Who Benefits From Domain Tasting

["Dominik Filipp" <dominik.filipp@xxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I'll try to collect some findings I have gathered during my personal
investigation regarding domain tasting, believing that first-hand
experience, if possible, gives more reliable insight of the problem. I
use a simple software that allows loading a list of soon-deleted domains
publicly available for download at POOL.COM website, and reviewing
actual WHOIS records. Having the collection of all domains displayed as
a single list on the screen I could track the ownership history as it
changes over time.
It is to say that especially the ownership of tasted domains is a
transient phenomenon. The ownership can change during few days or even
hours so the WHOIS record valid now need not be valid in next few hours.
This ephemeral effect is apparent during first few days after grabbing
the names.
Unfortunately, because of the transient nature of the tasting practice
it is practically impossible to introduce specific domain names upon
which the foolproof tasting evidence can be illustratively demonstrated.
Nevertheless, everybody can perform a similar research though it is
quite a boring stuff as it 
requires spending days to get an overall picture of domain tasting. Some
points and tendencies seem to be more or less stable however.
This contribution could be taken as a first step in further possible
investigation over the 
issue whenever it might be desirable.


Who Benefits From Domain Tasting
--------------------------------

Domain tasting can effectively work thanks to Add Grace Period (AGP), a
5-day window during which domains can be deleted for full refund. The
AGP concept is part of registrar agreement and only registrars can take
advantage of the concept. In contrast to the proclaimed support towards
registrants (a possibility to correct typo errors), during my
investigation I was not able to find any single registrar providing this
feature to standard registrants; I would wonder if there was any such
offering the service for a reasonable fee, let alone for free. It seems
that the mostly debated rationale for keeping the AGP is not being
applied in practice.
Consequently, not only AGP does not serve its originally intended
purpose but it is almost solely utilized by some registrars for
speculative purposes. Registrants are completely excluded from the
possibility to gain any benefit from the AGP concept, rather they are
victims of the practice based on AGP abuse, such as domain
tasting/kiting, and suffer from unavailability of domains names they
would like to register and properly pay for.


Domain Tasting
--------------

The main target of domain tasting is expiring domains. Everyone has
access to the list of soon-deleted domains in advance (www.pool.com) so
do the tasting registrars. As the domain deletion is subject to very
competing after-market business all registrars offering backordering
services are involved in snapping the deleted names too. The minority of
names is being registered to cover legitimate backordering requests but
those honest registrars often fail in competition with big tasting
registrars interested in the same names. There are also few auction
companies (SnapNames LLC, eNom, Pool LLC, WebAgentur AT, SpotDomains
LLC) that conduct after-market auctions and cooperate 
with many registrars to gain maximum probability in grabbing the names.
This is important as the bandwidth for single registrar is often limited
by the registry. It is also important to hide the tasting effort from
being recognized by statistical services measuring domain gain/delete
ratio. Some of the mentioned auction companies also participate on
domain tasting.
Before physical deletion of domains at registries actually takes place
the registrars start checking domain availability in an incredible
frequency; a name is grabbed literally in a millisecond it is released.
During the investigation I realized that most likely every single .COM
and .NET deleted domain is immediately grabbed regardless of its
quality, that is, approximately 40.000 .COM and .NET domains daily.
During several days (testing about 200 randomly chosen .COM domains one
day after the deletion) I was barely able to find few domains available
for public registration. The tasting effort affects all gTLDs, .COM and
.NET domains are mostly affected however. After registration the name is
immediately parked starting making revenue out of PPC advertising. Very
often the name is also immediately offered for sale on virtual auctions,
such as Sedo, Afternic, BuyDomains, NameDrive, etc. to multiply the
potential profit.


Phantom Registrars
------------------

Phantom registrars are registrars that most likely serve solely for
domain grabbing purposes and they do not usually offer standard
registration services, or at least, the standard registration process is
unclear or confusing. Their characteristics are

* They usually do not sell domains to standard registrants stating that
only wholesale resellers are supported; however after applying for
wholesale reseller account none response comes back (CapitolDomains LLC,
DomainDoorman LLC, BelgiumDomains LLC, NameKing LLC). In case of
SnapNames affiliate (phantom) registrars the domain name is claimed as
available for registrant for $100.000 (see the uniform website, the same
for 110 SnapNames affiliate registrars).

* The WHOIS report is unavailable on the registrar website (the three
registrars mentioned above), or the registrant record for newly
registered domain is missing (some of 110 registrars working for
SnapNames, some domains registered by Name.net), which seems to be a
violation of RAA. Often the registrant identity is hidden by proxy
services (eNom) or points to companies located in neutral or 
suspect areas, such as ClickConsulting Ltd., Wan-Fu China Ltd.,
International Names Ltd., located on Bahamas (the phantom registrants
used by the three registrars mentioned in the first point). It also
happens that a registrar is mentioned as registrant in the WHOIS
identity record, which indicates domain warehousing explicitly
prohibited in RAA (some of 110 SnapNames phantom registrars, especially
during first days after domain name has been acquired).

