Check ANY domain for availability at Network Solutions = THEY register it, ALLEGEDLY!

Interesting.

Did you use the home page whois checker or the dedicated whois link?

 

Update on above post:

The domain is showing as registered by Network Solutions now.

 

Heh I made them register networksolutionssucksco**.com ... now ima go search for tons of extremely long random letter domains at their site! Hurrah!

 

I didn't do whois. Just their front page. Netsol.com. Not whois. But its been 3 days. So it wasn't instant. I could of grabbed it by now if I wanted. So they waited too long.

ivnj

 

Strange stuff.

But the registration may have been a result of people checking today too.

Given it's an automated script, it seems unlikely it would wait for 3 days before deciding to register.

Perhaps their system was overloaded the first time you used their home page to check for availability.

 

Like you, I've never ever experienced front running before, and I've checked the availability of many thousands of domains over the many years I've been domaining.

Has anyone had any strong suspicions of being front-run on a quasi-unique domain idea at any registrar before?

 

good work by networksolutions.com
by registering these domains

google-for-sale.com
yahoo-for-sale.com
networksolutions-for-sale.com
enom-for-sale.com
godaddy-for-sale.com
dotster-for-sale.com

why dont u search some more lolz

 

networksolutions-ceo-for-sale
networksolutions-fuckers-inc
yahoo-is-not-good-company
gma1l
Ggmail
google-ceo-sex

i searched all are taken by networksoultons.com
google-sex
google-bastards
google-sucks
yahoo-sucks
dont-buy-domain-with-yahoo
dont-buy-domain-with-enom
dont-buy-domain-with-name
dont-buy-domain-with-godaddy
dont-buy-domain-with-dotster

some more sites added .com and .info added

 

NetSol used to pre-register domain names in the early days too ... people liked it that time

 

Ah, the good old days!

Remember what domains used to cost then?

Oh wait, the price doesn't seem to have changed that much in some places ;-)

 

I wasn't in domaining then, but I guess you're referring to the time when one didn't have to pay immediately for the domains they 'bought' and had many weeks to send payment.

And in the meantime they could have 'sold' the domains they 'bought' at a profit, or at least test the market before deciding whether they still felt like sending payment.

 

I only search domains at the site i'm going to purchase from!

 

It makes a lot of sense to do so right now.

I wonder what percentage of visitors to NetSol's home page would notice the warning and do that.

 

You mean they regged a .info domain you searched for using their home page?

 

I tried again. It took onyl 5 seconds this time.

ivnj

 

Yeah it's true, Net Sol is registering any .com domain you check via their whois! FuckYouNetworkSolutions.com was available before I went over to them & the second after you do a whois search, FuckYouNetworkSolutions.com is now unavailable to reg at anywhere else but their site.

The Whois records now show: "This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com" owns about 24,003 other domains.

I'm sure they're gonna lose a lot of potential customers now as it's already been spread all over domain forums & blogs/internet about them. So, FuckYouNetworkSolutions.

 

Safe to assume you're not a fan then?

Seems like you weren't persuaded by this part of the article provided by Dave Zan above:

"...
Some critics have said that Network Solutions' new practice amounts to front running, but Mitchell disagrees, saying the point of the system is to protect customers from the front-runners.

His company has developed an algorithm, designed to identify legitimate domain name searches and then automatically register the domain names being searched for on behalf of Network Solutions.
..."

At least it's comforting to know that their algorithm has recognized your domain as a "legitimate domain name search".

 

These f'ing bastards! I had my eyes rudely opened to this yesterday when this happened to me. Now, either I get extorted by Network Scammers for the .com or I wait 4 days and hope for the best.

Hmm just now

fuck-you-network-solutions-for-sneaky-registrations.com

was registered within 1 minute of looking for it. Someone should put a bot on that search page and fill their database with crap.

 

It appears they've already anticipated that per Osensei's post. Too late.

 

some crappy netsolutions.com