Of Verisign’s Internet Official contest winners — The history

Verisign contest hits its goal in first round.

Verisign has disclosed the first five winners in its Internet Official contest, a promotion designed to show that good .com domain names are still available. The domain names selected have interesting histories.

The first five winners, who will each pick up $5,000, are:

1. ChooseYourTattoo.com: Registered by Tom H. of Niles, Mich.
2. ElectricMotorcycleClub.com: Registered by Adam Y. H. of Pine Bluffs, Wyo.
3. PerfectHairstylist.com: Registered by Zvi A. of Rego Park, N.Y.
4. SecretSnitch.com: Registered by Nancy K. of Port Charlotte, Fla.
5. StressDetector.com: Registered by Jeffrey H. of Baton Rouge, La.

The winners are picked by a panel of judges, counting fellow blogger Michael Berkens.

Verisign has really pulled this one off. In addition to showing that good .com domains are still available, they’ve managed to get two in the first batch that “match” fresh top level domain names: .tattoo and .club. “See, internet! You don’t need fresh TLDs. Your first choice is available in .com.”

These five domains (well, a number of of them) are pretty good. As you can imagine, this isn’t the first time they’ve been registered, either. Here’s a look at the history of these five domain names:

• ChooseYourTattoo.com – originally registered in 2006, expired at the end of 2014 and re-registered in January 2015
• ElectricMotorcycleClub.com – registered in 2010, expired the next year, and then sat unregistered until February 2015
• PerfectHairstylist.com – DomainTools doesn’t have any registration records prior to the current owner, who registered the domain on February 2.
• SecretSnitch.com – I’m scratching my head on this one, but it’s been registered a few times. Once from 2003-2007, then again from 2009-2012, then another owner picked it up for regarding a year at the end of 2012.
• StressDetector.com – One owner had this from 2006-2009, then HugeDomains picked it up. Believe it or not, they let it drop last year and the winner registered it in February.