Domain Registrars

Domain registrar front running is when a domain registrar tracks the domain name searches its customers perform, and when the customer does not register the domain name, the registrar registers it. The registrar would then attempt to sell the domain name back to the customer at an inflated price or would prevent the person from registering the domain name at a different registrar. TechCrunch published an article about front running back in 2008.

Over the years and since that time, I have seen dozens of public complaints about domain registrars reportedly front running domain names. I have also received quite a few private emails about this along with blog comments accusing registrars of doing this.

There are numerous reasons for why it doesn’t make much sense for a domain registrar to front run its customers. Over the weekend, Marc Köhlbrugge shared why it is not likely to happen:

Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from Sav announcing that there is some expected downtime coming for updates to its website. Sav expects its website to be down on August 21st from 4pm to 9pm CST (9pm to 2am UTC). Here’s the email message I received from the company:

The domain registrar is the most important domain industry company. My domain registrars are tasked with keeping my domain names safe and resolving to the right location. My registrar choice is based on several factors in varying order:

• Security
• Customer Service
• User Interface
• Ease of Use
• Pricing

My preference is to keep my domain names consolidated at one domain registrar, but I use several registrars for my portfolio. Auction wins and private acquisitions are the primary reasons for why I use multiple domain registrars.

I saw a tweet today that inspired this article: