by Michelle Lentz

A Cincinnati company called metaphor, and their affiliate editspot, did some research on a domain name. The name they wanted was available, but they didn’t purchase it right away. A few days later they did try to purchase it, but it was gone. A company in the Bahamas had purchased the name and offered to sell it to metaphor for $30,000 instead of the $30 they would have paid to their registrar.

Personally, I spend a lot of time frustrated because most of the domain names I’d like to have – more common iterations of write technology or wine girl – have been parked somewhere and aren’t used. But I could buy them for a large amount …

According to today’s Cincinnati Enquirer:

More than 162 million new “domains” – the name under which a Web site and e-mail server operate – were created in the first quarter of this year alone, up 26 percent from the same period last year, according to a report by Verisign, a major player in the domain industry. And growing by 40 percent were instances of “cybersquatting” - the practice of buying a domain name that is a registered trademark for someone else – according to a MarkMonitor survey.

metaphor is suspicious of how the Bahamas-based company learned of their chosen domain name. metaphor had originally searched through Network Solutions. I know I usually search through PairNic. Whether or not those searches “leak,” metaphor wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen again. They created a desktop tool that directly searches the domain name database without having to go through a provider. You still have to purchase the domain through a provider, but you can research your chosen name without leaving the comfort of your desktop.

You can download their free desktop tool for Mac, Mac Dashboard, and PC at LiberateDomains.com.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, or via Pownce.

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