标题：Drop Catching Programming Expert on the Domain Name Expiration Process – With Chris Ambler
原文：http://www.domainsherpa.com/chris-ambler-domain-name-expiration/
录音：http://www.domainsherpa.com/wp-content/audio/download.php?file=Chris-Ambler-Expiration-on-DomainSherpa.mp3

如果您想详细了解域名过期过程的工作原理，这就是您要观看的节目。我们谈论即将到期的域名，与注册商有关联的拍卖合作伙伴的域名，使用的最佳下降捕获服务。这一切都在今天的采访中。敬请关注。

在我们进入今天的节目之前，我有三条赞助商信息。

首先，如果您要购买或出售域名或投资组合，并且想要估算其价值，那么 Estibot.com 就是您要去的地方。就像您访问 Zillow.com 来估算房屋价值一样，Estibot.com 提供了有关最重要统计数据的关键信息，以便您可以根据数据做出明智的决定。

其次，无论您是购买、出售、代理还是融资域名，您都需要一家经过适当许可、保税、保险和审计的托管公司。该公司正在 Escrow.com，他们自 1999 年以来一直在这样做。Escrow.com – 这是关于信任的。

最后，您是否厌倦了在购买或续订域名时被追加销售和交叉销售？然后尝试从头开始构建的最新注册商，具有漂亮的界面、有竞争力的价格和 24/7 全天候支持。Uniregistry.com 会让你大吃一惊。正确的域名可以改变你的生活：Uniregistry.com。

Michael Cyger：大家好。我的名字是Michael Cyger，我是 DomainSherpa.com 的出版商 – 该网站是您可以直接从专家那里学习如何成为成功的域名企业家和投资者的网站。我请来专家，我称之为夏尔巴人，通过访谈、小组讨论和教程来教我们。当你学习和提高你的经验和技能并进行销售时，我希望你回到这里，像今天的嘉宾一样做一个采访。

今天的夏尔巴人为域名行业的许多主题带来了广泛的知识库，但今天我们将专注于域名的生命周期。特别是，在生命周期结束时会发生什么，为什么有些域名会掉线并可供手动注册，以及为什么其他域名似乎会自动拍卖并以数十美元或数万美元的价格出售。

欢迎Chris Ambler参加这个展会，他目前是注册商GoDaddy的首席软件架构师。欢迎你，克里斯。

克里斯·安布勒：嗨，你好吗？

迈克尔：太好了。我应该在结束我们的整个谈话之前说，我正在采访你，克里斯，他是与域名系统相关的许多技术和政治主题的专家，你并不代表 GoDaddy 的观点或政策。这种说法公平吗？

克里斯：我很欣赏。

迈克尔：好的，太好了。为了准备这个节目，我对你做了大量的研究，克里斯，我发现了一些非常有趣的信息。我不确定过去是否有很多人认识你，所以我想聊聊你的背景，然后让人们了解为什么你可以谈论域名生命周期，这将是今天采访的重点。

所以，你是一个程序员的背景。我们谈到了你在 GoDaddy 的角色，但你的编程可以追溯到早期的 Commadore PET，即 70 年代的 PET 计算机时代，就像我一样。你最早学习编程的记忆是什么？

克里斯：实际上甚至在此之前。我叔叔在电话公司工作，所以我偶尔会和他一起工作，他在中央办公室工作，那里有旧的PDP电脑。我记得在终端上玩过《星际迷航》的科技游戏。

迈克尔：真的吗？

克里斯：在印刷终端上，当你在做事时，你会得到正在运行的打印输出，那是在70年代，当时我只有个位数的年龄。

迈克尔：是的。是的，这是惊人的。好吧，所以你在个人电脑的早期就学到了。你接着说。练习编程。在加入GoDaddy之前，你在eNom工作，后来成为Demand Media，你也在西雅图的微软地区呆了一段时间。

克里斯：是的，我在97年左右从大学毕业。不是真的想，但当时我正在结婚，我的未婚夫说，“不，你完了”，然后浮出了我的简历。微软提供了最好的报价。搬到西雅图。最终在那里度过了17年。

迈克尔：哇。好吧，我认识的每个程序员都有一个保护伞公司，他们用它来启动他们所有的无数项目。我们得到想法。我们认为我们可以解决一些问题。我们启动了一个项目。您的公司被称为图像在线设计或IOD。在对 IOD 进行研究时，我发现 IOD 是第一个提出运行 .早在1995年，WEB顶级域名。这是对的吗？

克里斯：是的，我们实际上是在94年提出的。我们实际上是第一个在商业上提出新顶级域名的公司。大约有七八个人表示有兴趣，但我们是第一个走过来的人，说好，我们真的可以做到。.WEB 是其中之一，还有其他几个。老实说，它几乎真的发生了。John Postel 基本上说，在运行代码时向我们展示粗略的共识，我们建立了一个注册管理机构，就像看起来 1995/1996 年可能会有一些新的 TLD 一样，那就是美国政府介入并说等一下，这比你们所有人加起来还要大。

迈克尔：是的。所以，我想聊几分钟，因为您谈到了域名行业的愿景，即那些能够发现具有高价值的域名的人，但他们在 20 年前就发现了它。这就是你所做的。如果您正在查看所有新的顶级域名，我认为人们会说最昂贵的房地产将是。应用程序，因为有这么多的应用程序。整个应用经济接管了，.WEB，这仍然是我所相信的争论。是什么让你想到要跑.WEB 回到 94 年及更早的时期？

克里斯：所以，我在94/95年开始做网页设计，当时它是全新的，我看到了那里的价值。我看到了它将要去哪里。很多人认为这只是在线宣传册，我很清楚我们会有更多的小册子。作为当时的威廉·吉布森粉丝，我脑子里有整个赛博朋克的愿景。

所以，我们开始做网站。这就是Image Online所做的。我们为汽车经销商和当地企业做网站。在一个大学城，每个人都在互联网上，实际上有很多人可以使用网站。有一天，我正在给Network Solutions开一张支票，用30个域名支付三千美元，因为当时两年是一百美元。每年50美元。您必须以两年为增量付款。

迈克尔：对。

克里斯：我正在写这张支票，我在想好吧，这是愚蠢的。我可以像下一个人一样运行区域文件。我为什么不直接创建自己的.COM区域文件，然后我们把事情分成两部分？然后我开始考虑DNS，我想不，这是行不通的。它必须是一个单独的域。然后，在这一点上，谁在乎它是什么？我刚刚给约翰·波斯特尔和戴安娜发了一封电子邮件，说：“这太荒谬了。我想运行自己的顶级，但注册模板中没有工具可以说我想处于顶级，而不是第二级。

他回来说，“哦，你注意到了，是吗？”所以，他说，“好吧，你想跑哪一个 – 只是我很好奇 – 我们可以解决这个问题。我实际上想出了.自动。汽车，和.WEB，因为我们一直在为汽车经销商做很多事情。实际上，我向几个汽车制造商提出了建议。无论您的品牌是什么，您都想要点。

迈克尔。品牌。

克里斯：所以，我也想出了这个，我不知道我在说什么。

迈克尔：对。没错，因为他们当时几乎不了解网络。

克里斯：对。右。

迈克尔：是的。

克里斯：所以，这就是一切开始的地方。

迈克尔：所以，您开始了对话，但没有像 ICANN 在准备 2012 年最新一轮 gTLD 时那样的正式申请流程。从1995年您提出该请求到2012年一堆公司提出2012年的申请，您的申请发生了什么？

克里斯：是的，所以我会压缩很多东西。TLDR 版本。因此，在90年代初，有人提议将收取两千美元的适度申请费来支付费用。我们整理了基于网络解决方案使用的初始域注册模板的应用程序。Network Solutions，后来成为VeriSign。我们附上一张支票，把它放在一个信封里。把它交给约翰，他说：“我要把这个放在一堆文件上，等到时候开始做申请。

我们问他。我们说，“我们现在能不能把这个给你，这样我们就不会浪费时间了，这确立了一些优先级。

迈克尔：对。

克里斯：然后他说肯定。政府来了之后，信封还给了我们。约翰·波斯特尔（John Postel）声称，他从来不知道信封里装的是什么，我们把它塞进了一叠文件里，但他的回信上写着：“由于政府的参与，你的申请正在被退回。好吧，如果他不知道里面有什么，他怎么知道这是一个应用程序？

