Don Havey

I’ve posted almost nothing productive on this blog in months! Just ranting! Let’s keep it up. Today’s topic: domain squatting, a.k.a. domain parking.

I’m a bit of a word lover. I enjoy certain combinations of words. This interest, combined with my web-oriented skill set, has made me into a bit of a domain name speculator. I occasionally think of words that might make nice domain names… and every once in a while, I buy one. Angel always complains that I do this instead of, for example, taking her to the movies. In my defense, buying a domain name is cheaper…

Moving on.

Domain name squatting has been a major problem since the mid-late 90s, the formative years of the internet. Back then, large companies that originally hesitated to build a web presence often found that their ideal domain name was registered by some clever nerd who would subsequently extort the company for a couple grand in exchange for the rights to the domain name. Not a huge deal. And the feeling amongst nerds was… well… you snooze you lose.

Lately, however, domain registrars such as GoDaddy have been registering domains in bulk. Literally taking entire pages out of the dictionary (challenge: find a word in the dictionary that does not exist as a registered domain name… and register it!). Registration costs as low as $7/yr… so a company like GoDaddy can register 10,000 domains–5% of all English words–for a pretty low price.

The strategy that these large companies have concocted is as follows: register as many domains as possible, throw some ads on them to recoup the cost of the registration, then auction the high-request-traffic domains to companies that have large enough budgets to pay 1,000 times the cost of a typical domain registration.

The problem with this “corner the market” strategy is that it is non-renewable. Extremely non-renewable. For two hugely important reasons:

1. There are a finite number of words in the English language. Furthermore, there are a relatively small number of words in that set that are easy to spell and/or pronounce. New words are occasionally created, but not at a rate anywhere close to the rate of internet expansion. Eventually, we will run out of pronounceable and meaningful letter combinations. Of course, it is equally difficult to find an unregistered two- or three-syllable non-word (e.g. Google).
2. When a domain expires, it is the registrar who has first pick on whether or not to grab the domain name for themselves. This is particularly important during times of “internet economy slump”… when small- and medium-traffic online businesses close shop and leave common-word domains lying in their wake.

Furthermore, it essentially squeezes small businesses out of the market by requiring those startups to settle for a less-than-memorable domain name, or put a large percentage of their funds into buying a memorable one.

In conclusion, domain name parking by individuals is fine (my favorite example); domain name parking by registrars is monopolistic and evil.

Take action! When you stumble across a parked domain, remember the registrar associated with it, and do not purchase any service through them. And please, don’t click the damn ads. If you want to do more, inquire about the domain, but in the comments box write something like “wouldn’t you like to work at a company that is not evil?” Maybe we can convince all their employees to leave.

Comments welcome, but I will bitch slap you if you disagree and call this “the nature of capitalism, the preferred economic strategy of God himself”. Fools.