.us Pool & .us names...

[domainica]

I recently saw a posting in a different forum regarding Pool.com and their ability (actually, it was their INability) to catch .us names. The poster stated he backordered a thousand .us domains and Pool.com caught for him exactly....ZERO.

Zero for a thousand. That doesn't sound like a good average.

So I decided to test it out myself. First I emailed Pool and asked them this:

I've just heard that Pool rarely, if ever,
bothers with .us names, basically ignoring them to go
after the more lucrative .com names.

Is this true?

Here is their response:

Hello;

Thank you for contacting Pool.com, we are pleased to assist you with your inquiry.

Pool.com will attempt to acquire every domain you submit for backorder through your account, regardless of what kind of domains you have backordered. That said, we also make no guarantees if any backorder you place with us will be successful. Our overall success rate for all types of domains we try to acquire varies usually between 50% and 70%.

Thank you for using Pool.com

Regards,

Okey-dokey. So I started off by backordering 11 .us domains that expired on 07/09/06. These were very good .us names that I'm sure were backordered by many others, which would have resulted in an auction. In fact, I'm pretty sure that some of these names could easily have reached the low 4 figures in the auction process.

So the results of the 07/09/06 drop? Out of 11 backordered .us names, Pool caught...Zero.

Maybe it was just a bad day. So I ordered more for today, and will continue to backorder until my list reaches 100. I will provide a daily tally if anyone's interested.

And if anyone else has experience with Pool and their success rate with .us names, post it here.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Kate]

LOL I'm always trying to backorder .us names with Pool. So far they got NOTHING.
godaddy works but one slot allowed only (first come first served).
Even for .com I have been more lucky with snap & club drop recently.

 

[domainica]

LOL I'm always trying to backorder .us names with Pool. So far they got NOTHING.

That doesn't sound promising...

 

[irishmat]

alot of it depends on where the dropping name is registered to begin with, as the various drop services are allied with specific registrars

but you dont get charged if they dont get your name so why not just backorder with all the services? thats what i do

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Godaddy IS better at catching .us (and possibly .info/.biz). I have placed names at several drop services, and oddly enough, Godaddy has always been the best at catching .us. The good part is it's 1/3 the cost of snap & pool. The bad part is, it's first come-first serve. Namewinner and Snap don't even do the .us extension. I have caught a few .us at 4domains.com, but they like godaddy only allow one taker. It also seems every name already taken at 4domains is also already taken at godaddy, so it appears people who want them register at both simultaneously.

 

[domainica]

Godaddy IS better at catching .us (and possibly .info/.biz). I have placed names at several drop services, and oddly enough, Godaddy has always been the best at catching .us. The good part is it's 1/3 the cost of snap & pool. The bad part is, it's first come-first serve. Namewinner and Snap don't even do the .us extension. I have caught a few .us at 4domains.com, but they like godaddy only allow one taker. It also seems every name already taken at 4domains is also already taken at godaddy, so it appears people who want them register at both simultaneously.

Hi Mark,

I'm really late in coming to the game but, the way I understand it is, even if the backorder at GoDaddy is taken, it still goes to auction first. So I guess everyone still has a shot to get that name at auction.

But, as you point out, there aren't many catchers that go for .us names. Do you know of anyone besides GoDaddy and 4 domains?

Interesting. Check out the Whois data for "expire.us". Also, check out this page.

It was apparently caught by Pool. And since it was one of the names I backordered, I would think I should have been notified. But I wasn't.

I also think that there were probably many other Pool backorders for this name, which would lead it to auction. But there's no auction either.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

 

[DropLister]

wouldnt happen to have been any of these would it:


approval.us bowl.us camp.us carrier.us cba.us cement.us che.us curio.us ddr.us deal.us eight.us fireworks.us five.us fresh.us gur.us homework.us lingo.us magician.us marijuana.us password.us rer.us salad.us


which all dropped that day. I was trying to BO one of em from registerfly since it was registered there but I think they are on a first come first serve.

 

[domainica]

wouldnt happen to have been any of these would it:


approval.us bowl.us camp.us carrier.us cba.us cement.us che.us curio.us ddr.us deal.us eight.us fireworks.us five.us fresh.us gur.us homework.us lingo.us magician.us marijuana.us password.us rer.us salad.us

Yes indeedy. Not all of the above, but several.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

approval.us bowl.us camp.us carrier.us cba.us cement.us che.us curio.us ddr.us deal.us eight.us fireworks.us five.us fresh.us gur.us homework.us lingo.us magician.us marijuana.us password.us rer.us salad.us

Looks to me like godaddy caught 16 of 22 (including 4 WildWest), and Communigal (Israel) caught 6. Pool and everyone else zero.

