Network Solutions Backs Down, A Little

January 10, 2008

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After a

During the aforementioned grace period, front-runners might also test the monetizability of a domain, based on PPC ads and/or traffic, a practice known as domain tasting. If unprofitable, domain tasters would release the domain within the grace period. Other times, they may keep a domain tied up in perpetuity, also by manipulating the grace period.

Critics of Network Solutions saw little difference. The company was registering queried domains, raising the price during the grace period, placing an advertisement on the domain page, and then releasing the domain back into the wild.

NetSol denied accusations that they were also front-running, domain kiting, or domain tasting, but were merely providing protection for customers. Assumedly, the nearly $30 price-hike was the fee for that protection.

But after enough heat, spokesperson

Still, NetSol has done little to differentiate between what the company is doing and the practice of front-running. Technically, they sound pretty much the same.

ICANN has announced their intention to look into the practice of domain tasting and other ways domainers manipulate its grace period. But don't expect them to do anything soon. They don't seem to be