My NameSilo .COM's Get Indexed In Search Engines???

[DomainAuction]

Hi Name Pros,

I've been using NameSilo for a majority of my domain registrations but recently I noticed a HUGE inconvenience they have caused for me and several investors when simply doing a Google search for the brand that I am developing...

The name of my upcoming brand uses a .COM domain and we are based in the United Stated with upcoming expansions in Mexico, Canada, and several other countries in South America. Our expansions were to be kept confidential until date-of-launch but thanks to NameSilo that was impossible ...

Once confirming our expansions; we wanted to obtain all possibilities (and typo's) of our brand name in ccTLD's and additional .COM's so we purchased the ccTLD's for the brand (E.g., *.mx, *.ca, etc) from other registrars since NameSilo currently does not offer such extensions but also purchased .COM's such as TheBrandsNameMexico.com, TheBrandsNameMX.com from NameSilo ...

One week after purchasing those additional .COM's from NameSilo we noticed them listed on Google (several times, and from different aggregated resources / URL's) when simply Googling the brands name ...

Pretty much all .COM's registered from NameSilo such as TheBrandsNameMexico.com have somehow appeared in Google Search results when simply searching for the brand. Let me be clear, literally ALL domains including the main/root .COM domain we will be using for the brand are 100% untouched. We simply just registered them and left them as-is until it is time for launch.

#1 - All of my NameSilo purchases have their Privacy enabled prior checkout

#2 - Our competition now knows that we are expanding into Mexico, Canada, and the South American countries because of this (... and my investors were PISSED)

How can a completely untouched domain registration be scraped so easily? Do all newly registered domains simply go into some sort of public database? If not, is NameSilo somehow selling my info?

Whatever the case is; they must fix this. Who knows what other information is floating around the web when it SHOULD NOT be (...especially if privacy is enabled and/or paid for)

 

[Acroplex]

No, that info comes straight from the zone files. They simply get the domains that are added, query the WHOIS, and contact the email or call the phone number.

 

[Kate]

The registrars are not guilty. Everybody can get the .com zone files and spot new registrations. This is what spammers do. Then they scrape the whois and start spamming.

Edit: Oops already posted above

 

[Jv1999]

The registrars are not guilty. Everybody can get the .com zone files and spot new registrations. This is what spammers do. Then they scrape the whois and start spamming.

Edit: Oops already posted above

So even if you have whois privacy, your whois info is in the zonefiles????

 

[xynames]

The whole thing’s...unclear.

Had nothing to do with WhoIs or NameSilo.

Plus the OP is assuming that people will notice repetitive all private WhoIs from same registrar registered around same time and then assume must be the same registrant.

If he wishes to avoid such assumptions he could register with different registrars, and assign different WhoIs info and nameservers to each domain, or use private nameservers.

 

[anantj]

You still need nameservers to advertise your MX records. So if you choose not to set any NS, then you can't use the domain for E-mail, website or anything else.

No. You do not need nameservers. Using DNS records, a mx records can be added and that's it. It'll work.

But you can indeed use a domain for E-mail service only, then you just publish one or more MX records in your DNS zone. But if the MX is a host under the same domain name then you'll also have to add matching A/AAAA records - it has to be resolved somehow

Exactly. We need to use DNS records and not necessarily DNS Nameservers (what is typically used for domain name resolution. Essentially, the domain will not be associated with a website.

Some registries insist on a valid set of NS, and will even conduct periodic checks, and send you mail notifications when the NS are not responding/resolving/authoritative for your names. You are supposed to fix that - or else (doesn't mean they will really delete your names though).
Known examples: .is, .fi...
So it depends on the extension.

Yes, agreed. But as the OP stated that they registered a .com domain, my answer was pertaining only to the .com TLD

 

[anantj]

I think I know what the thread owner is talking about. I recently registered a dot com via Namesilo and then I get called from some Indian company, Godaddy, and email from the rest of the web development team regarding my new "domain".

no you don't know what the OP is talking about. They were not talking about spam marketing calls. Their problem was a registered domain (with whois privacy) and not in use showing up in search results

 

[anantj]

So even if you have whois privacy, your whois info is in the zonefiles????

No. A zone file does not contain whois information at all. That is stored in whois databases maintained by registrars (for TLDs that have a thin whois) and by registries (for TLDs that have a thick whois). A zone file contains DNS records of a domain name. For more information, please see - https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1035 & https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1034

 

[Kate]

No. You do not need nameservers. Using DNS records, a mx records can be added and that's it.

