So what happens when you cancel a domain?

[johnny6]

If you cancel a domain name, what happens? If someone picks it up as soon as it's available again, does the whois show the domain as being created on that day? What does the whois show? I'm curious.... I've seen a few C&D letters in my time demanding I cancel registration and I've always wondered why (from purely a technical standpoint) I couldn't drop the domain and then have someone pick it up and whois protect it and the company wouldn't know any better? Do cancelled domains enter auctions? Just wondering about a few things here with cancelling domains - I could use some education! Cheers,
-j

 

[Dave_Z]

Once you request a registrar to delete the domain name and you fulfill all and
any requirements set forth by them, they'll eventually do so. It's a manual
thing.

However, the name can't be deleted once the registrar receives notice of an
upcoming dispute from a reputable provider, either from a Court of competent
jurisdiction or a UDRP panel. The registrar will lock it and prevent anything
being done to it pending resolution.

 

[Kate]

What happens when you cancel a name: the registrar will simply send a "delete" request to the registry and remove the name from your account.
It's like a drop but without the redemption and pending-delete status. The name is cancelled at once by the registrar. Then it's available again for registration by someone else.
Many drops are registered en masse then cancelled within 5 days (some people are testing for traffic and recover the registration fee for the names they cancel within 5 days). So domain cancelation is very common these days.

 

[weblord]

it depends on the domain registrar you have, on dotster.com when you cancel a domain, they enter it into their domain for auctions list, in godaddy.com it is removed from your control panel and gets included in tdnam, in doteasy it is removed from your account.