I typed in my lastname and added .com at the end, i really want to get the domain to make a family tree page. The site used to be owned by one of my cousins relatives whom i don't know, they had info on them before. Now the site has nothing on it and its owned by someone with a totaly different last name. Only 50 or so people in the world have my last name, and out of them i am probably the best with websites....
Unfortunately, you don't have any legal case so the only way is to contact the owner & see if the want to sell- or wait for it to expire & hope you can grab it on the drop.
If you don't mind using a filler word ("the"), you might try something like theSmiths.com (using your real name) and see if it's available. The SE's will disregard the word "the".
If you have a name that is completely unique then you can register it and you can get your domain name. If you're name is Smith, then you can't get it, because there are lots of people named like that.
Like i said, only about 50 people have this last name, I already own mynameLastname.com but i really want the last name only. How does backordering work? what are the chances it would happen? How do i contact someone if only their first, last name is shown on who is? godaddy is the registrar.
you cant do anything about it unless he uses the domain against you. Even in this case you will still have to pay a lot. backordering will work only if the domain's registration drops in future. emails are shown on whois.
It would depend on who registered the domain name. If you belong to the same jurisdiction, there might be some basis in your laws to force him to give up the domain name.
That depends on what part of the domain's "life cycle" it's in. Especially if it is a .com, it goes like this: Domain registered up to 10 years or until it expires. Domain expired and kept from 0 to 45 days. Domain in Redemption Grace Period for 30 days. Domain in Pending Delete for 5 days. Domain available "6th" day after pending delete 1-2PM EST. First see when the domain expires or if it's expired. Nowadays some registrars will try to "auction" an expired name to an interested buyer before letting it go and switching to RGP, so check with them what they'll do to expired domains. Some like Go Daddy hold expired names about 12 days (I think), while others like Network Solutions and Moniker up to 35 days. They're not required to be consistent among one another, and each one will decide how long they'll hold it. If it's expired or about to expire, ask the registrar if they have a backorder for it or with whoever they tied up with. Go Daddy has their own for domains that they manage, while eNom and Network Solutions use their joint venture called NameJet to handle those. If the domain's in RGP as above, backorder with as many as you can afford. In this case, NameJet and SnapNames are arguably two of the best, but check with their policies as I'm not completely familiar when they'll bill you. I can understand your desire to obtain that domain from someone else. If you wish to seek legal avenues about this, though, would you appreciate someone else doing that to you for whatever reason? Some things to consider, perhaps.
What is it? Maybe we have the same last name I own my last name.com which is a rare name, and there's nothing on it.