And that MX record, where are you going to publish it if not in a name server ?

It'll work.

Examples of mail-enabled domains with no NS ?

 

[tonyk2000]

I respectfully disagree with the suggestion that a domain without dns servers can receive mail.

It should work this way - first, sending mailserver tries to retreive MX records from global dns. So, if the email is for [email protected] - then it expects to obtain one or more mx records for somedomain.com. Without dns servers, what server will give an expected response? Unless the parent zone server knows this info (which is definitely not the case for .com domains with verisign-powered dns servers that are serving .com zone) - there would be no response of MX type.

As the last resort, without known MX records, sending mailserver MAY try obtain IP address of somedomain.com expecting that there is a mailserver running on that IP which is capable of handing mail for somedomain.com.
Similarly, without dns servers attached to somedomain.com, such an intent will most likely fail.

One scenario may work - but it is NOT how internet mail is supposed to be configured, and nobody should try to use such a confing:

1. Register somedomain.com

2. Register nameserver under somedomain.com but not ns1.somedomain.com, user just naked somedomain.com with some IP instead. So a parent zone, .com zone in this case, will start reporting A record for somedomain.com (and you may or may not need to enter somedomain.com as dns server for some other unrelated .com domain for such a config to become live)

3. Run mailserver for somedomain.com on that IP

4. Expect that sending mailservers will obtain that IP from the parent dns for somedomain.com as an A record, and expect that it will deliver mail to this IP as a mailserver

 

[Kate]

BTW the .com zone file itself contains a number of A records (glue) mainly for nameservers, but no MX records.
Example:
NS1.GIAWEBHOSTING A 198.23.54.133

 

[anantj]

And that MX record, where are you going to publish it if not in a name server ?
Examples of mail-enabled domains with no NS ?

Will try to set one up and demo it.. But you do not need NS if you just have MX records which is the critical piece for mails

 

[DomainAuction]

Hi Name Pros,

I have changed the title to this thread out of respect to NameSilo because the original title was a bit heavy...

It's simple; no untouched domain should ever be indexed in search engines whether with private registration or not ESPECIALLY if its thanks to the registrars domain defaults landing page. I'm not sure if that's the case in my situation but if you're telling me that every domain with some DNS records (whether custom or registrar defaults) will result in the world being able to know it exists then that MUST change and here's why...

First of all, do DNS records mention the day a domain was registered? If not, how do these aggregators know that info? (forgot about they ey?)

Look, for a registrar to bank off type-in traffic with shiny logo's and a presentation of promos is 100% understandable but i've never experienced an untouched domain to be indexed in search engines from 20+ registrars even if the DNS records were custom and the domain was 100% developed.

I've had full blown websites on the web and had not told a single person about it for an entire year and wanna know who knew about it? Absolutely nobody. Not google, not bing, no aggregator, no scammer, no friend, no family, no foe. Something is not right here

Also, from the looks of things it seems that one should only purchase a domain when ready to introduce its purpose? E.g., lets say a big name like Coca Cola wants to dive into something completely new one day such as Cannabis; youre telling me a $9 domain purchase can expose their billion dollar venture simply because they bought CocaColaCannabis.com and 12 year old Joey found out by googling "Coca Cola" ???

Here's an even crazier situation; what if by the time the product and/or service or purpose of the domain is ready (in this random case; Coca Cola Cannabis) 12 year old Joey purchases CocaColaCannabis.com thinking its "cool" not knowing the trademarks he is stepping on + the time and resources it will take for the domain to be shut down from the hard working people over at Coca Cola.

No $9 item should be able to screw you like it did to me, and I assure everyone here on Name Pros that I will do whatever it takes to try having this changed. ***Please make sure to ask yourself if DNS records mention when a .COM domain is registered

#NoIndex

 

[xyo]

Hi Name Pros,

First of all, do DNS records mention the day a domain was registered? If not, how do these aggregators know that info? (forgot about they ey?)

No, not from the DNS records directly.
But as others already stated before, when a domain is registered AND nameservers are assigned to it the domain will (newly) appear in the next days zonefile. People get those zonefiles from Verisign (.com/.net) registry every day and compare them to the one the day before. This way they will see all domain that were added. Subsequently they can do WHOIS lookups for all those domains and verify by the registration date that the domain was registered new.

