So it has been a few months after the end of domain tasting as we know it, and we thought it was about time to look back and evaluate the affect this has had on the names that have become available and the state of dropped names in general.

The End of All You Can Eat
The practice of domain tasting all but ended on April 1st of this year after ICANN implemented a rule that capped refunds to registrars who added and then deleted domains during the 5 day Add Grace Period (AGP) to 10% of their total registration volume. Tens of millions of domains were being registered, tested (or tasted as it is known) for traffic and appeal and then dropped before the end of the AGP. This primarily affected the .com and .net TLDs.

Big Players Take Big Bites
The service was dominated by just a few players because it required a high level of liquid capital. The domains actually had to be paid for and then, if dropped, a refund would be issued. Some of the big tasters we registering tens of thousands of names a day, and keeping only a fraction. Just about every name that was dropped was tasted at least once before if fell to the available pool. This had the effect of “shutting out” the little guy from getting a chance to pick these up.

New Recipe for Success
After the widespread tasting of domains was curtailed, a new era of great available domains was soon to follow. Here at FreshAvails.com, we always felt there were and are many gems out there ready for registration, it just required digging and proper analysis to discover them. This change though, was going to make it easier. We welcomed the new opportunity with open …mouths!?!?

Portion Control
What has the effect been to domain availability? After reviewing and filtering 50K or so names a day and a few million since tasting stopped, we can say the outcome has been markedly better. We can only for .com names, but have found the lists we create for our clients are about the same in terms of quality, but 20% or so longer. Where measured, exact search averages in Google are up and the number of domains with Alexa ranking histories has increased as well. One of the downsides of the new policy is that we no longer see good names that were once registered, become available later. We always check our candidate domains for availability, even days and weeks after the fact, and sometimes they would become available, not so much anymore.

Well Fed and Happy
The vast majority of quality drops are still being captured buy the drop catching companies, but a few more of the gems are sneaking through. Overall, it has been a positive experience for us at FreshAvails.com AND our own portfolios. We invite you to review our lists and judge for yourself. If you like what you see, why not join our Sneak Peek Program and get your hands on the freshest avails we have. Cheers and as always, Happy Hunting.