ICANN might spit out domain-tasting grace period

After widespread outrage over Network Solutions' program of locking up domain registrations for the five-day grace period, ICANN says it's considering doing away with the grace period.

The move is an attempt to combat domain tasting, in which people register tons of domain names, see which ones gather some decent traffic and release the rest, says IDG.

"Right now you can go and register a million different names for five days and the cost is zero," ICANN media advisor Jason Keenan said. "If this [proposal] comes through, the cost is $1 for five [domains]. It really changes the fiscal model of tasting."

An ICANN study in 2005 found a whopping 41 percent -- 700,000 -- of 1.7 million registrations -- were thrown back during the grace period. In Jan. 2007, 94 percent were deleted -- 48 million of 51 million registrations.

NetSol says its practice is designed to stop the tasting problem and will stop if ICANN makes this change.

"At that point, we believe that our customers would no longer need protection from front running," [NetSol's] Wade said in an e-mail.