Dot Coms For $1.17 @ Godaddy?

I've never had the experience, but have heard of that, but I don't buy domains that often, and I don't worry too much if one I happen upon gets snatched up while I'm trying to decide whether I want it. I don't get my heart set until I'm ready to buy, and normally just buy as soon as I find one I like anyway. It isn't mine until I do, so nobody can possibly "steal" it from me, given that I didn't own it.

Besides, how would you know for certain whether that's what happened? Godaddy might be lying, but they deny it in no uncertain terms, for what it's worth. This quote is from their blog, according to the article quoting it:

"In fact, more than six percent of customer searches for available domain names are performed by more than one person each day. This overlap in domain name requests happens every day. As unique as customers believe their domain name ideas are, there's more "innovation collision" than many people realize. With so many domain name registrations happening every day, there is a good probability a domain name you searched for is also being searched by someone else."

At any rate, if you believe they do use searches as alerts for speculative purchases, there were a couple of people in that thread posting their solutions; sites they believe keep your searches private:

The Warrior named "Thriftgirl62", who started the thread, in the 10th post offered a possible solution: "Unlike many other domain name look-up tools, searching for a name at Domize is completely private." She was quoting from the site, and wondering if it was really true, but at any rate, it is what they claim.

Another Warrior, Joan Altz, said this: "Your best bet for zero monitoring imo is to use what I use every day: Instant Domain Search.

It shows availability as you type, so there is no monitoring, because you could be typing only a partial word leading up to the actual word(s) you are searching and it will give back "available" for the nonsense that nobody would register."

At any rate, I will continue for now, taking advantage of cheap deals, and not worry about people stealing what I don't own. I do appreciate the heads up, just in case there is some truth to it (I could find no proof offered in the first 50 posts on the linked thread; all speculation as far as I can tell). Maybe I'll try some of the offered solutions.

When you do find and register a domain, I still maintain that it won't matter one iota what company you used; the domain will work just as well regardless.

I agree; got a good laugh! You're welcome; I hope you get something great!