Taking the Profit out of Domain Tasting
According to a recent article Google will stop allowing Google ads to appear on websites that are linked to by domain names that Google has determined are being kited. The article states that Google will introduce a system to detect “domain kiting”.
Under the current registration system for .com domain names, a registrant has a five-day grace period between the date of domain name registration and the date of payment for such registration. Registrants can delete a domain name registration during that time period at no cost. Through the practice called “domain tasting”, registrants are able to take advantage of this grace period by generating ad revenue with newly registered domain names by linking them to active websites and then cancelling the registrations for those domain names that have not generated sufficient revenue within the grace period. “Domain kiting” is the practice of deleting registered domain names within the grace period and then immediately re-registering such domain names in order to start a new grace period.
[...] ICANN has announced a proposal to end domain tasting by charging the annual ICANN fee at the time a domain name is registered. If this proposal is approved, then whenever a domain name registration is deleted during the five-day Add Grace Period, only the registration fee (and not the ICANN fee) will be refunded to the Registrant. (See our earlier post describing Google’s efforts to take the profitability out of domain tasting.) [...]
[...] Google taking the profit out of domain tasting: (The Trademark Blog), (Canadian Trademark Blog), (Class 46), (Ars Technica), [...]