Posted on 02/18/2007 9:47:44 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
It's not often you can compare Internet addresses with clothing, but a growing practice comes close, contributing to a global shortage in good names.
Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of a five-day grace period to sample millions of domain names, keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying. It's akin to buying new clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a big party.
The grace period was originally designed to rectify legitimate mistakes, such as registrants mistyping the domain name they are about to buy. But with computer automation and a burgeoning online advertising market, entrepreneurs have turned the return policy into a loophole for generating big bucks.
Experts believe spammers and scam artists are also starting to use the grace period as a source of free, disposable Web addresses.
With up to 6 million names tied up at any given time through a practice known as domain name tasting, individuals and businesses are having even greater difficulty finding good names, particularly in the already-crowded ".com" space.
"The system really doesn't work to the advantage of people who have legitimate reasons for wanting names," Frederick Felman, chief marketing officer with MarkMonitor, a brand-protection firm. "It allows people with criminal or speculative intent to dominate."
Cybersquatting has been around for more than a decade, and scores of entrepreneurs have made thousands and even millions of dollars reselling names they had bought for as little as $6 each. With tasting, entrepreneurs generally aren't grabbing names to resell but to generate traffic and share in online advertising revenues.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews1.iwon.com ...
bttt
Here's some:
http://www.frerepublic.com/
http://www.freerepublc.com/
http://www.feerepublic.com/
And so forth. You could go on forever.
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