The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced an initiative to end so-called domain tasting.The term refers to the use of a grace period to test the profitability of a domain name registration. Lasting five days from the initial registration, the time allows firms to delete the name and costs them nothing.
According to ICANN statistics, in January 2007, the top ten domain tasters accounted for 95 per cent of all deleted .com and .net domain names.
To prevent this from happening, ICANN now intends to charge its fee for registration as soon as a domain name is registered, thereby closing the "loophole" currently being exploited by some organisations.
ICANN has stated that the proposal will be part of its budget process for the financial year starting July 1st 2008.
Commenting on the phenomenon, Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's president and chief executive officer, stated: "Domain tasting has been an issue for the internet community and ICANN is offering this proposal as a way to stop tasting."
"This idea came from the ICANN community and we think it is a viable solution the internet community has been seeking," he added.
The grace period was introduced originally so that registrars could avoid costs if a domain name was misspelled during the process of registering.
Search engine provider Google recently announced a separate initiative to cut down on domain tasting.
Revealed before Christmas, the move involves a new system which can detect if a domain is repeatedly being taken up and released. When such a domain is found, Google advertisements will be disallowed from appearing on it.