迈克尔：对。

克里斯：有法庭案件，这是在法庭上提出的。因此，在 2000 年，ICANN 进行了他们的一轮谈判。我们申请了.蹼。Affilias也是如此。新星也是如此。众所周知，附属公司获得了 .INFO。新星被授予.BIZ。没有人得到.WEB 和 Vince Surf 记录了下来，您可以随时回去观看视频。他说：“我们今天可能不会批准IO Design，但我不愿意给予。WEB 给其他人，因为他们是先驱。任何在2000年申请的人都将被视为待申请，而不是被拒绝，因此我们批准这七个。你们其余的人，你们还在等待。让我们看看这七个人是怎么回事，我们稍后会重新审视它。

因此，大约 12 年后，在接触了除南极洲以外的所有大陆，参加了 ICANN 的每一次会议之后，他们在 2012 年或开始那轮时都参加了一轮，他们基本上说，每个在 2000 年申请的人都很高兴认识你。请去捣沙子。

迈克尔：是的，你当时决定不在那一轮中提出申请。

克里斯：我们之所以选择这样做，是因为 ICANN 表示，如果您提出申请，您必须签署此弃权书，声明您没有上一轮的权利。

迈克尔：是的，你不愿意这样做，当然是因为你经历了这么多。

克里斯：对我来说确实如此。

迈克尔：是的，当然。因此，我昨天访问了ICANN的网站，因为我不记得.WEB 顶级域名是，它看起来处于某种锁定状态。我不记得号码了。如果我没记错的话，它可能有十到十五个申请人，我认为其中一个是谷歌的控股公司。

克里斯：谷歌参与其中。我相信甜甜圈有一个应用。我的意思是有一堆。

迈克尔：有一堆，是的。

克里斯：在ICANN的最后拍卖中，它应该花最多的钱，因为我认为这些人之间不会达成一致。用4150万美元.昨天或几天前的商店销售，我认为这可能是第二多。我认为 4150 万可能会让一些人震惊到更理性的估值，但我仍然认为 ICANN 会为此筹集超过 2500 万美元。

迈克尔：是的，哇。

克里斯：我想要百分之一，拜托。

迈克尔：对。好吧，我希望这对你有用，克里斯，因为你有远见。你早点拿到了文书工作。我希望它能以某种方式出现在你身边。我们将讨论你的编程能力，我将问你你做过的事情，但显然任何从90年代初开始做网页设计的人，然后对域名系统有足够的了解并有远见，显然你还有其他项目。您曾与其他公司合作过。您目前经营图像在线设计吗？即使您目前在 GoDaddy 担任角色，您是否也在做其他项目？

克里斯：我做其他项目。图像在线在这一点上有点被封存，因为.WEB 是它的东西。我实际上和一些朋友成立了一个名为Insider House的有限责任公司，这是我们做个人项目的方式，也是一些咨询。他们说朋友之间的协议很棒，尤其是当它们是书面协议时，因此我们创建了LLC只是为了安全起见。但是，是的，我一直在建立网站。实际上，当有趣的事情发生时，我以建立一个恶搞网站而闻名。我过去曾建立过虚假的选举网站。我实际上注册了Douchebag.Republican和Douchebag.Democrat，我计划在未来几个月内建立一些用户生成的内容争论网站。

迈克尔：很好。

克里斯：再次，为了好玩。

迈克尔：是的，完全。好的，所以我会在下面放一个指向您网站的链接，以防人们想查看。那是在 InsiderHouse.com 吗？

克里斯：是的，虽然那里没有很多东西。我的意思是它只是我们使用的一个名称。但我的意思是，如果有人想联系我，你可以在Facebook上找到我，在LinkedIn上，我的个人电子邮件是 [email protected]。你总能得到我。

迈克尔：好的。所以，克里斯，让我问你。您曾经负责解决的最有趣的软件问题是什么？

墨虎恺：这很简单。2003年，我正在寻找一些有趣的事情要做，保罗·斯塔胡拉（Paul Stahura）创立了eNom。我们只是在交谈，他说，“好吧，我有一个不可能的问题。我认为解决这件事是不可能的。试一试。这就是域名掉落。他在eNom开始了一个名为Club Drop的东西，他们正在考虑编写代码来在VeriSign上拾取掉落的名字，主要是。通信和 .网。事实上，主要是.通信，然后.网。他想比其他人做得更好。

迈克尔：所以，让我把这个放在上下文中。保罗和他的合作伙伴 eNom.com 一起跑步，，这是一个注册商。所以，他们卖域名，就像超市卖任何域名一样，.COM，.NET，.ORG，然后他开始 ClubDrop.com，这是个人的付费服务，还是他用它来为eNom的控股公司抢域名？

克里斯：不，这是向eNom客户提供的服务。因此，Club Drop就像产品的服务标记。我的意思是，删除名字的商业模式已经改变了很多次。最初的商业模式是你支付固定金额的钱加入俱乐部，这样你就可以说出你想要的名字。该软件会选择这些名称，如果得到它，您将支付固定费用。那时甚至没有拍卖会。是谁先要求。

迈克尔：对。简单是伟大的，对吧？那么，当时有多少人要求他们呢？如果你想要一个域名，你输入你的请求，如果你是第一个提出你的请求并且他们抓住了这个名字，那么你得到了它。

克里斯：没错。

迈克尔：那么，问题出在哪里？听起来他们在保罗要求你开始做这件事之前就已经有了Club Drop。

克里斯：所以，有很多注册商试图得到这些名字，保罗基本上像任何优秀的商人一样，说：“我最想要。我想比我的竞争对手拿起更多的名字。在我看来，这是一个需要解决的技术问题。如果你们都有相同的资源，你怎么能得到比下一个人更多的名字？

迈克尔：对。

墨虎恺：结果就是这样。这就是所谓的稀缺资源问题，每个参与者基本上都有一个公平的竞争环境。但是如果你知道规则是什么，你可以 我不想说这些规则，而是找出使用规则的最佳方法，你可以比下一个人做得更好。

迈克尔：所以，你是否能够弄清楚规则，并且比eNom的所有 ClubDrop.com 竞争对手都做得更好？

克里斯：我是。

迈克尔：你是。你花了多长时间来解决这个问题？

克里斯：最初我花了大约四个月的时间才弄清楚到底发生了什么，然后又过了几个月来确认我的怀疑是正确的，编写代码，并运行第一个版本。在那之后，我基本上花了接下来的十年时间来完善它。我的意思是我在eNom做了很多其他的事情，但我最终在eNom工作。过了一会儿，我解决了这件事，效果很好，我对保罗说：“嘿，下一步是什么？”他说，“接下来就是你成为员工。你不再是顾问了。

所以，我最终在那里呆了十年并完善了它。威瑞信改变了规则，有时每周一次。我坚定地认为，VeriSign的一些人知道注册商在试图找出下降方面正在做什么，他们偶尔会改变规则并大笑。

迈克尔：是的。那么，你们中有多少人弄清楚如何解决域名删除问题是实际编码，有多少是社会工程，了解ICANN的人，并弄清楚系统是如何工作的，以便你可以制定一个更好的解决方案？

克里斯：这是98%的技术问题。百分之二的社交。社交人士通常会问威瑞信的某个人。嘿，我注意到 X、Y 和 Z。这是真的吗？当他们总是说无法告诉你时，衡量他们的回应无法告诉你，尤其是对于 ICANN。有一条规则，如果注册管理机构告诉注册商一些实质性的东西，他们必须发布它供所有人查看。所以，当我说嘿，我在下降期间注意到这个带宽问题时，他们经常会回来说没有评论，或者他们会回来说好吧，我可以告诉你发生了什么，但请记住，我们将不得不向所有注册商发布通知： 注意 X、Y、ad Z。

迈克尔：是的。

克里斯：然后，在那个时候，有时我会说：“天气怎么样，”因为那样我就会知道我正在做某件事，并防止它被披露。我会说你知道吗。没关系。这不是一个真正的问题。但编码是困难的部分。

迈克尔：为什么这么难？

克里斯：嗯，这是黑匣子开发。您将编写代码。您将在下降时针对注册表运行它。您每天只能在生产环境中测试一次代码，因为只有一滴。分析结果，弄清楚你可能做了什么，然后在第二天改变它。它是测试和测量。我做得有多好？也许你必须看看你的竞争对手。他们做得如何？另一方面，当你不知道发生了什么时，你不能只花一个相当好的一天说我已经破解了这个坚果。我的意思是你需要数周和数月的数据才能看到我是否有趋势。我的意思是，有一天您的竞争对手可能会因为网络错误而离线。

