Network Solutions has tried the good old “Jedi Mind Trick” – and its FAILED big time. 
These aren’t the domains your looking for…. move along… move along.
The company has issued a press release saying:
“Network Solutions has long called for a fee-based solution to eliminate the related abuses of domain name “tasting” and “front running.”
Umm… guys… just in case you DIDNT actually know…. YOU were the morons people who were sprung big time registering other peoples domain names without their knowledge engaging in this practice! Hello!!!!! Your magical jedi powers don’t extend to rewriting history. Now you write a press release saying that “these practices are abusive”.
What you guys need to do is, get a dictionary, now lookup the word hypocrisy [hip-ok-rass-ee]. Just in case you are too busy counting the great big piles of cash you are making from your monopoly (I’m sure you know the meaning of that word) – hypocrisy means “the practice of claiming to have standards or beliefs that are contrary to one’s real character or actual behaviour”.
Thanks to the guys at TechCrunch for bringing this to light. By the way Network Solutions, your so called “explanation” is not credible. Why do it in the first instance? What steps are you taking internally to ensure that you (as a company) don’t condone and/or engage in such unethical business practices in the future?
Tags: domain names registration, domain tasting, Front Running, registrar
June 21st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Hi Simon,
I work at Network Solutions, and wanted to respond to your claims of hypocrisy and schemes and clarify a couple of points. We are not front runners.
Tasters and Front Runners deal in registering and deleting millions of domains within the 5 day grace period while they test them to see if they would be profitable to keep. Network Solutions does not engage in this practice.
We have an opt-in reservation for our customers in order to help protect their interests against Tasters and Front Runners. Applying a non-refundable $.20 fee in the 5 day AGP will make the Tasters’ monetizing efforts during the 5 day window unprofitable.
We made this statement as we feel next week’s conference is a critical moment for domain registration and issues of tasting, kiting and front running. We encourage you and others to write directly to ICANN and urge them to pass this provision, too.
Thanks,
Shashi
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 am
From someone who works at NetSol:
“Tasters and Front Runners deal in registering and deleting millions of domains within the 5 day grace period while they test them to see if they would be profitable to keep. Network Solutions does not engage in this practice.”
So, what you do is not front running (nah, using a domain search done by your customers who trust you to register domains then parking them for 5 days) but when others do it it is OK?
So, if “millions” of domains is not OK, and what you are doing is OK, where is the cutoff? 500,000 is OK? 50,000 is OK? How many queries does NetSol receive in a day? 5,000? Surely you have more than 500 queries a day.