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Getting a domain name

galenbladegalenblade Registered User regular
edited August 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
I'm trying to check the availability of a domain name for something for work. I check the site and there's only one of those generic ad placeholders.

I do a whois search, and I get two pieces of info. "Registrant" and "Registrar of record". I go to both their sites and find that the former just leads to another ad placeholder site and the latter redirects me to a bunch of different sites, some of which are hosting sites and whatnot.

Where do I go to actually inquire about the cost of obtaining the site? I really don't know much about what's entailed. I've been researching this for a bit, but there seems to be conflicting information on what to do, and I can't make sense of it.

Plz hap?

linksig.jpg
galenblade on

Posts

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    What's the domain, I'll buy it and sell it you you for only a "modest" fee ;)

    seriously though, I would just try registering it. if it works, great, then the ad placeholder should go away. If it won't let you register it, you gotta get in contact with whoever may own the domain. Good luck with that, the ad shit domains suck.

    wunderbar on
    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • galenbladegalenblade Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    wunderbar wrote: »
    What's the domain, I'll buy it and sell it you you for only a "modest" fee ;)

    seriously though, I would just try registering it. if it works, great, then the ad placeholder should go away. If it won't let you register it, you gotta get in contact with whoever may own the domain. Good luck with that, the ad shit domains suck.

    OK. I went to register.com (googled it) and it says it's unavailable. Do I then contact the registrant directly and haggle with the guy?

    (And I take it it's a bad sign if the registrant has an address in the Caymans)

    galenblade on
    linksig.jpg
  • slugabedslugabed Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Yes you could try to contact them with that information or look on the site for some contact information. They call this tactic "domain squatting". It means they buy the domain because they think someone will buy it from them later, or because people would happen upon it just by typing it in directly. This is very common for simple words and phrases as well as common misspellings of famous sites.

    The owner will probably be willing to sell if the price is right. Expect to pay well above the normal registration rate. If your office owns a trademark for the domain name, I think you can force them to give it up.

    slugabed on
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