* Jumping registrations. Before elapsing the 5. day of the AGP the name
has to be re-registered (domain kiting). The affiliate registrar owning
the name has to delete the name, which is immediately registered by
another affiliate registrar. The name thus jumps into a different
registrar database. This process can theoretically continue ad infinitum
keeping the name in possession of the 'master company' conducting all
the affiliate registrars (SnapNames, eNom, etc.).

* The number of affiliate phantom registrars prevents the master
company's tasting effort from being revealed by statistical software
(e.g. www.webhosting.info) measuring the gain/delete ratio.

As already mentioned, the most number of phantom registrars is driven by
SnapNames. I was able to collect 56 out of the 110 registrars. They are

SNAPNAMES Affiliate Registrars
------------------------------
DOMAININTHEBASKET.COM LLC
NAMEARSENAL.COM LLC
GODOMAINGO.COM LLC
DOMAINAMANIA.COM LLC
ALLWORLDNAMES.COM LLC
HEAVYDOMAINS.NET LLC
FRONTSTREETDOMAINS.COM LLC
DOMAINYETI.COM LLC
DOMAINSOFTHEDAY.NET LLC
DOMAINPARKBLOCK.COM LLC
EUNAMESOREGON LLC
DOMAINSAILS.NET LLC
WILLAMETTENAMES.COM LLC
FINDUANAME.COM LLC
FINDYOUANAME.COM LLC
SANTIAMDOMAINS.COM LLC
SAVETHENAME.COM LLC
THIRDFLOORDNS.COM LLC
NAMESALACARTE.COM LLC
NAMEEMPEROR.COM LLC
DOMAINRAKER.NET LLC
OREGONEU.COM LLC
SOYOUWANTADOMAIN.COM LLC
NAMESALACARTE.COM LLC
BETTERTHANAVERAGEDOMAINS.COM LLC
OREGONURLS.COM LLC
SILVERBACKDOMAINS.COM LLC
BULLRUNDOMAINS.COM LLC
DOMAINSALSA.COM LLC
SAMMAMISHDOMAINS.COM LLC
DOMAINROYALE.COM LLC
WILLAMETTENAMES.COM LLC
SNAPPYREGISTRAR.COM LLC
COMPUGLOBALHYPERMEGA.COM LLC
HAWTHORNEDOMAINS.COM LLC
BURNSIDEDOMAINS.COM LLC
BIGLIZARDDOMAINS.COM LLC
SITEFRENZY.COM LLC
NOTSOFAMOUSNAMES.COM LLC
NAMECROC.COM LLC
DOMAINSAREFOREVER.NET LLC
GOSERVEYOURDOMAIN.COM LLC
DOMAINSOVEREIGNS.COM LLC
OCTOPUSDOMAINS.NET LLC
RAINYDAYDOMAINS.COM LLC
KLAATUDOMAINS.COM LLC
EUTURBO.COM LLC
DOMAINTIMEMACHINE.COM LLC
ATOMICDOMAINNAMES.COM LLC
PORTLANDNAMES.COM, LLC
NAMEVOLCANO.COM LLC
COMPUGLOBALHYPERMEGA.COM LLC
MYPRECIOUSDOMAIN.COM LLC
PEARLNAMINGSERVICE.COM LLC
DOMAINSPROUTS.COM LLC
OLDTOWNDOMAINS.COM LLC
DUCKBILLEDDOMAINS.COM LLC
DOMAINHYSTERIA.COM LLC
ALLEARTHDOMAINS.COM LLC
LAKEODOMAINS.COM LLC
FLANCRESTDOMAINS.COM LLC
DOMAINSINTHEBAG.COM LLC
SAMMAMISHDOMAINS.COM LLC
BEARTRAPDOMAINS.COM LLC
DOMAINSOVERBOARD.COM LLC

All the registrars point to the same SnapNames website (by typing in an
arbitrary company name in the web browser's URL field) offering name
registrations for a beating price $100.000. They (almost) all use
OREGONNAMES.COM name servers for hosting the names.

Source:
http://www.dotandco.net/ressources/icann_registrars/details/1009/index.e
n
(registrar detail report for randomly chosen registrar
WillametteNames.com LLC; see also 'Web site IP 
address' field therein)

I have also collected a small list of just few eNom affiliate registrars

Few eNom Affiliate Registrars
-----------------------------
PRIVATE DOMAINS, INC
DOMAIN ROUGE, INC
DROPOUTLET, INC
ENOMTOO, INC
ENOM2, INC
ENOM3, INC
ENOM371, INC
ENOM393, INC
ENOM397, INC
ENOM405, INC
ENOM415, INC
ENOM425, INC
BIG HOUSE SERVICES INC.
SSSASSS, INC
ENTERTAINMENT NAMES, INC

The indication that these registrars are eNom affiliates is deduced from
the WHOIS registrant identity records for domain names registered by the
registrars that are shielded by eNom's privacy proxy services.