迈克尔：对。

克里斯：你认为哦，我的天哪，我昨天的改变取得了令人难以置信的成功。不，你的竞争对手刚刚停播。

迈克尔：好的。自从您解决这个问题的早期以来，水滴发生了显着变化。所以，我们在这次采访中要讨论的是目前的流程是什么，从注册商到注册商可以改变的因素是什么，然后在下降结束时会发生什么，以及投资者和企业家可以进入并查看它的方式，因为我一直在联系。不仅投资者说我在看这个域名。我想看看会发生什么，但是可能拥有.NET的企业家，.IO，或者其他什么，或者连字符，他们想得到.COM，他们看到它即将被拍卖，但他们并不真正确定这个过程。大多数时候，我帮助他们意识到它实际上不会过期，以前的注册者只是要续订它，但我们将讨论这些不同的功能。

所以，Chris，我希望你在自己的窗口中提出你是否有ICANN域名生命周期图形。我将把它嵌入到我们的采访下面，这样人们就可以在页面上向上滚动并查看图形，但我想通过这些阶段中的每一个并了解它们。他们开始很容易理解。域名可供启动。

克里斯：我正在为我的辅助显示器加油。

迈克尔：哇。好吧，很酷。域名可用。所以，我想买 MichaelCygerRocks.com。我知道。我们可以谈谈.岩石。我首先应该说，我们将要讨论的图形是 gTLD 图形。它适用于.COM。它适用于 .NET。它适用于 。岩石。它适用于 。汽车。它适用于 。店。任何 gTLD 都适用于此图。它不适用于国家/地区代码顶级域。

克里斯：在大多数情况下。有一些人试图按照相同的规则行事。

迈克尔：有几个国家/地区代码试图遵循与 gTLD 相同的规则？

克里斯：有些很接近，但他们没有被授权。他们制定自己的规则。

迈克尔：很好。因此，我们只是在谈论gTLD – .COM，.NET，.ORG，.BIZ，然后是所有新顶级域。。自动。。店。。.APP。所有这些新的。好的，所以域名可以注册。我去 GoDaddy 支付 10 美元，或者 14 美元，GoDaddy.com 或 UniRegistry.com，或者世界上任何注册商，现在就可以注册了，你可以注册一个域名。所以，这是第一阶段。注册期限在一到十年之间，最长十年，最短一年。

如果我选择不续订该域名，那么一年后它将进入过期状态。过期状态下会发生什么，克里斯？

克里斯：从技术上讲，什么都没有。当它到达那个时候时，发生的大事是另一个想要它的人变得兴奋。

迈克尔：是的，因为他们做了一个WhoIS查找，他们看到今天的日期过期了。就像是的，我会得到它。

克里斯：对。因此，如果您在任何注册商处打开了自动续订，理论上您永远不会达到该日期，因为他们会提前一两周甚至一个月自动续订。他们想要你的钱。如果他们提前一个月更新，那很好。您仍然可以获得您在第一年结束时支付的月份。它只是将该日期延长了一年。当该日期实际到来时，大多数注册管理机构将进行所谓的推定续展。无论如何，他们都会增加这一年。现在，在注册商处，他们知道名称已过期，他们的服务条款将发挥作用，但注册局可能会说我们将假设它将续订并踢一年。这样可以防止它在注册表中实际过期。

迈克尔：为什么你的注册表会这样做？我不明白为什么这对他们来说都是有用的，因为注册商负责出售域名。

克里斯：历史的偶然。推定的更新使数据库不会说哦，我必须删除他的名字。

迈克尔：好的。

克里斯：所以，有很多东西。生活中的所有这些事情，你只是认为它是理所当然的，然后你会发现为什么它真的是这样，它就像一百年前的东西。

迈克尔：是的，因为他们过去搞砸了一些事情，所以他们不希望这种情况发生，所以他们制定了一个规则，或者类似的东西。是的。

克里斯：对，但它不会在任何地方发生。所以，是的，您可能会看到该名称已过期。你甚至可能在一周后回来，看看很好，等一下。它一周前过期了。为什么还在那里？答案是它在0到45天的续订期内。

迈克尔：对，在所谓的自动续订宽限期的图形中，可以延长到0到45天。

克里斯：对，那辆汽车就是那额外的一年踢。这就是汽车的来源。

迈克尔：是的，所以在那段时间里，我的理解方式，如果我错了，请纠正我，注册商实际上会关闭域名的所有服务。因此，您的电子邮件会退回。您的网站将无法解析。如果您使用的是子域，则这些子域将不起作用。他们试图告诉注册人，即租用该域名的人，它不再被支付。

克里斯：所以，那里可能发生无数的事情。您可以制作一个网格，显示哪些将起作用，哪些将不起作用，并且它是在注册商到注册商的基础上进行的。一些注册商可能什么都不会改变。你仍然在该区域。一切都还在解决。生活是美好的。他们用电子邮件骚扰你，说嘿，你的名字已经过期了。你要做点什么吗？有些人可能会将其关闭。有些人可能会把它送到停车场。有些可能会关闭您的邮件服务。有些可能不会。这实际上是您的注册商的服务条款所说的，告诉您将会发生什么。如果你是一个域名投资者，你可能想知道这一点，但我也要说，如果你是一个域名投资者，我希望你永远不必发现。你要更新或不更新你的名字，如果你不更新，你不在乎。我的意思是你要放下这个名字。

迈克尔：对。是的，当然。过去，零到45天一直困扰着我，克里斯。为什么它如此悬而未决，谁来决定它是零天还是45天？

克里斯：注册商有。因此，注册商可以随时发送显式删除。不想让客户感到不安的注册商不会在第 0 天发送显式删除。

迈克尔：对，因为那样他们就没有机会在那个时候把它拉回来了。

墨虎恺：嗯，你可以，但价格昂贵。但是，如果您在第 0 天发出显式删除，您的客户会回来说嘿，我在度假。让我休息一下，注册商会说好吧，你可以自动续订，那家伙说但我没有。

迈克尔：这不是对待客户的好方法。

克里斯：没错。完全。因此，显式删除可能会在某个时候发生，但注册商可能会在他们的服务条款中加入：看，我们将在这里给您两周的时间。我们将尝试打扰您，并说您要删除此名称还是要更新它。我的意思是一些注册商可能会说嘿，如果您想删除它，请告诉我们，我们将删除它。我的意思是，这是人们收到其他人的电子邮件，说嘿，我看到你的名字已经过期了。你打算更新它吗？如果没有，我可以为您续订并接受吗？

迈克尔：对。是的，一些投资者过去已经这样做过。完全。

克里斯：是的，有时这有效，有时这个人会说，“哦，真的吗？他会付钱的。

迈克尔：是的，没错。因此，0 到 45 天是注册商到注册商。因此，例如，如果我想知道 GoDaddy.com 的政策是什么，我必须转到 GoDaddy.com，滚动到底部，查找注册人的服务条款，然后阅读说明他们将如何在自动续订宽限期内处理我的域名的部分。

克里斯：是的。所以，我的意思是人们总是抱怨没有人阅读服务条款，我完全同情。另一方面，它们就在那里，每个注册商都会拥有它们。

迈克尔：嗯，如果人们不想读它，那很好。我也没有阅读大部分服务条款，但我试图指出这一点，因为如果有人正在听这个节目或者他们正在看这个节目，他们就像我不知道如果我没有自动更新，我的域名将如何处理， 我通常不会这样做，我的信用卡似乎被退回，由于某种原因，电子邮件没有发送给我。我有多少时间？转到您的注册商，查找服务条款，并阅读描述域名从过期进入自动续订宽限期后如何处理域名的部分，因为它可能是从 0 到 45 的某个数字，通常不会是 45 天。我们将在这个节目中通过一些明确的例子来向您展示在那个时间段内发生的事情，但这将是一段时间。

一旦它离开自动续订宽限期。因此，我假设每个注册商都将制定自己的政策。所以，假设我经营着一家注册商ABC。我甚至不应该使用这个例子，因为谷歌拥有ABC的一切。BDF.com。

克里斯：我想举的例子是我称之为比尔的诱饵和寿司。

迈克尔：是的，Bill’s Bait and Sushi经营着一家注册商，我把政策定为五天，比方说。自动续订宽限期。五天。因此，我将对我的注册商进行编程，以便在第五天发出显式删除命令。

