that by the time it has been released to other registrars it has been snatched up by a third party front runner.

Well, isn’t that essentially what NetSol’s trying to do with this latest practice? At least from what they stated so far.

Unfortunately I’d imagine domain tasters can lookup their nameserver changes or so to see what domain names are “consistently” (?) being held up.

Mike Wheeler said:

2. Lower your pricing to $8/domain. You will never be able to compete at a price point of $34.95. Your pricing is ludicrous.

They don’t need to. Look at the offerings on their front page and some of their PR releases, and you’ll get an idea how they’re able to compete.

I guess their business model works or they wouldn’t last this long.

5. If I told you that I walked into a car dealership and asked if they had a Green Porsche in stock, and they said that they did - and then proceeded to lock me in a room for 4 days, badgering me that if I wanted the car, it was available on their lot for only 300 to 400% higher than any other carlot in the world, would that strike you as good sales tactics?

Uh, no one’s being locked in a room for 4 days and being badgered here. And their storefront prices have been the same for at least 2 years AFAIR. (unless you happen to be one of their VIP customers, that is…)

One catch I can imagine is if someone happens to be thinking the same domain name someone else looked up via NetSol, and won’t be able to register it until 120 hours after. But that’s just my imagination.

Well, I took another look at Network Solutions and I don’t see where the value is in paying $35 for a domain with them. Also, the analogy may have not been perfect, but the idea is that what they are doing is unethical and they are locking people out of buying domains unless it is with them and at their price.

I still have 3 more days locked in this room until I can buy that Porsche at another car lot for 4 times less. And it appears that NetSol’s business model just shot itself in the foot (to clarify, no one was shot here, it is just a saying…please don’t take this too seriously)...perhaps if they had a better business model they wouldn’t be getting killed 4 to 1 by GoDaddy in market share.

As a web consultant for a nationwide internet marketing company that excels at building thousands of websites a month for small to medium sized business around the county, I pledge never to use Network Solutions for any service again.

Part of my job description entails searching for the customers desired domain name, completing an extensive interview for content/design and submitting enough information for our design team to build a website. Network solutions has ensured that none of the searches we provide for customers will be done on their website.

In fact, this entire news article and the above response by Jonathon Nevett are going to be spread in a “viral” fashion to everyone who has signed up on an email list for one of my own websites, as well as thousands of “friends” on myspace.

What N.S is doing is barely legal, and I predict that by the end of the year it will be absolutely an illegal practice. This is a thinly veiled predatory practice that harms other business, such as independent and corporate web developers, and the customers they are trying to build websites for - in essence “monopolizing” these domains through this type of Front Running and forcing customers to pay inflated prices - thus ultimately taking away choice from consumers and fixing price.

Well, it happened to me just now. I went to Netsol to check availability of many names. They were all available. I went to GoDaddy to register them 5 minutes later and the .com’s were taken. I said, WHAT?!!!! They explained to me what’s going on over at Network Solutions. I am FURIOUS!!!!

I agree with most of the posts here. Netsol is Hijacking the names themselves (they call it “protecting their customers”), and forcing business through them. If you don’t buy it from them, someone else could be watching the domain registrations and grab it as soon as it becomes available 4 days later. I was forced to spend 34.99 a domain name as a result of this. THERE WAS “NO” NOTICE ON THEIR HOMEPAGE THAT THEY WERE DOING THIS! This is as dirty as it gets.

Like thousands of others people, I have had numerous other bad experiences with Netsol in the past. I finally said, “enough!” and stripped all my business from them a few years back. They occasionally call me, selling something. I immediately tell the salesperson to never call me again, that I can not stand the company, and will never do business with them again. I also encourage them to stop being brainwashed by them and quit the company.

So here we are again. They now pull this! Who in the hell is making these kinds of decisions over there. How dirty does it get? Again, I am SICKENED by this! After I purchased the domains with them, I asked for management and let him know how I feel. I told him that we will not take this any longer. I will join any group or coilition that forms in support of shutting Netsol down once and for all. I will join a class action lawsuit… whatever it takes. These lying, cheating, in-bed-with-the-government, criminals MUST BE STOPPED!!!!!

Joe Weisenburg said:

I went to Netsol to check availability of many names. They were all available. I went to GoDaddy to register them 5 minutes later and the .com’s were taken.