Phantom Registrants
-------------------

Every registered name has to point to a target registrant owning the
name (for a predefined registration period) so do the tasted names. As
the tasting is inherently a privileged practice also the registrants who
the names are registered for have privileged status. The phantom
registrants usually are

* Small number of companies that are somehow tightly connected to the
tasting registrars (e.g. ClickConsulting Ltd., Wan-Fu China Ltd.,
International Names Ltd., working for CapitolDomains and its affiliate
registrars, DomainDoorman and BelgiumDomains) that are claimed as owners
of tasting 
names. Most likely the phantom registrant companies are directly
conducted by the tasting registrars although there is lack of evidence
concerning proving a degree of such connection to the registrars.

* Registrars themselves. Some of SnapNames phantom registrars are also
listed in the registrant field of related registered domains.

* None registrants. Even after several days after registration the
registrant WHOIS record is empty at the gaining tasting registrar (e.g.,
domains registered by Name.net).

* Not available at all as in certain circumstances the WHOIS service is
restricted to a small number of lookup requests (per IP, zone, time?),
or it doesn't work at all (some domain registered by DomainSite).


'First-League' Tasting Registrars
---------------------------------

Despite widely spread opinion that tasting registrars can be relatively
easily recognized by comparing the domain gain/delete ratio the current
winner in snapping domain names (for auction and tasting purposes
collectively) is an auction company SnapNames LLC with at least 110
phantom registrars participating on grabbing names in background and
with almost 90% of all .COM and .NET deleted names grabbed. The large
number of scattered registrars involved makes possible to

a) maximize the effectiveness in grabbing names;
b) hide the tasting involvement that would otherwise be apparent in
gain/delete reports;

These registrars are usually involved in short-term kiting, which would
indicate the names are grabbed primarily for auctioning purposes and
measuring their overall market profitability for possible retaining in
domain portfolios (harvesting the most valuable and premium domains that
are likely to be soon and profitably sold on auctions). It seems that
domain kiting focused on gaining profit from PPC advertising plays
secondary role here. If a name is proven valuable (for further
auctioning purposes) it is retained, if not the name is still kept for a
short period to evaluate its PPC profitability, but eventually
relatively soon released, especially, as regards SnapNames
registrations. Thanks to domain tasting all deleted domains can be
grabbed for free, giving the tasting registrars enough time and
resources to peacefully pass this non-trivial process and to pick up all
valuable names.
First-League players are commonly known as most successful in grabbing
names immediately after they are deleted, thanks to large number of
scattered phantom registrars. This fact can be quite easily recognized
by reviewing the WHOIS records of larger number of freshly registered
domains (1 day after registration).

The typical first-league players are SnapNames and eNom. During the
research I noticed that many domains initially grabbed by SnapNames had
been later transferred to eNom. It is said there exists a tight
cooperation between the two. It is probably not a coincidence that most
of SnapNames' phantom registrar names are registered with eNom, of
course, with registrant identity shielded by proxy services.

Links:
http://www.domaineditorial.com/archives/2007/05/30/enoms-expired-names-n
ow-go-to-
snapnames/


'Second-League' Tasting Registrars
----------------------------------

These registrars are not as successful in registering just-deleted names
as the first-league players; they rarely occur in WHOIS records in
freshly grabbed domains. They are mainly involved in repetitive
re-registrations (domain kiting). In fact, we could say, they are
picking leftovers left behind by the first-league runners and such names
are therefore not of the highest quality. As primarily not suitable for
effective auctioning, the huge number of names has to be collected to
maximize the profit from the PPC advertising. In contrast to formerly
mentioned registrars the PPC advertising revenue is probably the biggest
part of their profit. Usually, the PPC advertising revenue based on
non-developed domain names (domains not backed up with quality website,
successful visit history, etc.) is relatively poor, therefore a huge
number of domains during longer period have to be 
tasted in order to bring noticeable income. The fact that the very most
of tasted domains are eventually released to the public pool indicates
poor effectiveness of the PPC advertising applied on non-developed
names; in most cases such names are not likely to earn enough to
survive, that is, $6.50-$7.00 per registration/year. If they were none
domain would be released.
However, thanks to the quantitative approach, there is still a
remarkable number of domains that bring benefit as a result of massive
PPC advertising. The PPC profitability can be somehow sophistically
measured (and estimated/predicted) during one or several AGP 'pentads'
when the final decision is made about keeping or deleting the domain.
The longer time a domain is tasted the more precise estimation can be
done. If the name is estimated to be likely to earn at least one year
registration fee, it is kept.

The biggest second-league players usually do not hide their tasting
effort and are traceable by domain statistical services measuring domain
gain/delete ratio. They run a small number of phantom registrars, if
any. Some of them are

CapitolDomains LLC
DomainDoorman LLC
BelgiumDomains LLC (all three have the same IP address, see
www.dnsstuff.com)
NameKing LLC
Name.net

and, basically, all the registrars already mentioned in one of the
previous emails from Danny Younger.


Dominik Filipp, a GA list member