克里斯：是的。

迈克尔：好的，这就是它的工作方式。

克里斯：当这种情况发生时，你就得到了那个域生命周期图形。它的作用 – 我在这里看到它 – 它将在这一点上将箭头推进到赎回宽限期。

迈克尔：好的，这通常被称为赎回宽限期（RGP）。在这一点上，这会将域名从续订或潜在续订中移出。我什至不确定自动续订宽限期的 ICANN 状态标志是什么。

克里斯：是的，我也不确定旗帜是什么。此时已过期。

迈克尔：但随后它会将其移至此赎回宽限期，也称为待删除。

克里斯：不，这被称为赎回宽限期。

迈克尔：赎回宽限期。

克里斯：接下来将进行待删除。

迈克尔：好的，所以赎回宽限期。我用我的坏眼看着这张 ICANN 图形，上面写着 AKA 待删除 – 可恢复。

克里斯：是的，我也在看这个问题，他们不应该这样做，因为待删除本身就意味着其他东西。查看下一个箭头。

迈克尔：是的，等待删除。完全。好吧，让我们称之为赎回宽限期。我很高兴我问你，因为那样人们可能会感到困惑，如果他们是否在阅读图形。赎回宽限期 （RGP）。

克里斯：RGP。这是30天。

迈克尔：30天。在这30天内会发生什么？

克里斯：没什么。它坐在那里。它不在区域之外，它只是在那里坐了30天，等着看是否有人会做任何事情。

迈克尔：不在区域。因此，如果我在RGP期间进行WhoIS查找，我将看不到WhoIS记录。

克里斯：你会看到一个WhoIS记录。当我说超出区域时，我特指的是它超出了 DNS 区域。它不会解决。

迈克尔：是的，好的，我可以做一个WhoIS查询，它会说赎回宽限期之类的东西，它是30天。所以，ICANN基本上是在说注册商，你可以在自动续费宽限期内做任何你想做的事情。您可以决定是希望它是零天还是 45 天，但是一旦它达到这个赎回宽限期，我们将要求您在上面坐 30 天。ICANN 为什么要要求注册服务商这样做？

克里斯：因为有足够多的人抱怨注册商有意或无意地加速任何自动续订，它立即进入dro，繁荣，它消失了。有人把它舀了起来。在某种程度上，消费者向ICANN抱怨得够狠的：我们想要某种减速带，这就是减速带。

迈克尔：是的，假设我是Ben’s Bait and Sushi的注册商。我注册了一个域名一年。我离开了地球的表面。前往冰岛。我没有得到任何信号。它们无法自动续订。它经历了他们的五天自动续订宽限期。然后我们进入 30 天的赎回宽限期。我从第28天度假回来。我的赎回宽限期还剩两天。如果我真的想要它，有没有办法让我找回那个域名？

墨虎恺：当然，因为在那30天里，你可以说我想要它回来，你会经历贴纸冲击。

迈克尔：你什么意思？

克里斯：嗯，注册处会向你收取费用，这笔钱会转交给注册商转嫁给你。注册商将收取一些资金，因为从RGP中获取名称涉及一些开销。而且成本足够高，以至于劝阻人们不要将其用作安全网。它从未打算成为这样的安全网。因此，您可能会查看超过三百美元才能从RGP中获取名称。

迈克尔：好吧，有些人可能会想哇，克里斯，这会太高了，但后来你扔了三百美元。如果我经营一家企业，三百美元，是的，我不应该让它过期，但我今天正在玩那三百美元让我的网站恢复运行。

克里斯：这是一种人寿税。

迈克尔：是的，这是一个学习课程。因此，注册人可以续订域名，直到赎回宽限期退出，图形的该部分为 30 天。他们应该联系他们的注册商以了解流程是什么，然后谁将不得不去注册处实施它。这是一个手动过程，因此他们必须忙于完成它。

克里斯：它不是完全手动的。我的意思是现在一切都是自动化的，但还有其他必须跳过的箍，价格反映了一点点，但它也反映了他们不希望人们让事情进入RGP的事实。

迈克尔：对。这是一个故障保险，而不是一个安全网。因此，一旦您退出 30 天的赎回宽限期，图形就会显示它将进入五天的待删除状态。在这个阶段会发生什么？

克里斯：所以，在这个阶段，我总是喜欢说只有上帝和有管辖权的法院才能把名字拿出来。

迈克尔：VeriSign 的某个人知道 中会发生什么。通讯。

克里斯：是的，重点是我可以用一只手数出我看到一个名字进入待删除而不删除的次数。有几次它错误地到达那里，因为一个名字被盗了。有几次法院确实过来说哇，等一下。商标论点等。它很少发生，以至于我记得它是什么时候发生的。

迈克尔：是的。

克里斯：在这五天里，这个名字基本上处于不确定状态，等待被放弃。

迈克尔：所以，域名再过五天就陷入困境了。天灾可以将其从待处理的删除中拉回来，但它必须很重要，而且很可能会下降。因此，它允许人们在看到一个域进入待删除状态后，为这五天结束时的删除做好准备。

克里斯：对。你知道它会下降。

迈克尔：是的，好的。然后，在这五天结束时，最后一个阶段被释放。域名可用。我可以去Ben的注册商，输入域名并注册。

克里斯：是的。

迈克尔：技术上。

克里斯：你知道你刚刚打开了一罐蠕虫。

迈克尔：我知道。

墨虎恺：所以，在完美的世界里，当然。

迈克尔：好的，现在我们要谈谈为什么在很多情况下没有一个完美的世界。好了，让我们来看看这个。所以，我想和你一起经历三个场景，Chris，我想选择一些注册商，因为他们很受欢迎，很多人想要这些注册商的域名，然后我们将用他们作为其他人可以学习的例子。

我想介绍的三个注册商是Uniregistry，它目前没有拍卖合作伙伴，我们将讨论为什么它很重要并完成整个过程。然后我们将讨论GoDaddy，这是世界上最大的注册商。不是因为你为他们工作。仅仅因为它们是最大的，我想谈谈它，因为它们有自己独特的域名拍卖流程。然后我想谈谈网络解决方案，因为他们有一些现存最古老的域名，其中许多是人们想要的，他们与 NameJet 合作。然后我将分享一个资源，允许您查看任何注册商，并尝试找出哪些是这样的，然后下降是如何工作的。

所以，我想日复一日地介绍一下.COM会发生什么，这只是一个例子。我们可以谈论任何 gTLD，但我们现在只以 Uniregistry .COM为例，我在这次采访之前验证了 Uniregistry 在这次采访当天没有拍卖合作伙伴。我还应该指出，拍卖伙伴关系发生了变化。行业关系发生变化。如果你在这部剧首次播出两年后观看它，你应该验证数据或在评论中提问，我会尝试澄清它。

好的，所以Uniregistry。我一年前去 Uniregistry.com。我注册了一个域名。注册一年。注册即将更新。如果它不是自动续订，他们当然会给我发送电子邮件并要求我续订。一旦达到域名的到期日，就进入自动续费宽限期。您知道Uniregistry域名的宽限期有多长吗？

克里斯：我不知道我的头顶。我的意思是我可以去看看每个注册表，看看他们做了多长时间。我没有把它放在我的大脑中，只是因为我不是域名商。十年前，我有意识地选择不成为域名管理员，因为我正在开发drop软件。我真的很难处理利益冲突。我不喜欢他们。对我来说很容易说我不能有一个，因为我不玩。

迈克尔：我很欣赏。我去了Uniregistry，我查了一下，我阅读了他们的服务条款，我相信除非我不正确，否则他们的自动续订宽限期是30天。这意味着Uniregistry将在30天内保留我的域名。可能会也可能不会关闭服务或您有什么，并将尝试与我联系以续订该域名。

克里斯：对。所以，他们所做的所有事情都是他们的选择，这告诉你的是，在30天内，他们不会对注册表做任何事情。

迈克尔：好的。然后，一旦Uniregistry的30天自动续订宽限期到期，它将进入30天的赎回宽限期。

克里斯：对。

迈克尔：那么，再说一遍，在Uniregistry域名的RGP期间会发生什么？

克里斯：所以，他们所做的，再次，将在服务条款中，他们会说他们将要做什么。当 30 天结束时，他们将发布显式删除以在 RGP 之前减少额外的 15 天。当它击中RGP时，它将走出该区域。他们是否在他们的区域拥有它现在成为一个技术问题。在注册商到注册商的基础上，DNS 可能会发生不同的事情。缓存可能会使其保持活动状态几天，即使它不再在注册表中。如果你是一个域名持有者，如果你是一个投资者，这些都不应该太重要，因为在这一点上，如果你正在经历这些事情，我会假设你不在乎。您已经放弃了域。

