Stephen Withers
Thursday, 31 January 2008 11:18
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Domain kiting is a closely allied practice. The difference is that there is no intention to pay for the domain. Instead, kiters simply use the domain for a few days (for the distribution of spam or malware, or other shady operations) before cancelling.
With the involvement of a registrar, it is possible to kite the same domains repeatedly without ever paying for any of them. Just as spammers can send millions of emails at virtually no cost (so almost any return makes the activity profitable), a kiting registrar can register tens or even hundreds of thousands of domains, and only incur the opportunity cost of the funds needed as a deposit with the registry concerned. Even a very small amount of revenue - from contextual advertising or affiliate marketing, perhaps - is enough to turn a profit.
Even though ICANN's plan won't be voted on by the board until June (following a discussion period along with the rest of the 2008-2009 budget), other steps may be taken against tasters.
According to a recent report by
DomainTools, Google is set to introduce a policy that will only allow Adsense to be used on domains during the grace period. The story was subsequently confirmed by the
Associated Press, which quoted Google spokesman Brandon McCormick as saying "We believe that this policy will have a positive impact for users and domain purchasers across the Web."
One of the industry's most vocal critics of domain tasting and kiting is Bob Parsons, founder and CEO of GoDaddy. He has been complaining about the issues for years. In June 2007, Parsons wrote "During a recent conversation with Dr. Paul Twomey who heads up ICANN, I once again brought up the issue of domain tasting and kiting and asked what his plans are to do something about it. He did express concern, but the bottom line is unless he starts receiving complaints about the negative impact of tasting and kiting, don’t expect any action from ICANN."
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