Hey, I was looking at the auctions going on at enom.com, Could anyone explain to me what is Pre-Release Names? thanks
It's called self-dealing. Somewhat similar to the arrangement between SnapNames and NetworkSolutions, except that instead of two companies, you have just one organization. This works only for eNom names. Behind the sleek advertising, there are two ways it could be working. First, when someone submits a bid, eNom temporarily places the domain in its name, and then transfers it to the highest bidder. This way, they're insured to have a profit. Another way could be when eNom domain expires, it is released to the public and then immediately grabbed back by eNom itself. Since it's one and the same organization (i.e. one hand "feeding" the other), they can insure that the name is not grabbed by another registrar...and claim that it's "never released to the public".