mendax.org

The Internet’s purpose, aside from being a redundant communications network, was to provide porn information quickly, easily, and effectively. In this effort, the administrators and developers of the Internet have been fairly successful. Central to this success has been the establishment of domain names, which identify the online presence of companies, organizations, and individuals. While the domain name system is still not final, what with the constant proposal for new extensions, unicode characters, et al, the system does a decent job, at least when not abused by others.

Recently, the domain purchasing system has been hijacked by a group of crafty entrepreneurs assholes who intend to use other people’s domain names to make a little extra cash. How? Certain domain registrars track interest in unused domain names and tally the results of queries into such domains. These registrars than sell this information, or use it themselves, to purchase domain names that aren’t immediately bought by those making the queries. After these domains are purchased, they are directed to “mini” web sites filled with adds or search boxes. Effectively, these domains are squatted.

The new owners of these domain names hope to make revenue off the ads displayed on them. The ingenuity of the scheme is that the domains are purchased through domain registrars that allow for a refund period, so the companies registering the domains cancel them at the end of this period, so they are never actually charged for buying the domain. If the company made money on ad clicks, it’s pure profit. After canceling the registration, the companies immediately re-register them, which resets the clock for the refund period. This constant cycle of registration-and-cancellation is what Godaddy founder Bob Parsons calls domain kiting. If a domain doesn’t earn money in the long-term, the domain may be released back into the wild, whereas more profitable domains stay on the kiting list, or are simply permanently registered.

The irksome aspect of the scheme is that it takes the already limited number of available domains away from the public, who might legitimately use a domain for their company, organization, or personal web site. Unfortunately, ICANN, the entity that can actually do something about the problem, hasn’t acknowledged the immoral nature of domain kiting. Until they do, assholes continue to sap resources from what is supposed to be an outlet for sharing information, just to make some extra change.

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