A Web Cookie Know What Domain Names I Own? — How Does

Ad shows a domain I own.

[Updated: see update and probable answer at bottom.] You’ve probably come across a “re-targeted” ad on the web ahead of. One day I searched for Puma shoes at Zappos. Later that day I visited a web site with an ad for the exact shoes I had searched for on Zappos. They’re highly targeted (and useful) ads.

But I came across one the other day that has me puzzled:

Needless to say, this ad caught my attention as I own ExecutivePay.com.

But how did the firm cookie a page that shows what domains I own? Or did it just cookie a domain lookup?

I bought the domain on a drop a while back, so I thought perhaps it was originally at Register.com and I had been cookied there ahead of transferring it to another registrar. But it turns out the domain name was previously at Network Solutions.

The text on the ad doesn’t necessarily suggest I by now own the domain name. Instead it could be triggered based on a domain lookup I performed somewhere. For example, I may have looked up the whois or availability on a domain name and got cookied. Now Register.com is suggesting I register the domain ahead of it’s too late (which of course it by now is).

If advertising cookies are picking up your whois searches, that’s a problem.

Any other thoughts on where I might have picked up this cookie?

[Update: I recall now that I have done some lookups at Register.com recently to see how Afternic’s premium listings look. It’s likely how I got the cookied, which is much better than a third party whois passing it along. Technically the domain was “available” since it can be purchased as a premium domain at Register.]