Whatever you do, be very careful before you search for your next domain name at Network Solutions. They have jumped in on the game of pre-registering domain names based on user searches. The hook? You decide you want that domain, you’ll have to register it with them.
Now I am not usually the kind of person to boycott anybody for their business practices, but I do have to say what Network Solutions is doing is pretty low down and dirty. Here are the facts thus far:
- If you search for a domain name’s availability with Network Solutions, they will register the domain name.
- If you would like to register the domain name you thought you might want after that point, you have to pay them $35/year for the domain name.
According to TechCrunch, this isn’t costing them a dime either:
This isn’t costing the company anything, either. Registrars are permitted to register domains for five days without paying any fees to the domain name registry (in this case, Verisign). If they delete the domains after 5 days, which they will almost certainly do, they do not pay for the registration.
Where is ICANN with this type of practice? I say if they were all over RegisterFly for what they were doing then Network Solutions really should not be treated any differently.
Related Reading:
DomainTools.com Blog – Network Solutions is Getting Better
