Possible Domain Name Fraud?

Last week I read a blog post by Mike Brunt, a colleague of mine. In it, he expresses his concern over the potential for Domain Registrars to watch for commonly searched domain names, and to buy, or in his case, "hold" them — something he thinks may have happened to him.

This raises a very good point: That the registrar has a vested interest to capture searches and to keep tabs on which names are being commonly searched, potentially meaning they are worth more money.

Before now, I would always search for available domains at my registrar of choice (Active-Domain), and I have to say that although I search infrequently, and buy even less frequently, I've never had a problem or suspected them of acting unethically. Even so, I think I will start running any name searches through an independent site with no vested interest in what I'm searching for, like GeekTools.

Posted in Meta