How many .com domain names are unused? • Hacker News Board

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#31

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:27 PM UTC

asaph wrote: post #26

banana_giraffe wrote: post #7

I'd be curious how many domain names are used, but not for the web or email. No idea how to measure this, and I'm sure it's tiny. For instance, I have a .io domain I use as my own little personal dynamic dns service since dyndns turned evil. The TLD doesn't do anything interesting, and any web pages served by the subdomains are done on nonstandard ports, so if this study scanned .io domains, they'd classify my domain…

> .. dyndns turned evil. Care to elaborate?

[deleted]

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#32

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:29 PM UTC

darkengine wrote: post #17

dsl wrote: post #11

Just because a domain has ads on it or no webserver, does not mean it is unused. I have quite a few domains I use for email and such that I park with ads. They make me $20-$30 a month and I still get full use of the domain for what I need it for. Edit: People are asking what I use. DomainAdvertising.com. When I originally signed up with them you had to have thousands of domains (which I have sold off), I have no idea…

Can I ask what you're using to park them? I have a few unused domains myself.

Unless I misunderstand the term, isn't your domain already "parked", i.e. bought but not connected to a server?

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#33

Post by ce4 » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:31 PM UTC

madsushi wrote: post #28

asaph wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> .. dyndns turned evil. Care to elaborate?

Since they stopped offering a free plan, I imagine. I just paid them the money, it's worth it.

There are better free alternatives like freedns.afraid.com out there if you dont really need to rely on your router that may only support Dyn.com

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#34

Post by computator » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:33 PM UTC

Can a domain name registrar register a domain name for themselves for free or for a minimal fee? What about Verisign -- if they registered ".com" domain names for themselves, who would they even pay since there is no one above them? Seriously, does anyone know the answer to this? I've never found an authoritative answer.

I've wondered if domain name registrars are speculating in the domain name market themselves. Perhaps even insidiously grabbing domain names that you've shown an interest in. Maybe millions of domain names are reserved by the registrars themselves!

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#35

Post by jchallis » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

I'm shocked by the lack of porn on the Internet. Gambling appears to be a much more popular activity.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#36

Post by jdlyga » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

www.steam.com. They've been holding out for almost a decade trying to get money from Valve.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#37

Post by elorant » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:39 PM UTC

dsl wrote: post #11

Just because a domain has ads on it or no webserver, does not mean it is unused. I have quite a few domains I use for email and such that I park with ads. They make me $20-$30 a month and I still get full use of the domain for what I need it for. Edit: People are asking what I use. DomainAdvertising.com. When I originally signed up with them you had to have thousands of domains (which I have sold off), I have no idea…

You mean AdSense ads or from a different provider?

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#38

Post by computator » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

asaph wrote: post #26

banana_giraffe wrote: post #7

I'd be curious how many domain names are used, but not for the web or email. No idea how to measure this, and I'm sure it's tiny. For instance, I have a .io domain I use as my own little personal dynamic dns service since dyndns turned evil. The TLD doesn't do anything interesting, and any web pages served by the subdomains are done on nonstandard ports, so if this study scanned .io domains, they'd classify my domain…

> .. dyndns turned evil. Care to elaborate?

I recently quit DynDNS after many years of use because of sheer frustration. I dropped my paid subscription because their Mac OSX updater hasn't been working correctly for years. It would forget its settings and/or fail to update. I filed a bug report with DynDNS and spoke to their tech support, and it never got solved. (I suppose I could have found a third party updater, but I expected their own updater to work.)

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#39

Post by hanoz » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:43 PM UTC

We've got to the stage now where if you've got a handful of .coms sharing a server, they'd have to be pretty substantial sites before your hosting costs would exceed your domain renewal fees. That's one hell of a market failure.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#40

Post by rootusrootus » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:43 PM UTC

computator wrote: post #34

Can a domain name registrar register a domain name for themselves for free or for a minimal fee? What about Verisign -- if they registered ".com" domain names for themselves , who would they even pay since there is no one above them? Seriously, does anyone know the answer to this? I've never found an authoritative answer. I've wondered if domain name registrars are speculating in the domain name market themselves. Pe…

Wasn't godaddy or someone like them doing exactly that, a number of years ago? I seem to recall a situation where you'd go to their site and search for a domain, and if you didn't buy it, then the next day it would mysteriously show as no longer available, but purchasable.