Network Solutions and Domain Tasting
About a month ago I was reading my Sitepoint Tribune newsletter and was alarmed to read that the domain registrar Network Solutions was in the practice of “reserving” domains that were searched for on their site, effectively locking the searcher into purchasing from them at their higher-than-average prices. This dubious practice is known as “tasting”.
It works like this: you happen to search for a domain at NS, it’s reported as available, then you try to register at your preferred registrar who is cheaper, and it is now unavailble, only minutes after your original search. However, you’ll find that it IS still available at Network Solutions. Ka-ching!
NS used to justify this by saying they’re “protecting” you from people who would buy the domain merely to stop you from having it. (Pardon?) However, the domain is available to anyone who wants to buy it at Network Solutions, not just you, the original searcher. Sounds like PR of the horse-has-bolted variety to me.
If all that wasn’t bad enough it appears that this search data can be bought by third parties who will then buy up domains that may be of worth - a practice called “front-running” - and who will probably charge you an even greater price for it.
So I sat there feeling lucky that I’d never searched at their site, at the same time wondering whether there would actually be much likelihood of my doing so since they’re based in the US. I don’t know about you but if anything goes wrong with one of my domains I don’t want to be making transatlantic phone calls to sort it out. (No - I’d rather use my Euro-conglomerate registrar with a call centre in the Asteroid Belt.) Apparently though, at one time they were the only domain registrar in existence so they may still be a natural choice for many people.
Anyway, by a horrible quirk of fate, a few days later we had a call from a client of ours saying that she’d searched for a domain with, yes, Network Solutions, and they’d bagged her domain and wanted their inflated price for it. In the end she had no choice but to do business with them.
Many people who’ve heard about NS’s antics have been having fun with this by searching at the site for domains named “NetworkSolutions[append insult here]” and noting with glee the speed with which they’re created. And understandably so. As you can tell by now, the whole affair is rather convoluted but I understand that the upshot of it is that NS have rectfied their ahem, business model, so that the domain you are interested in is only reserved at NS much later in the checkout process if you so wish.
As complicated as all that is, I think I’ll just stick with the registrar I’ve always used - I just can’t cope with all the intrigue.
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