如果你现在吓坏了，你要去更新它，它将在第二天解决。因此，每个注册商在 DNS 中从技术上讲都是个人所做的事情：不要担心自己。

今天展会的三个赞助商的快速休息：

首先，如果您从私人方购买域名并想知道他们还拥有什么，那么您应该使用 DomainIQ.com 工具。查看他们的整个投资组合，按Estibot价值过滤，成为更好的投资者。每月 49.95 次查询 250 美元。访问 DomainIQ.com/portfolio 了解更多信息。

其次，中国投资者正在为高端域名支付高价。但要进行交易，您需要一位会说中文、了解文化并可以指导投资者完成付款方式的经纪人。你需要乔治·洪在 Guta.com。George的母语是中文，在中国有投资者关系。在 Guta.com 向销售发送电子邮件。

最后，Efty 可帮助您管理您的域名组合，让您清楚地了解其性能，同时帮助提高潜在客户、销售和收入。忘记电子表格和存档电子邮件 — 通过安全保密的平台在一个地方管理您的整个投资组合。成为有 Efty.com 的专业域名投资者。

迈克尔：是的，好的，然后它进入等待删除的五天。然后，在待删除结束时，如果我错了，请纠正我，Chris，然后注册表从注册表区域文件中删除整个域名，任何人都可以去注册商处注册域名。

克里斯：没错，这都是假设，正如我们在这里谈论Uniregistry时，没有拍卖合作伙伴，所以他们除了引导它通过这个过程之外，无意用这个名字做任何事情。

迈克尔：没错。好吧，Uniregistry是一个相对较新的注册商，所以也许他们将来会改变他们的流程，但这是今天的流程。现在，让我们浏览一下网络解决方案。我说GoDaddy我们将通过第二名，但我认为接下来谈论网络解决方案是有意义的，因为许多在90年代注册的优秀域名都在Network Solutions，因为他们锁定了.COM注册过程。我去了网络解决方案，我阅读了服务条款，我试图找出自动续订宽限期有多长，我认为他们说是 35 天。这么说吧，我不是律师，但我和火箭科学家关系密切，但我仍然不太清楚自动更新宽限期是什么。

我以为它说的是 35 天，但后来在做更多的研究并查看在其拍卖合作伙伴上列出的域名时，我认为它实际上在第 35 天左右进行拍卖。所以，让我们从那里回来吧，克里斯。如果我看到一个在Network Solutions过期的域名，该域名将在NameJet（网络解决方案的第35天拍卖合作伙伴）进行拍卖，那么在每个阶段还剩下多少天才能进行拍卖？

克里斯：嗯，这可能会令人困惑，因为你把它当作一个非此即彼的。它可以两者兼而有之。因此，如果他们愿意，他们可以在第一天将其送去拍卖，他们可以说您在推定续订阶段有 35 天的时间。你有30天的RGP，但是在第一天，我们将把它送到拍卖，有人会出价，在第六天，也许我们将结束拍卖，有人赢得了这个名字，但他们还没有得到这个名字。他们无法将姓名转让给他们，因为您仍处于这些时期。拍卖行完全有可能说，如果它一直走到最后，这就是要得到它的人。

所以，你可以看到它在第35天进入。那时它进入RGP，拍卖发生，我们等待RGP结束，他们说好吧，这家伙没有使用赎回恩典。我们将支付这笔钱以更新它作为注册商，然后，根据我们的服务条款，这允许我们现在去找赢得拍卖的人并说你去吧。该名称从未进入待删除状态，也从未删除。

迈克尔：那么，让我问你这个问题，克里斯。如果我运行注册商并将自动续订宽限期设置为零天，则作为注册商，我必须持有该域名。我可以出售它，但我实际上无法在整个 30 天的赎回宽限期内将其交付给任何其他人。这是对的吗？

克里斯：它将经历救赎恩典。现在，这是与 ICANN 达成的协议，实际上我想回去再看一遍。这是我最近没有看过的少数几个地方之一，我不能百分百确定我是对的。我很确定它必须经历整个事情。他们可能会在服务条款中说：在RGP的第20天，我们保留将其提供给其他人的权利，您不能与我们争论。情况可能就是这样。我实际上不确定，因为我从未买过名字。我更多地处理它的技术方面。

迈克尔：对，这就是我试图进入的。这个技术方面。光是听这个节目，你就能听出，如果你有一个像你这样的技术人员，过去曾与下降一起工作过，而一个不怕阅读法律术语的人，在经历了这个确切的几天后，我们俩仍然不清楚这是多么令人困惑。但我想退后一步，说这些拍卖行合作伙伴是什么，对于那些不了解过程的人来说。让我简单地说一下。

基本上有拍卖行会拿走域名并将其拍卖给出价最高的人。他们将该技术与希望合作然后出售域名的注册商一起使用。因此，如果注册商说我们只是要经历这个过程，让域名像往常一样下降，那很好，但其中一些注册商意识到这些资产可能有价值，尤其是那些非常旧的资产。如果我们与这家拍卖行合作，那么我们可以在域名到期后的某个部分拿走域名，让拍卖行拍卖它们，然后在适当的时候，如果涉及到允许注册商将过期的域名交付给他们，我们将域名交付给该新买家。

克里斯：对，这就是我们想指出的地方，这是一个零和游戏。无论哪个注册商是该到期名称的记录注册商，他们都可以选择如何完成此操作。他们可以选择他们使用的拍卖行。我的意思是，从理论上讲，他们可以把它放在所有的拍卖行，然后说哪一个给了我们使用的最大出价。我认为没有人这样做。

迈克尔：没有。

克里斯：但归根结底，是注册商做出这个决定。这个名字的倾向是什么？

迈克尔：对。我会在下面放一个链接，但如果你去谷歌并输入域名注册商的拍卖合作伙伴，你会看到我在 Domain Sherpa上维护的一个矩阵，其中显示了世界上最大的注册商，如果他们有拍卖行合作伙伴，该合作伙伴是谁。因此，您将看到左侧的网络解决方案与 NameJet 合作，并且您将看到为大公司进行域名注册的公司 Mark Monitor 没有域名拍卖合作伙伴。没有。因此，如果域名过期，它只会经历常规的过期过程。你会看到绰号使用SnapNames，你会看到Name Scout使用Pool。

然后一群人问了一些问题，比如谁做某某使用，谁做某某。如果他们是小型注册商，他们可能还没有建立一种与任何大型拍卖行拍卖域名的方法，所以他们可能只是遵循了常规的到期流程。

但是回到我在这里整理的电子表格。看起来，在我们采访之前，我无法验证这一点，Chris，大约 35 天后，在与 NameJet 合作的注册商（如网络解决方案）的域名到期日之后。在到期日后大约 35 天，如果对域名有多个出价，则会进行拍卖。如果只有一个出价，并且拍卖合作伙伴能够保护域名，那么该人可能会以 39 美元或 69 美元的价格在 NameJet 获得域名，具体取决于域名类型。

克里斯：很多地方只是称之为抢注。

迈克尔：缺货，对。如果有多个出价，比如说有 60 个出价，最低出价为 69 美元，那么它实际上会在 NameJet 进行为期三天的拍卖过程。我试图概括。这里有很多规则，没有人可以说每个域名都会以这种方式工作，因为注册商决定。它可能会通过他们的自动化过程，但出于某种原因，他们实际上可能想将其拉回。网络解决方案的情况并非如此，但我听说过注册商实际上撤回了他们希望在自己的高价值域名组合中维护的域名。

克里斯：是的，这是可能发生的。

迈克尔：这可能会发生，或者他们可以像甜心一样与他们通过商业交易认识的人进行交易，他们可以自己出售，或者他们可以通过他们的拍卖合作伙伴，在这种情况下是 NameJet 的网络解决方案，然后拍卖它。所以，很多事情都可能发生。如果是中等域名，不是蹩脚的域名，也不是超高级域名，很可能会通过网络解决方案到NameJet拍卖并被拍卖，然后交付。

克里斯：是的，记住总是有后台通道。您会看到一个待拍卖的名称。你知道它在RGP中。你看出价最高的人出价五千美元。你想要三千的名字。找出谁拥有它。你联系他们。你不告诉他们某个拍卖行有五千美元的出价，你说嘿，我给你三千美元这个名字。这比我通常支付的要多得多，但是这个，那个和另一件事。那家伙说三千块钱。是的，太棒了，不知道有人在五千的钩子上，如果他们放手的话。

迈克尔：是的，没错，这就是为什么WhoIS历史工具，如Domain IQ和Domain Tools，具有价值，因为这样您就可以在域名到期之前查找谁实际拥有该域名，因为通常他们会更新WhoIS，说待删除或赎回宽限期，他们会在该WhoIS联系信息中列出注册商的名称。

