5 ms·

Increasing the price of domain names has little effect on "squatting" (a term I highly dislike). Parked domains create a large volume of available inventory in

by dsl 12y ago

Increasing the price of domain names has little effect on "squatting" (a term I highly dislike). Parked domains create a large volume of available inventory in ad markets, driving down costs in SEM.

Reedx 12y ago
If it cost $500 to register a domain (or even $100 as they used to be), I cannot imagine that it wouldn't significantly decrease the amount of parked domains. So many are squatted because you only have to make back ~$10 in order to pay for it, right? That's a small gamble. Buy a dozen domains and only 1 needs to do decently well in order to pay for the others. Additionally, $10 is almost an impulse buy, so a lot of domains are picked up in the event that it might be useful someday (I'm guilty of this). It's so annoying when you have the perfect name for a product only to find that the domain is uselessly parked. And it seems to be 95% of the time.
- wtetzner 12y ago
  And what if you wanted a domain name for a site that won't make money? People that aren't businesses shouldn't own domains?
  - Reedx 12y ago
    They should, but domains don't have to cost as little as $10 for that to be doable. Look at all the crap that people buy that's much more expensive and offers less utility. Though I wouldn't actually propose they cost $500, I think $100 or so is still reasonable. Myself and many others bought them in the 90s for personal non-profit use at that price. Add a $100 surcharge which goes to the EFF or some other org of choice. Maybe that doesn't even need to be yearly, but happens when a new domain is registered and each time it changes ownership.
- bmm6o 12y ago
  It's essentially the Tragedy of the Commons. People come and claim part of the common green, which pushes newcomers out to the more undesirable real estate. I'm not convinced there is a workable market solution, though I'm also not convinced that there's a satisfactory regulatory solution.
jacquesm 12y ago
There is nothing wrong with the term squatting per-se, it just gets mis-applied all the time (as by gp).

by dsl 12y ago

Increasing the price of domain names has little effect on "squatting" (a term I highly dislike). Parked domains create a large volume of available inventory in ad markets, driving down costs in SEM.

Reedx 12y ago

If it cost $500 to register a domain (or even $100 as they used to be), I cannot imagine that it wouldn't significantly decrease the amount of parked domains. So many are squatted because you only have to make back ~$10 in order to pay for it, right? That's a small gamble. Buy a dozen domains and only 1 needs to do decently well in order to pay for the others. Additionally, $10 is almost an impulse buy, so a lot of domains are picked up in the event that it might be useful someday (I'm guilty of this). It's so annoying when you have the perfect name for a product only to find that the domain is uselessly parked. And it seems to be 95% of the time.

wtetzner 12y ago
And what if you wanted a domain name for a site that won't make money? People that aren't businesses shouldn't own domains?
- Reedx 12y ago
  They should, but domains don't have to cost as little as $10 for that to be doable. Look at all the crap that people buy that's much more expensive and offers less utility. Though I wouldn't actually propose they cost $500, I think $100 or so is still reasonable. Myself and many others bought them in the 90s for personal non-profit use at that price. Add a $100 surcharge which goes to the EFF or some other org of choice. Maybe that doesn't even need to be yearly, but happens when a new domain is registered and each time it changes ownership.
bmm6o 12y ago
It's essentially the Tragedy of the Commons. People come and claim part of the common green, which pushes newcomers out to the more undesirable real estate. I'm not convinced there is a workable market solution, though I'm also not convinced that there's a satisfactory regulatory solution.

jacquesm 12y ago

There is nothing wrong with the term squatting per-se, it just gets mis-applied all the time (as by gp).