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So what happens when there are hundreds++ of individuals all interested in a single domain name that will become available at a very well-defined time like this

by 542458 4y ago

So what happens when there are hundreds++ of individuals all interested in a single domain name that will become available at a very well-defined time like this? Do people just hammer the ICANN/registrar servers in hope of being the lucky one, or is it more elegant than that?

yuvadam 4y ago
Yes.
thejosh 4y ago
Yep, it's called "domain drop", it's a pretty lucrative industry to be in. GoDaddy especially knows this and will auction off domains before selling them, where as third parties can try and register the domain every 0.005 seconds. :-)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
blechschmidt 4y ago
AFAIK, there are even companies that own hundreds of registrars to just do that [1]. Just scroll through [2]. [1]: https://domainnamewire.com/2015/10/09/wow-dropcatch-adds-300-more-registrars-now-has-752/ https://domainnamewire.com/2015/10/09/wow-dropcatch-adds-300... [2]: https://www.iana.org/assignments/registrar-ids/registrar-ids.xhtml https://www.iana.org/assignments/registrar-ids/registrar-ids...
YetAnotherNick 4y ago
No, there is an auction period before domain being available to public(atleast that was the case with another registrar).
politelemon 4y ago
In addition to some replies here, some outfits will even lease their office buildings as close as networkly-posible to the registrars so that they can shave those milliseconds in trying to snipe the domain.
- marban 4y ago
  I thought that was only relevant for financial stuff but as for dropcatchers, that's new to me.
  - mathgeek 4y ago
    They are essentially the same thing. The strategy is the same whether trying to put in buy orders for stocks or domains.
JohnHaugeland 4y ago
> So what happens when there are hundreds++ of individuals all interested in a single domain name that will become available at a very well-defined time like this? One of them receives it and the others do not. First come first serve.
spaceman_2020 4y ago
This happens everyday. Nothing new. Hundreds of high value domains expire every week. Some can be worth six figures or more. Everyone competes to “catch it” but usually, the registrar gets it and auctions it off.
weird-eye-issue 4y ago
GoDaddy Auctions is what will happen like all their expired domains
- tomlogic 4y ago
  So they have a financial incentive here to allow the domain to expire.
NelsonMinar 4y ago
It's interesting; half the replies here say there will be a bot rush. The other half say GoDaddy will auction it off. Which is it?

by 542458 4y ago

yuvadam 4y ago

Yes.

thejosh 4y ago

Yep, it's called "domain drop", it's a pretty lucrative industry to be in. GoDaddy especially knows this and will auction off domains before selling them, where as third parties can try and register the domain every 0.005 seconds. :-)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

blechschmidt 4y ago

AFAIK, there are even companies that own hundreds of registrars to just do that [1]. Just scroll through [2]. [1]: https://domainnamewire.com/2015/10/09/wow-dropcatch-adds-300-more-registrars-now-has-752/ https://domainnamewire.com/2015/10/09/wow-dropcatch-adds-300... [2]: https://www.iana.org/assignments/registrar-ids/registrar-ids.xhtml https://www.iana.org/assignments/registrar-ids/registrar-ids...

YetAnotherNick 4y ago

No, there is an auction period before domain being available to public(atleast that was the case with another registrar).

politelemon 4y ago

In addition to some replies here, some outfits will even lease their office buildings as close as networkly-posible to the registrars so that they can shave those milliseconds in trying to snipe the domain.

marban 4y ago
I thought that was only relevant for financial stuff but as for dropcatchers, that's new to me.
- mathgeek 4y ago
  They are essentially the same thing. The strategy is the same whether trying to put in buy orders for stocks or domains.

JohnHaugeland 4y ago

> So what happens when there are hundreds++ of individuals all interested in a single domain name that will become available at a very well-defined time like this? One of them receives it and the others do not. First come first serve.

spaceman_2020 4y ago

This happens everyday. Nothing new. Hundreds of high value domains expire every week. Some can be worth six figures or more. Everyone competes to “catch it” but usually, the registrar gets it and auctions it off.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago

GoDaddy Auctions is what will happen like all their expired domains

tomlogic 4y ago
So they have a financial incentive here to allow the domain to expire.

NelsonMinar 4y ago

It's interesting; half the replies here say there will be a bot rush. The other half say GoDaddy will auction it off. Which is it?