克里斯：对，然后真正与那个人接触通常就像拔牙一样。

迈克尔：是的，没错。好了，这就是网络解决方案部分。如果它在大约 35 天进入拍卖，我们可能会说自动续订宽限期可能是 5 天，然后赎回宽限期是 30 天。

克里斯：我不太确定我是否遵循。

迈克尔：如果它在 NameJet 进入拍卖，35 天后，因为我跟踪了几个域名，看起来它们在第 35 天开始在 NameJet 拍卖。是否可以公平地说，如果 NameJet 正在拍卖域名并能够在拍卖结束时交付域名，他们会以 5 天的自动续订宽限期和 30 天的赎回宽限期将其拍卖？

克里斯：你可以这么说，或者你可以说在第35天他们发布明确的删除，30天的RGP在拍卖开始的同时立即开始。这是一个案例，要找出答案，您可以询问他们，因为我的意思是这不会在服务条款中。所以，你可以问他们，他们可能会告诉你，或者你可以选择几个示例域，看看到底发生了什么。当您在注册表中执行 WhoIS 时，您将看到标志是什么，然后您可以看到它处于什么状态。

迈克尔：但是你说的赎回宽限期总是30天。

克里斯：应该总是30天。

迈克尔：所以，如果我想要那个域名，我无法在赎回宽限期结束之前得到它。

墨虎恺：我相信是的，虽然这是你让我自己猜测的地方，所以我不确定。我实际上会回去看看注册商是否有能力说这个名字在 RGP 中。请记住，有一种方法可以退出 RGP。支付名称费用。

迈克尔：哦。

克里斯：因此，他们完全有可能永远不会通过实际付费来允许该名称击中RGP，因为在服务条款中，它说他们被允许这样做。

迈克尔：等一下。因此，如果我是一名注册商，并且我与一家拍卖行合作，并且我在规定的自动续订宽限期（例如 35 天）结束时交付该域名，因为我想成为注册域名客户的好注册商，然后我给拍卖行。他们得到了足够的出价，值得我作为注册商续签它。我可以立即续订它，然后让它开始拍卖，从技术上讲，我是所有者，直到我将其交付给新所有者。

克里斯：对，这是一个政策问题，你让我觉得我在这次采访中没有准备什么。这是你提出这个问题的一件事，我要去 是的，我实际上不确定，因为我个人从未遇到过这种情况，也从未与我咨询过的任何域名商打交道。我提前教育他们足够好，以至于他们永远不会进入这个位置。

迈克尔：对。好吧，但事情就是这样。如果您想获得域名，您需要了解该注册商的实际工作方式。而且它不是您所在的注册商。这可能是一些完全不同的注册商，因为哪些投资者每年为.COM域名支付 35 美元的网络解决方案？我知道的不多。

墨虎恺：真的。

迈克尔：好的，所以我感谢你提出的是，有很多选择可能发生。尽管这似乎定义得很好，但也有例外，比如有人实际上可以在赎回宽限期内续订域名，并可能将其从宽限期内撤出，然后在拍卖结束时交付域名。所以，这是网络解决方案的一个例子。它可以是任何域名注册商和任何拍卖行。我们可以看到这种情况可能发生。

現在讓我們來談談GoDaddy，因為GoDaddy是一種獨特的野獸。他们是世界上最大的域名注册商，他们在那里有很多域名。在GoDaddy，我去阅读了服务条款，它说自动续订宽限期为八天。然后我假设赎回宽限期是 30 天，然后待删除是 5 天，因为这就是 ICANN 图形所说的。但是我将包括一个指向 GoDaddy 政策的链接，因为他们非常清楚到期日期后的每一天会发生什么，并且他们非常清楚拍卖可以在第 25 天使用 GoDaddy 自己的拍卖平台在 GoDaddy 上到期的域名开始。

克里斯：好的。这就是我说我很高兴我是技术人员而不是政策人员的地方，因为它甚至让我感到困惑。并不是说这在任何方面都是不好的。这实际上是政治。ICANN 参与其中并制定所有这些规则并进行谈判，这就是我们剩下的问题。它有效。这是令人困惑的。

迈克尔：是的，GoDaddy 拍卖了一个域名，拍卖可能会有赢家，我听说过很多案例，域名的前任注册人实际上可以支付费用——我认为是 60 美元——并让域名恢复或续订一年。

克里斯：是的，消费者有保护措施，这里的整个问题是，当它进入拍卖时，一个理性的人会说这种情况发生的可能性很小。您听说过这一点并且值得注意的是，这一事实说明了它很少发生。通常，当一个名字到达这一点时，注册人会放手。

迈克尔：是的，很好。

克里斯：你还必须意识到，你不能等到标志进入待删除状态后的一秒钟，因为那时你无法将其取回。所以，你必须，在某个时候，说我们非常确定这个名字会被放弃，这样我们就可以在它被锁定之前促进它的转移。万一原所有者来抢它，这就是系统的工作方式。你不会赔钱。如果你为这个名字付钱，它不会带着对不起从你身上拿走。

迈克尔：对。如果您确实赢得了拍卖并支付了拍卖费用，并且它确实被最后一个注册人撤回，那么您将获得退款。这不是一个理想的情况，但这并不是说你会失去你的钱。当他们解决所有问题时，您可能会在几天内无法访问您的资金，但这就是 GoDaddy 发生的事情，因为他们经营自己的拍卖行，所以他们会接受正在经历到期过程的域名。他们会拍卖它。

如果没有人在 GoDaddy 拍卖中对即将到期的域名出价，那么在流程结束时会发生什么，克里斯？

克里斯：如果没有人买这个名字，它就会过期。

迈克尔：它即将到期。

墨虎恺：对每个人来说都是如此。如果没有人把它拉回来，没有人买它，这个名字就会再次出现，它就会掉下来，这就是泡沫乐趣的开始。

迈克尔：好的，我们将进入这个。因此，重申一下，.COM 与其他 gTLD （如 .NET、.ORG、.XYZ， .顶部和 .俱乐部？

克里斯：真的没有。

迈克尔：没有。

克里斯：在基本层面上，所有 gTLD 几乎都是平等的。即将推出的新规则正在将所有规则与.COM规范化。TLD 之间在其他方面存在差异，例如注册管理机构高级名称，这些新 TLD 的注册管理机构可以说这个名称要花很多钱，因为它是一个字典单词。你在.COM中找不到，因为，嗯，他们都被拿走了。

迈克尔：是的。

克里斯：所以，这些是一些差异，但是当涉及到域的生命周期时，他们非常努力地保持一切正常化。

迈克尔：现在，作为一个投资者或企业家，我该怎么做。比方说，我的科技创业公司的IO？如何跟踪国家/地区代码顶级域（如 .DE 或 .CN 或 .NL 或 .RU？

克里斯：是的，又是黑魔法。您可以在注册处和注册商处阅读服务条款。通常情况下，您可能会向拍卖行发送支持电子邮件并说：“您是否支持.IO“，他们会告诉你我们做或不做，因为他们可能会告诉你为什么。因此，例如，在删除名称时，对于不适用于 gTLD 的国家/地区代码有不同的规则。其中值得一提的是：当我为.UK编写软件时，我们从未玩过下降，因为他们有规则说，如果你在下降中猛烈抨击我们，我们将惩罚你作为注册商。我们不喜欢下降。我们不喜欢你捶打我们，所以把它剪掉。

然后，许多注册商以溢价出售.UK滴剂，因为他们必须非常小心。他们不能猛击。您因每个失败的广告命令而受到惩罚。因此，每个 CCTLD 都有些不同。

迈克尔：好的，那么去阅读CCTLD注册管理机构的条款，然后阅读你想购买它的注册商。

克里斯：对。

迈克尔：好的，现在让我们谈谈即将到期的域名。它有一个拍卖行的注册商合作伙伴，但它根本没有得到任何出价。所以，我们要等待。假设我在原石中发现了一颗钻石。没有人意识到它是一颗钻石。它经历了整个过期过程并下降。如何获取该域名？

克里斯：好的，所以这里有两种情况，我们将花费相同的时间。一个是名称删除和没有拍卖合作伙伴的注册商，以及名称删除在有拍卖合作伙伴的注册商处。因此，如果他们这样做，您可能是唯一一个出价的人。15.99. 29.99.无论什么。没有拍卖发生，他们说好吧，我们将在它实际下降之前将其拉回并交给您。在没有出价并且有拍卖合作伙伴的情况下，此时拍卖合作伙伴无关紧要，因为没有出价，或者没有拍卖合作伙伴。它命中五天的待处理删除。这些名单已经公布，所以我们提前五天知道将要删除的名字是什么。