 

[anantj]

First of all, do DNS records mention the day a domain was registered? If not, how do these aggregators know that info? (forgot about they ey?)

No. The whois does.

i've never experienced an untouched domain to be indexed in search engines from 20+ registrars even if the DNS records were custom and the domain was 100% developed.

This does not make sense. I assume by an untouched domain, you mean a domain that has been registered but not modified or developed. But then you say that the domain is 100% developed?

I've had full blown websites on the web and had not told a single person about it for an entire year and wanna know who knew about it? Absolutely nobody. Not google, not bing, no aggregator, no scammer, no friend, no family, no foe. Something is not right here

Yes, the way to do this is to have a robot.txt which tells the search engine to skip indexing the domain. Another way is to develop the domain but make it inaccessible publicly. And yet another way would be to develop is quietly and make sure there are no links to the domain from anywhere else (nearly impossible to implement in real life)

That said, the domain name itself will still be indexed. So your original statement is hard to believe and I'll reserve belief until you can definitively prove this.

Also, from the looks of things it seems that one should only purchase a domain when ready to introduce its purpose?

Bad idea. A lot of decent domains (and a far larger number of really bad ones) get registered. You wait and you might lose the domain to someone else.

No $9 item should be able to screw you like it did to me, and I assure everyone here on Name Pros that I will do whatever it takes to try having this changed. ***Please make sure to ask yourself if DNS records mention when a .COM domain is registered

You unfortunately do not fully understand how the entire ecosystem of domain names, search engine, registrars and registries work (and somewhere in between them, the scammers, spammers etc). You're stating the same but not reading what others are stating, others who have more information on this "issue" (and I do not mean me).

You have to understand a few points clearly:

• A domain name is not the same as a website. You can host a website on a naked IP address. And at some point, even that IP address might get indexed.
• A domain name is not completely invisible. It has to be stored in some list - for example, the list/database of registered domains at the registry level. This database is publicly accessible and can be used to determine how many and which domain names are registered.
• A registrar which registers the domain must also maintain the domain name in a list but this list is usually private and not publicly accessible. Some unscrupulous registrars might sell this data but I'm near 100% certain NS is not one of those registrars.
  
• Whois information is related but slightly different from the domain name registration information (specifically in the context of your issue where I am differentiating the zone information and the whois information)

Unless you have a domain that is very self explanatory (for example, say diapers.com or shoes.com or FoodDelivery.com etc), it might not be as big an issue as you're making it out to be. A brandable domain, by it's very nature, is more flexible in terms of the intended use of the domain. So, merely, just from the domain name, it might not be evident to your competitors, what the domain will be used for. Worst case, to throw them off the scent, create a dummy placeholder page indicating that the domain is going to be used for something else entirely until you're ready to reveal the actual use of the domain...

 

[Michael M]

Will try to set one up and demo it.. But you do not need NS if you just have MX records which is the critical piece for mails

Sorry, sir - but you are incorrect.

A MX record is a type of text or resource record stored in a nameserver. There is no way to create a MX record without nameservers assigned - as it will never "resolve." Therefore no message could ever be delivered to that domain.

No nameserver - nowhere to store the MX record (with authority). Period.

I think you are possibly thinking of the fact that A records and MX records are different, and somehow not realizing that both are stored and served by a DNS server?

 

[Michael M]

As mentioned by @anantj - using the industry standard robots.txt file can tell bots to not crawl or index your site. Google/Yahoo/etc should respect and honor this (others bots may not).

To exclude your entire domain/site the robots.txt file should contain this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

You could put the site behind a login.

You could take the site off of the root directory and bury it under a sub directory.

You could remove the nameservers.

You could remove the A record for the parent and www. (possibly use a subdomain)

You could fill your site with ads and bad content - and google will "ban" your domain.

You can create a script to not serve the site to the google bot (though it will crawl with other user-agent headers occasionally just to see if this is being done)

etc....

But this "issue" is not standard - as most people are asking the opposite question - "why is my site not indexed in google?"

 

[anantj]

Sorry, sir - but you are incorrect.

A MX record is a type of text or resource record stored in a nameserver. There is no way to create a MX record without nameservers assigned - as it will never "resolve." Therefore no message could ever be delivered to that domain.

No nameserver - nowhere to store the MX record (with authority). Period.

I think you are possibly thinking of the fact that A records and MX records are different, and somehow not realizing that both are stored and served by a DNS server?

Thanks. @Kate and you are right. I was incorrect in my understanding of MX records usage.