Why go through two different registrars to do two different things when one can do all that with one of them and cut down the time? NetSol isn’t hijacking what one doesn’t own (unless you register and pay for it), and no one’s forced to do business with them if they don’t want to.

If you really can’t trust Go Daddy or any other registrar to do your availability searches, then one can use the same source all registrars go through for .com:

http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois/

Of course, if you can’t even trust them, then I don’t know whom you can trust anymore.

Could be one easy solution to this problem, make a point of looking up 20 dumb domains per day and try to promote everyone in your network to do the same.

I am sure the trouble it would cause their system if 50,000 useless domains were looked up each day they would soon change their ways.

Unfortunately, this is only half the story. Network Solutions is the proud owner of another site Snapnames.com that will try to get you to place a bid for the domain name they grabbed from under your nose.

For example, once they grab the domain go to snapnames.com and look it up. There you can place a minimum bid of $59 to get the domain…$50+ dollars more than most any other domain service.

Is this legal what they are doing? If not, where do we go to start a class action lawsuit?

John

To correct my previous post, I was wrong in stating the Network Solutions owns Snapnames, that is not true. However, there is a business relationship of some shape or form in place..go to network solutions and query for a domain name (one that is not yet taken), NS will grab the domain making it unavailable to any other provider. You can then buy the domain from NS for $34.99 (an inflated price) or you can go to snapnames and find the domain there for a minimum bid of $59.

This isn’t about acquiring domain names that have been previously registered, it’s about acquiring domain names that have been searched for availability and grabbing them and offering for sale at an inflated price.

John wm said:

To correct my previous post, I was wrong in stating the Network Solutions owns Snapnames, that is not true. However, there is a business relationship of some shape or form in place..go to network solutions and query for a domain name (one that is not yet taken), NS will grab the domain making it unavailable to any other provider. You can then buy the domain from NS for $34.99 (an inflated price) or you can go to snapnames and find the domain there for a minimum bid of $59.

This isn’t about acquiring domain names that have been previously registered, it’s about acquiring domain names that have been searched for availability and grabbing them and offering for sale at an inflated price.

To correct your correction, the slimy thing NSI does is they take possession of domain names not renewed by their customers and auction them off. Other registrars such as Register.com and Enom jumped on the slime train when they saw NSI getting away with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_warehousing

Register.com and Enom jumped on the slime train when they saw NSI getting away with it.

It probably goes away if ICANN renews its .20 cent fee which I assume the registrar would have to pay as well in order to “hold” the domain for 4 days.

Did not know Register.com and Enom had jumped on the pirate ship as well…...

Enrico Schaefer said:

Register.com and Enom jumped on the slime train when they saw NSI getting away with it.

It probably goes away if ICANN renews its .20 cent fee which I assume the registrar would have to pay as well in order to “hold” the domain for 4 days.

Did not know Register.com and Enom had jumped on the pirate ship as well…...

They are making 100’s of thousands of dollars auctioning off names. 20 cents/name won’t come into play. They only renew names at a cost of $6.42 that have a preorder from someone willing to pay at least $69 for it. Some names sell for over $100,000.00.

The 20 cent fee will assure the practice continues, but now ICANN will also profit from it.

GoDaddy.com Front-Running

I have been doing business with GoDaddy for years. As of yesterday, April 15, 2008 our business relationship is over. I had just finished a website and was now in the process of finding a good domain for it on GoDaddy. I came up with a very simple, short domain that said it all. http://www.ibuynsell.com “Nice don’t you think?” I was very excited to see that is was available. I tested a few others ideas that I liked and some where taken, some were not. I came up with three domain names that that were available. and proceeded to register them. When I attempted to register http://www.ibuynsell.com it was taken. I couldn’t believe it! I typed in the domain in the address bar and sure enough it was parked on GoDaddy’s website. Now it was only about 1hr and 45 minutes from when it was availibale to when it was taken. I work from home and got a call that I had to deal with, other wise I would have registered them immediately. This has never happen to me before. So I did a little research. I am not the only person this has happened to. Many other using GoDaddy to search for domain names have had the same expirence. You could say it was a fluke, I say GoDaddy is using unfair consumer techniques. Don’t believe me? Come up with a good domain name. Search it on GoDaddy. Wait an hour or then check it again. Boy will you be surprised as I was, how fast a good domain idea gets taken by GoDaddy. Search the web for “GoDaddy steals domain” You’ll see. This is no coincidence, This is an unfair practice by GoDaddy.com