[...] been in domaining for more than a month has heard dozens of versions of that same story. Although not everyone buys that domain sniffing actually exists, there is mounting evidence that domain sniffing exists in [...]

[...] Domain Sniffing Durch die Benutzung von Domaintools (Ist Ihre Wunschdomain noch frei?) können unseriöse Zeitgenossen noch unbenutzte Domainnamen in Erfahrung bringen und diese selbst registrieren. (sniffing = erschnüffeln). Ein Artikel dazu [...]

[...] “I had a really great domain name idea, which was available when I searched through the registrar, but then five minutes later when I went to buy the name it was gone.” Anyone who has been in domaining for more than a month has heard dozens of versions of that same story. Although not everyone buys that domain sniffing actually exists, there is mounting evidence that domain sniffing exists in some form or another. The real question is, what legal recourse do you have against these sniffers? [...]

Watch Out for Domain Sniffing…

Here’s the situation: you want to see if you can buy a domain .  You check an online registrar and see that it is available.  You think about it, return in a day or so, and it’s taken.  A domain……

This service is provided free and we just ask that folks refrain from abusing it with automated volume query tools.
-Ken

Everyone should take a look at Jay’s post using the link above. This is particularly interesting: ISPs sell data about which non-existent domains people search for.

I guess John Berryhill was right when he suggested that Verizon could find out which typos of its domain are worth registering:

http://tinyurl.com/2jf7st

Coincidentally Jay Westerdal,President and CEO of DomainTools and Name Intelligence also wrote about Domain Stealing in his blog today.

Brief excerpt:
“We have been investigating domain name research theft crimes for the last two years and talking with the many victims. If you are a victim, please contact us – the more technical a description of the event the better. We are collating events of all the victims and we will update everyone if there is a common thing to avoid. We will also be passing our evidence on to local authorities in the proper jurisdictions.”

Full article here:
http://snipurl.com/DomainTheft

Patrick