Controversy is brewing about domain registrar company Network Solutions' newly instituted practice of automatically registering domain names users search for and then jacking up the price during ICANN's return grace period.
Critics call it "extortion," but Network Solutions calls it a service to protect customers from the practice of "front running." The extra charge is, assumedly, the protection fee -- you know, just like the one the mob offers.
On his blog,
“Front Running” occurs when a domain name is registered, typically by someone outside of the United States, just minutes or hours after someone else has conducted a domain name search at a registrar site or has performed a WHOIS query for the domain. The reason people “front run” domains is to conduct what is called “tasting” to see how much money they can make on a domain name through pay-per-click ads or by re-selling the domain in the aftermarket at a highly marked up price. But this is different, he says. The company line from Bellamkonda and from
ICANN announced in August it would be launching an investigation into the practice of domain tasting and called for examples of abuses.
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