在第六天，当这些名称在系统中移动时，它们变得可用。如果你对数据库编程有所了解，它们变得可用的方式就像说选择今天到期或今天第六天到达的每个域并将其状态设置为可用。他们掉落一个订单，这只对掉落捕手感兴趣，但他们按特定的顺序掉落。它从太平洋时间上午 11 点开始，即美国东部时间两点钟，这就是夏令时碰巧生效或不生效的任何时间。它总是两点钟。

然后需要几个小时的大部分时间才能全部下降。你每天要找6万到8万个名字。有些日子要多得多。历史的偶然，这有点有趣。有几天下降没有发生，在这种情况下，我说的是.COM。威瑞信出现系统故障。掉落没有发生。他们说，“好吧，我们明天要删除所有的名字。我们要加倍努力。好吧，结果，当天注册了更多的名字。一年后，当名称开始过期时，到期时间要多得多。

迈克尔：对。

克里斯：我称之为停电婴儿潮。这与为什么有很多婴儿在同一天出生的理论完全相同。嗯，看，九个月前，有停电或暴风雪或其他什么。

迈克尔：是的。

墨虎恺：所以，一定数量会在某一天下降。捕手将尝试为想要它们的人挑选这些名字。所以，当你去拍卖行时，你可以说我不想竞标你有一个注册合作伙伴的名字。我想竞标一个您没有注册商合作伙伴的名称，以防该名称实际上应该删除。如果这个名字要掉下来，那是因为要么没有人在其他地方出价——机会很小，但不是零——要么它来自一个没有拍卖合作伙伴的注册商，所以你知道它会下降。

迈克尔：对。

克里斯：然后那个拍卖行也是一个捕手，他会说好吧，我们会尽力为你买到它。当名称开始下降时，他们会进行我喜欢称之为世界上最大的法律拒绝服务攻击，用广告命令将垃圾从注册表中剔除，试图获得这个名称。它真的是先到先得。第一个凭据，即在名称可用后获取该 ad 命令的注册表的第一个连接将获得它。当我说命令时，这些就是所谓的EPP。它是注册服务商和注册管理机构进行通信的协议。你和我都做不到这一点。域名投资者无法做到这一点。这是代表您行事的注册商。

迈克尔：是的，所以当某某掉落捕捉服务刚刚购买了十个注册商凭证的消息传出时，这对他们意味着什么？

克里斯：军备竞赛。因此，注册管理机构将为每个注册商提供一定数量的带宽。一定数量的连接，可以用广告命令惹恼他们。威瑞信开始了。我认为我们有 40 个连接，没有带宽限制。然后他们立即看到了发生了什么，所以我们的带宽有限。然后是带宽较少的 20 个连接。它一路走下来。我想十个，四个。现在四是一个神奇的数字。他们本质上只是想不必为整个下降的事情购买更多的带宽。

所以，捕手会做的是他们会说好。好吧，我只需要更多的注册商，因为这一切都是聚合的。所以，起初，他们去找其他注册商，说嘿，我会告诉你什么。如果你让我用你的关系来掉落捕获，我会给你我卖的东西的 X%，我在你的凭据中捕获的名字。然后Pool带着他们的模型来了，他们说你知道吗。这不太公平，因为这是随机的。如果您让我们使用您的凭据，我们将为您提供我们捕获的每个名称的 X%，因为它是一个大池，我们将将其拆分。

所以，如果我抓住你的凭据，而不是价值的20%，你会得到所有东西的1%。可能是也可能不是更多的钱，但我想这是更稳定的收入。如果你喜欢这种模式，你就和他们一起去。因此，它到了我们所谓的信誉扩散的地步，不同的捕手会试图获得越来越多的凭据来试图击败对方，而你的成功取决于你有多少凭据，即你可以发射多少子弹与你的软件有多好， 这就是你的枪有多准确。如果你的枪真的很准确，你需要更少的子弹。如果你的枪很糟糕，你需要更多的子弹。

迈克尔：如果你有一把好枪和更多的子弹，你就会赢得比赛，对吧？

克里斯：当然，这就是为什么有一天，你看到eNom突然有了所有这些名为eNom 491和eNom 492，eNom 493的注册商，人们都去找这些注册商。他们是赶上掉落的注册商。在当时，这是相当有利可图的。现在，随着更多的名字被直接拍卖，而不是下降，没有那么有利可图，抓住这些注册商，每年都要花钱。您必须查看价格与性能曲线。

迈克尔：当然。因此，让我们以网络解决方案为例。一个伟大的域名即将到期。假设它转到NameJet。NameJet表示将进行拍卖。一堆预出价进来，然后注册商说是的，放手。然后它被拍卖。有一个中标者。NameJet与注册商分享部分产生的收入，然后将域名交付给高价拍卖的新客户。

现在，如果没有人对域名出价，那么注册商实际上不会将其发布给NameJet。它经历过期过程，然后进入五天的待处理删除。如果我是投资者或企业家，我就像哦，我只是错过了我的机会，我实际上可以去 NameJet 并提出一个下降捕获出价，我想使用他们的下降捕获服务成为第一个抓住域名的人，一旦它实际上从注册表的区域文件中删除。

克里斯：对，但我想补充一下。你在这里的所有情况下都在说NameJet。当一个名字要删除时，与记录注册商绑定的任何优势都消失了。在 NameJet 上，没有任何优势可以在任何注册商处捕获名称，而不是任何其他注册商，无论他们是否是合作伙伴。一旦它要下降，它就会下降。所以，在这一点上，既然又是零和游戏，那么只有一个捕手可以得到它。如果你想要这个名字，对每一个捕手都出价，然后退后一步，等待，看看谁得到了它，这符合你的最佳利益。

迈克尔：GoDaddy是这样吗？

墨虎恺：到处都是这样。

迈克尔：GoDaddy 提供一项删除捕获域名的服务，但在它实际进入待删除之前，我想也许如果它不去拍卖并且我使用他们的丢弃捕获服务，也许这给了我一些优势来获取域名而无需经过挂起删除，但事实并非如此。

墨虎恺：嗯，是的，但术语是错误的。您没有使用下降捕获服务。您正在做的是提交一个延期交货订单，说由于您可以在记录注册商处访问它，因此我希望在它下降之前使用它。我们过去半个小时一直在谈论的内容之间没有区别。一旦它命中待删除，如果我是唯一的出价者或高出价者，你不再愿意为我抓住这个并把它给我。在这一点上，它从那到下降捕捉。

迈克尔：知道了。

克里斯：两种完全不同的东西，即使你可能使用相同的软件平台，比如GoDaddy的售后市场，Afternic，NameJet或其他什么。他们可能使用相同的平台，但此时是下降捕获。当它下降时，每个人都处于公平的竞争环境中。

迈克尔：好的。所以，在域名夏尔巴人上，我有一个掉落捕捉服务的列表。我实际上将这个域名抢注服务列表命名为这个。这在技术上不正确吗？它应该被称为域名掉落捕获服务列表吗？

克里斯：是的。现在，他们也可能是缺货服务，但这不是我们现在谈论的。

迈克尔：对。一旦它完全经历了待处理的删除，那五天的期限，并从注册表中释放，一旦它被删除或一旦可用，第一个进入并获取它的服务将成为该域名的赢家。这个列表包括BackorderZone，DropCatch.com。迪纳多有一个。GoDaddy有一个。六角网。名称捕获。名捷。Park.io 某些顶级域名。 凤凰。池。快照名称。这些都是可以称为抢注服务的下垂捕获服务。

克里斯：是的。看，我会玩语义游戏，说不要称它为抢注，因为抢注意味着别的东西。

迈克尔：好的，我很感激。对于业内人士来说，你怎么称呼它？因此，从理论上讲，每个捕获服务都有相同的机会来获取过期的域名。

克里斯：这是一个博弈论问题，你可以说，如果每个人都在玩完美的知识，这意味着他们知道下降是如何工作的，他们的软件都同样有效，那么你获得这个名字的机会是N，其中N是正在使用的凭据数量。