I'm really late in coming to the game but, the way I understand it is, even if the backorder at GoDaddy is taken, it still goes to auction first. So I guess everyone still has a shot to get that name at auction.

Only names expiring FROM Godaddy go to auction at tdnam first, before the real drop. Names expiring elsewhere are fair game to all registrars in the traditional domain drop.

 

[DropLister]

so godaddy for .us it seems. Good to know. would you BO 1 month ahead or what to beat the competition

 

[AdoptableDomains]

But, as you point out, there aren't many catchers that go for .us names. Do you know of anyone besides GoDaddy and 4 domains?

Apparently CommuniGal.

It was apparently caught by Pool. And since it was one of the names I backordered, I would think I should have been notified. But I wasn't.

I also think that there were probably many other Pool backorders for this name, which would lead it to auction. But there's no auction either.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

I have seen names at pool go several weeks and once a couple months before the assigned it. name caught by their subsidiary namescout are pretty quick. I think communications break off sometimes with the oddball drop catch registrar they contract with. I had one once that took several months before they finally straightened it out and took it out of their queue and assigned it to me. On complaining they did give me an extra year renewal since several months had gone by without my access to it.

 

[Carlton]

Pool have very poor response to customer inquiries. You get the feeling no one there is minding the shop.

 

[HOST MAN]

Thanks for the list!

 

[domainica]

Apparently CommuniGal.

But here's where it gets confusing. Galcomm (CommuniGal) uses Namewinner to get their .us names. And Namewinner states on their website that they do not go after .us names.

So what's up with that?

 

[Carlton]

Galcomm (CommuniGal) uses Namewinner to get their .us names

Where did you read this? Can you confirm that? Thanks.

 

[domainica]

Where did you read this? Can you confirm that? Thanks.

Hi Carlton,

Here's the LINK

I don't know if it's accurate. I just went by what was on the site. Let me know if this helps.

Tom

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Hi Carlton,

Here's the LINK

I don't know if it's accurate. I just went by what was on the site. Let me know if this helps.

Tom

That link shows quite the opposite. It shows that galcomm catches names for namewinner.

From some other things I see on that page, it looks like it might be out of date. it lists UltSearch, which sold out to another named company at least a year ago. It also shows dropwizard, which no longer exists.

It was interesting to see this:

godaddy.com - Godaddy*
wildwestdomains.com - Godaddy*
bluerazor.com - Godaddy*
*Godaddy Preferred Partner

Maybe blue razor catches com/net/org for godaddy, but but they have their own catch service for biz/info/us at 4domains.com. Unless there's some partnership there. Although, curiously, I've never seen a domain unavailable for backorder on 4domains that was available at godaddy. Maybe they have some other arrangement on those TLD's.

Also, Tucows (openSRS) is not on the list at all. They talked at one time of their own drop service auction site. Anyone heard anything of that?

 

[OnlineDomainCom]

blue razor catches for godaddy only.

What I have seen happen is this:
Someone orders at galcomm.
4domains or godaddy slot is open.
galcomm goes and takes that slot.
Domain caught by 4domains or godaddy.
Domain auctioned at galcomm.

galcomm minimum bid is $49. Even if noone else bids they make a profit.

 

[Carlton]

... I don't know if it's accurate.

Thanks Tom for the link. Interesting. Seems like there may be some question as to whether some of the listed affiliations are still active.

I've had experience with Galcomm auctions and they have been "mysterious". I have never run across such an inconsistent and arbitrary auction platform. I could go into great detail about questionable practices, but will hold off on that as I'm looking into the integrity of their backorder and auction processes and am awaiting feedback from InterNIC/ICANN.

 

[OnlineDomainCom]

galcomm has the worst auction system I have ever seen.
A couple of months ago, one had to uncheck manually about 300 domains just to make a bid on just one domain. Also they postponed auctions for a day for no good reason. This list can go on forever.

The only good thing I have to say about them is that they catch good names, every once in a while... I got a couple of good domains with them back in LR2...