Domain Tasting Public Comment

["Peter Ubriaco" <peteru@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ladies and Gentleman,

Regarding abusive domain tasting practices by registrars, I wish to
draw your attention to the behavior of Network Solutions in
particular.

I simply cannot explain it as well as the hundreds of users at
reddit.com.  Some users of this community recognized that Network
Solutions was tasting domains they were searching for.  For example,
they registered "YouGuysSeriouslyRegisterEverythingISearch.com" after
a user searched for that. Network Solutions registered a number of
wildly inappropriate names that are of no legitimate value, indicating
they are engaging in fully automated domain tasting.  The users went a
bit overboard and tried literally anything they could think of to see
if Network Solutions would acquire the domain.  Invariably, Network
Solutions registered (tasted) the domain.  See the comments here for
more examples of domain tasting by Network Solutions:

http://reddit.com/info/64xuh/comments/

I am strongly opposed to this practice and I believe it is
anti-competitive.  If I merely use the Network Solutions WHOIS server,
I am not expressing an interest to buy the domain or have Network
Solutions buy the domain on my behalf.  Network Solutions is clearly
and knowingly acquiring the domain for the purpose of tasting it --
either selling it to the WHOIS customer (or other interested party) or
keeping it for ad revenues.

In either case, this is not in any way in the public interest.

Please put a stop to domain tasting practices by registrars.  Consider
implementing an audit system to identify the worst offenders in this
field.  Those registrars could then be warned, fined, or banned from
the registry entirely.

Thanks and regards,

Peter Ubriaco
IT Analyst

E: peteru@xxxxxxxxx
T: +1 (202) 204-2743

PO Box 48
Nanuet, NY 10954-0048