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There's a huge difference though, you can't buy thousands of plots of land at once for zero-investment cost ( aka domain tasting - did ICANN ever fix that?) and

There's a huge difference though, you can't buy thousands of plots of land at once for zero-investment cost ( aka domain tasting - did ICANN ever fix that?) and then see if someone expresses interest. Most people who speculate property invest more time, energy, money and research than the average domain-squatters do. Furthermore, stuff that's common practice amongst squatters is expressly forbidden in other areas. At least in the US, you'd have a very difficult time trademarking an software company spelled "Microsoff", but typo-squatting is _rampant_. There's a massively disproportionate amount of risk/reward for property speculation than there is for domain 'speculation'. If I find out about some new product coming to market and squat the domain - the company could potentially lose a huge amount of revenue, whereas I'm risking the cost of a latte.

richardw 16y ago
I was thinking more of great grandpappy walking up to an area out West and saying "mine!" (possibly with a small payment) - it took a while before everything was owned and more rational prices were set by the market. The earliest domainers had a similar experience - no owners, so they didn't have to buy it from anyone. In the end, any resource that is limited, underpriced and has some ability to produce income will get nailed by speculators sooner or later, and the price will rise.
DotSauce 16y ago
Yes, ICANN has fixed domain tasting. No refunds for registration fees. Typo-squatting is of course unethical. I would not say that the practice is rampant. A recent report by Verisign showed that it is declining and really is not prevalent. It's also not very profitable. PPC revenue has hit rock bottom in recent years. Talk about risk. There is risk it seems because there is a high learning curve for what a quality domain name is. If you watch the industry, research keywords and learn to evaluate domain names you can do very well.
ohashi 16y ago
Domain Tasting was a problem for a few years, but let's be honest, 99.99% of the best stuff was taken beforehand. Domain tasting focused a lot on expired names, monitoring DNS/whois and frontrunning. It was but a hiccup in the timeline of domaining. As far as punishment, looking ACPA, 100k penalty for cybersquatting. That's taken out some of the biggest offenders (see IREIT).
jcl 16y ago
An interesting example, considering that Microsoft has successfully gone after similar domain names in the past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft

richardw 16y ago

I was thinking more of great grandpappy walking up to an area out West and saying "mine!" (possibly with a small payment) - it took a while before everything was owned and more rational prices were set by the market. The earliest domainers had a similar experience - no owners, so they didn't have to buy it from anyone. In the end, any resource that is limited, underpriced and has some ability to produce income will get nailed by speculators sooner or later, and the price will rise.

DotSauce 16y ago

Yes, ICANN has fixed domain tasting. No refunds for registration fees. Typo-squatting is of course unethical. I would not say that the practice is rampant. A recent report by Verisign showed that it is declining and really is not prevalent. It's also not very profitable. PPC revenue has hit rock bottom in recent years. Talk about risk. There is risk it seems because there is a high learning curve for what a quality domain name is. If you watch the industry, research keywords and learn to evaluate domain names you can do very well.

ohashi 16y ago

Domain Tasting was a problem for a few years, but let's be honest, 99.99% of the best stuff was taken beforehand. Domain tasting focused a lot on expired names, monitoring DNS/whois and frontrunning. It was but a hiccup in the timeline of domaining. As far as punishment, looking ACPA, 100k penalty for cybersquatting. That's taken out some of the biggest offenders (see IREIT).

jcl 16y ago

An interesting example, considering that Microsoft has successfully gone after similar domain names in the past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft