Domain name tasting is the practice of registering a bunch of domain names and monitoring them over a few days to see which receive enough traffic to generate ad revenue that exceeds the registration cost. The practice takes advantage of a “loophole” in the registration system that allows for a return of domain names up to five days after registration. It was designed to allow for corrections of legitimate mistakes, such as misspellings, but is now being regularly abused.

According to this article by the AP, Neiman-Marcus, the large retailer, is fighting back by accusing Name.com and Dotster.com of engaging in domain tasting by registering more than 40 domain names that allegedly make unfair use of Neiman-Marcus’ registered marks.

Microsoft, as part of their trademark protection strategy (which I have discussed before) is also after domain tasters. I’m sure other large trademark holders are actively patrolling for this, as well.

ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, voted to reject the implementation of a .xxx top level domain for the third time. Neither the adult content industry nor religious groups liked the proposal, though for different reasons (pornography co’s think it will lead to more and easier government regulations and religious groups think it will validate and increase the number of adult content sites).

The only one that seems disappointed is the company that was seeking to oversee the registrations (obviously a lot of money at stake if the new TLD was to be approved)…