Avatar Posted by Maayaa 454 days ago (http://www.dnhour.com)
Category: General Discussions | Tags: domain tasting domain monetization

Domain Tasting is the term coined to describe a process using which rich companies (in the guise of an ICANN accredited Domain Registrar) register millions of Domain Names, test them for advertising revenues (domain parking) at virtually no net cost to them.

Here is how a typical domain taster goes about his business
1. Domain Taster Becomes a Registrar
2. Deposits a financial security of a large amount with the Registries (Verisign for .com/.net, Afilias for .Info etc)
3. Starts Registering domains
4. Parks Those domains with Domain parking companies ( Sedo ,Skenzo, Imonetize ,Domain Sponsor etc .)
5. Monitors the revenue from each domain over the next 4 days
6. Retains all those domains that make some money. Delete the rest of domains
7. Gets refunds for All Deleted Domains
8. Go to Step 3

And the process continues.

All this is possible because of a concept called "Add Grace Period" which is part of the ICANN policy for domain registrars. Under this policy, any registrar will get full refund on any domain deleted within 5 days of its registration. This refund system was introduced as a means to allow Registrars to delete domains that were mistakenly registered or which were registered using Stolen Credit Cards.

But as outlined above big registrars with chests of money are misusing the system to make money at virtually no cost.

How does it harm others?
1. Tasting harms the end consumer by making unavailable any domain that a customer may have utilized for a better reason. This forces the consumer to either buy a better domain at an auction or make do with a not so suitable domain for his use.
2. Tasting Harms everybody in the Domain Name business-Small registrars lose money because our customers can not get hold of any domain that they want to buy. Domain Resellers also lose for the same reason

Why does not ICANN stop domain tasting?

ICANN is discussing this problem and a solution is expected soon. Soon in ICANN's calendar can mean anything between 1 year to 5 years.

What can be done to fight the Menace then?

MindGenies has come up with an idea that may sound maverick to some and sensible to others.

They have brought Domain tasting to the masses. Instead of only registrars being able to taste domains, they enable anybody with a willingness to invest $50 to start tasting domain names.

This has two benefits
1. Instead of automated scripts choosing the names to speculate on, we would have actual people coming up with the names to taste. This will give better results to the tasters as compared to the automated scripts run by the registrars. Casual tasters can also earn money by parking the domains with any parking provider
2. The bigger benefit would be the fact that with more people tasting domains, the menace would come in the public view and can then force ICANN to move faster on making Tasting Illegal. This is their ultimate aim.

I found it interesting!
Check out http://tasting.dotcomgenie.com
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