Domain Tasting 2.0
The fresh era of domain tasting starts in April.
“The end of domain tasting”
“Domain tasting is dead”
“ICANN shuts down domain tasting”
You’ve heard it all ahead of. But as I’ve pointed out, fresh rules designed to kill domain tasting starting in April won’t kill it. Curtail it, yes. But not kill it.
In some ways, the fresh era of domain tasting parallels to other changes in the domain industry. What used to be very easy will now become difficult.
Domain Tasting 1.0 didn’t require many brains. Just register everything and see what was profitable.
Domain Tasting 2.0 will require sophisticated calculations. To make it profitable, firms will have to predict a high likelihood of a domain paying off ahead of tasting it.
The rate of domain tasting has by now decreased significantly since ICANN introduced a stop-gap budget measure to curtail it. In October, regarding 1.5 million .com domain names were deleted during the 5 day add-grace period. (Not all domains deleted in add-grace are tasted; the purpose of the period is to allow registrars to get a refund for errant for fraudulent domain registrations). In January 2008 nearly 19 million domain names were deleted during the grace period.
How will domain tasters make it in the fresh world? Data and good calculations. Data from ISPs, registrars, search engines, etc. will all be required. And a PhD will help.
