How do you search for new domain name to avoid kiting?

by xparte
9 replies
Sometimes being a newbie is truly fascinating, as you learn so many things you had no idea exist. Frustrating, yes, but fascinating nevertheless. About a week ago I was playing with a few .com domain names in Google and Godaddy site, and I could swear the one I thought to go with was at that time available. I decided to sleep on it, and lo and behold, it's now offered at a "premium" 3+K! Then I decided to check the web and found god-awful number of discussions on the same topic. I also read some statements from GoDaddy that insist they are not engaged in this practice. So my question to experienced warriors is obviously what do you guys do to avoid this situation.

Of course, there is no way on earth I'd buy it for this kind of money, so another question is do you think buying a .net domain is a good alternative? Thanks.
#avoid #domain #kiting #search
  • Profile picture of the author jficarro
    Same thing happened to me years ago. Weird thing is that it was my name. I just typed it into the address bar and it says website coming soon. Weird and suspicious.

    I really doubt a reputable co. like godaddy would do such a thing, but pretty sure it was godaddy that i was searching for when this happened years ago. It was just like you said. I found it, decided to sleep on it, next morning GONE.

    So, now... I'm a bit quicker on the purchase button. But... hopefully we are just being paranoid.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by jficarro View Post

      I really doubt a reputable co. like godaddy would do such a thing
      They're (in)famous for it.

      There are probably 100 threads here in which Warriors complain about exactly this happening to them at GoDaddy.

      (It's certainly not so often you'll see the words "GoDaddy" and "reputable" in the same sentence, though!)

      You need to be ready to buy domain-names you research, when you research them, really, to be sure of avoiding this. To be fair, GoDaddy's by no means the only company of whom this is sometimes alleged. Just the most well-known, perhaps.
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      • Profile picture of the author TonyLaw
        Here's what I do: Go here Domain Search | Name Availability in All TLDs | DomainTools and do a "wildcard" search leaving off the last part of the name you're looking for.

        Example: If you're looking for badmammerjammer.com type in "^badmammerja"

        This will return any sites beginning with that phrase i.e. "badmammerjason.com", "badmammerjabloney.com"...etc.

        This way if anyone is "peeking" at your search they won't know what you're really looking for.

        The one you're looking for may be in the results list as available or not show up at all also meaning it's available.

        Good luck.
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      • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        (It's certainly not so often you'll see the words "GoDaddy" and "reputable" in the same sentence, though!)
        ^^ This. Ugh.

        The lady is right on.

        The way to avoid this is when you have a brilliant idea with just the right domain to match the idea is to sleep on it for about three seconds and then buy it.
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  • Originally Posted by xparte View Post

    Sometimes being a newbie is truly fascinating, as you learn so many things you had no idea exist. Frustrating, yes, but fascinating nevertheless. About a week ago I was playing with a few .com domain names in Google and Godaddy site, and I could swear the one I thought to go with was at that time available. I decided to sleep on it, and lo and behold, it's now offered at a "premium" 3+K! Then I decided to check the web and found god-awful number of discussions on the same topic. I also read some statements from GoDaddy that insist they are not engaged in this practice. So my question to experienced warriors is obviously what do you guys do to avoid this situation.

    Of course, there is no way on earth I'd buy it for this kind of money, so another question is do you think buying a .net domain is a good alternative? Thanks.
    I've never had that happen to me. I heard Network Solutions was doing it though. Did you do a whois lookup on the domain? Perhaps you misspelled it. That's happened to me more than one time and it really sucks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    I could of swore this happened to me but I never looked into it. I thought it seemed suspicious but I couldn't prove it. It didn't matter anyways because the domain was gone when I came back. It taught me to buy right on the spot for the just in case scenario...
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  • Profile picture of the author Green Moon
    This happened to me a couple of times. I do it a couple of ways now if I am not sure I am going to buy it. One way is just to type the URL in your browser to see if you get a "Server not found" message. Another way is to go to Network Solutions and put in the name with a different TLD. If you are looking for possibledomain.com type in possibledomain.org - the results will tell you the other TLD where possibledomain is available.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Plenty of stories of that happening. Number one rule ... never sleep on it. If you want a domain, buy it.

    I do my searches at Namecheap just in case there is truth to the rumors. As for .net, go for it. There's absolutely no reason not to.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Using Namecheap while logged in and never had any issues.
    Signature
    People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
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