I don’t care who John McCain has relationships with…that’s not the point of this post.

So, I learn about John McCain’s “relationship” with Vicki Iseman on Twitter slightly before 5PM Pacific Time. Immediately, I go to my domain registrar of choice and check to see whether vickiiseman.com is available (something I’ve trained myself to do in similar situations even if I’m not interested in purchasing the domain).

I see the following:

Somebody reserved the domain at Network Solutions. Well, we already know about Network Solutions and “Front Running”. If you look at the DNS, it even shows “NS1.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM” (and the record says “Client Hold”)…so clearly, a person reserved the domain name with the intent to purchase it later at Network Solutions.

However, this explanation defies logic…somebody racing to get the domain name of a now “public” figure isn’t going to reserve the name to buy it later…they are going to buy it ASAP so they can monetize it immediately via parking.

So, I go over to Network Solutions and query the domain name.

It’s available. Oddly enough, somebody has bought the .net but not the .com (in real life, that never happens).

I go all the way through the checkout process…but then stop before actually buying the domain (because I’d don’t want it). Theoretically, I can purchase the domain myself only through Network Solutions.

Which gets me wondering, did Network Solutions reserve the domain themselves so they and only they can sell it at their ridiculously high registration fee? I would like to hear their explanation of what I just described.

4 thoughts on “Vicki Iseman: Did Network Solutions Poach VickiIseman.com?

  1. Todd, I think you’re absolutely right. Nothing is beneath NetSol when it comes to these kinds of things. As you say, a real domainer would have bought the .Net also, right??

  2. Todd,
    Does this sound possible? What if some guy went to Network Solutions and took a loooong time to get through the shopping cart and buy the domain? Doesn’t Network Solutions hold the domains while someone is in the shopping cart buying it?

    By the way, how much do you think the domain would resell for? If you DID own the domain, what would you do with it?

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