迈克尔：是的，但在现实生活中并非如此。

克里斯：不，在现实生活中，每个人运行的软件效率都不同。作为一个域名投资者，你可能不必太担心这一点，因为就像我说的，在这一点上，如果你真的想要这个名字，如果你想玩掉落，那就到处出价。你没有什么可失去的。我不相信有一个捕手说如果我们没有得到它，你就无法使用你的钱。这不像他们说要花十块钱出价，如果我们没有得到它，你就失去了你的十块钱。

迈克尔：所以，有些人说付给我们14.99或49美元，或者不管是什么。如果我们没有抓住它，那么你以后可以用它来再抓一次。

克里斯：是的，我的意思是这对我来说很好，特别是如果你要追求很多名字。

迈克尔：但这对我来说并不好，特别是如果我不去追逐很多名字，或者他们的服务真的很糟糕，他们永远不会为我抓到任何东西。

克里斯：是的，在这种情况下，你已经做出了你的商业选择。

迈克尔：对。好的，所以有一些这样做。还有其他人说免费缺货，并存档信用卡。然后，就你的观点而言，你说到处都是提供免费的下落捕获抢注，这样做是因为它不会伤害你。如果他们没有得到它，他们就不会向你收费。

克里斯：是的，但请记住，他们中的大多数都有服务条款，比如信用卡登记，如果你是唯一一个订购这个名字的人，如果我们得到它，你就要买它了。你不能说哦，不，算了。因此，如果费用是 60 美元并且他们抓住了这个名字，预计您的卡将被收取 60 美元，并且您会得到这个名字。

迈克尔：对。是的，没错。但例如，GoDaddy。如果他们成功抓住.COM，则为 24.98 美元，您首先预付。

克里斯：好的。

迈克尔：还有一些像DropCatch这样的产品，这是一个免费的抢注。然后，如果他们成功抓住它，那就是 59 美元。所以，去域名夏尔巴人。我将在下面包含一个包含该列表的链接。再一次，就像你所做的那样，克里斯，这不是正确的术语。您不应将其称为抢注。您应该称其为下降捕获服务及其费用。请在评论中告诉我，因为我也想纠正这些。

克里斯：很多地方可能会称它为缺货，因为这是它的企业名称，这很好。当我在这里进行语义装饰时，我只是想确保每个观看此内容的人都了解正在发生的事情。称之为火腿三明治。你要么在下降之前得到它，要么在下降之后得到它。只要知道你在玩哪一个。

迈克尔：现在，作为一个刚进入这个行业的投资者，我怎么能弄清楚谁拥有最强大、最高效的——我讨厌使用枪支术语，但最有效的枪支和最多的联系？这些下降捕获服务中的哪一个实际上是最好的抓住它？有什么办法可以知道吗？

墨虎恺：嗯，就像你居住的城市的天气一样，你不喜欢它，十分钟后它会有所不同。有很多方法可以找到答案，这些方法通常是阅读行业新闻。 观看您的播客。阅读 DN 期刊或领域洞察。好吧，Domain Insight不会涵盖太多，但是有很多地方你可以去阅读和看看哦，昨天某某服务购买了五百个ICANN认证。他们现在是最强大的。这确实是一场臂膀的竞赛。

迈克尔：是的。

克里斯：所以，我今天可以告诉你谁有哪些信条，什么没有。当您发布此内容时，它可能已经过时。

迈克尔：没错，我甚至不想说一个捕水器对我做得更好，因为在我进入这个行业的几年里，我注意到了一个变化。现在，每当我想要一个我不想在拍卖行出价的域名，因为我不想让别人发现它并可能找到它，我会看着它经历到期，但我知道我不是最快的能够手动注册它。没有人能够在东部时间下午 2 点做到这一点，所以我会在一些地方进行缺货，让我可以免费缺货，而且我在 Pheenix 确实抓了很多。但同样，这种情况可以改变。我记得我以前在这个行业的时候，Pool.com 曾经捕捉到一切。

克里斯：所以，曾经有一段时间是eNom，SnapNames和Pool。那是三巨头。我的意思是，我记得有一天，我发现了一些其他人没有弄清楚的下降，我们实际上在大半个月的时间里将成功率翻了一番，直到其他人都弄清楚了。有一段时间，Pool开始吃我们的午餐大约一个月，我不知道到底发生了什么，然后我发现了它并回到了平价。我的意思是这很有趣。有一天，我可能会写一本六个人会感兴趣的书，因为它会很书，而且有很多数学，但要描述整个事情是如何运作的。我认为这很吸引人，但话又说回来，我认为很多事情都很迷人。

迈克尔：是的。好吧，我也是，克里斯，这就是我想谈论的一切。你真的照亮了很多过去我不清楚的不同领域。有什么我没有提出来的，你认为我应该提到吗？

克里斯：我要提起的一件事。我经常被问到的一个问题是：这一切会发生什么？这是要去哪里？五年前，当VeriSign厌倦地提出他们厌倦了被殴打以及所有的政治和抱怨时，我们几乎失去了下降。他们希望建立一个系统，确定名称将如何过期。记录的注册商损失和获得将各自分享收入。令人惊讶的是，令人惊讶的是，威瑞信将分享收入。

这是在ICANN上大喊大叫的。这有点好笑，因为大注册商不喜欢它，因为他们能够玩掉线并赚很多钱。小型注册商不喜欢它，因为他们没有足够的名称来参与计划。如果你把它翻到相反的地方，出于相反的原因，这对他们有好处，但没有人这样看。但是有一天下降会停止，特别是因为下降名称中的值已经下降。现在有一长串名字，人们仍然在赚钱，但不像以前那么多。我有一种感觉，最终它会正常化。我们将摆脱下降。

可能还需要五年才能发生。让我们看看所有的新 TLD 都有一大堆名称，并且变得更加混乱。如果你现在是一个下降捕获器，你必须支持一千个TLD下降，那是一种痛苦。第二件事 – 我想你的很多观众都感兴趣 – 是我可以手动注册这些东西吗？如果我不想去参加一个服务并花 60 美元买一个名字怎么办？我自己获得它的机会有多大？

答案很简单。如果这个名字有争议，如果其他人想要它，你的机会微乎其微。如果你去注册商那里，在他们的网站前面打上名字并尝试注册它，当它完成整个过程时，如果它还没有掉下来，你就不会得到它。如果它掉了，到那时，有人已经把它捡起来了。我说的某个人，是指一个有毫秒计时的捕手。所以，如果你要手工注册它，你唯一能得到一个名字的时候就是如果你觉得没有其他人想要它。然后是的，等待五分钟，你可以得到它。很多人都是这样取名字的，对你来说，这可能是一个很棒的名字。

迈克尔：我试过了。我已经尝试过了，它已被其中一个下降捕获服务吸走了。属于大型投资组合所有者的下降捕获服务之一。他们把所有中间的东西都囤积起来。它们不是非凡的领域。它们不是蹩脚的域。投资者可能窥探的所有中间内容。这些进展非常快。

克里斯：请记住，如果他们能以折扣价获得这个名字，所以如果他们能以注册费获得这个名字，他们就会得到注册费。叫它十块钱。如果这个名字每年在停车流量上赚十多块钱，那就是一个净积极因素。即使它一年只赚一美元，但你有十万个名字。

迈克尔：百分之十的投资回报率相当不错。

克里斯：好的。

迈克尔：是的。是的，没错。克里斯，这是惊人的。如果您正在观看此节目并且有疑问，请将其发布在域夏尔巴的视频下方，我会请克里斯回来并尽可能多地回答。他是用技术术语说话的，而不是作为他曾经或目前为之工作的任何人的政策。如果你正在看这个节目，你认为我知道一些独特的东西，比如克里斯刚刚分享的关于这个行业或投资的东西，我很想成为一个夏尔巴人，那就来 DomainSherpa.com 吧。左上角，有一个与文字的小链接：在域名夏尔巴人上接受采访。单击它，填写表格，让我们聊聊这个话题。

我也鼓励那些在锻炼、健身房或通勤时观看节目或听节目的人。回到域夏尔巴，来参加这次采访，并在评论中向克里斯发布简短的感谢，或使用视频下方的按钮在Twitter上感谢克里斯。我现在将是第一个这样做的人。

Chris Ambler，GoDaddy 的首席软件架构师，技术天才。感谢您参加域名夏尔巴人节目，分享您对域名行业和域名到期的知识，并感谢您成为其他人的域名夏尔巴人。

克里斯：当然。这很有趣。

迈克尔：谢谢大家的收看。我们下次再见。

If you want to know how the domain name expiration process works in detail, this is the show you want to watch. We talk about domain names expiring, domain names that have auction partners associated with registrars, the best drop catching services to use. It is all in today’s interview. Stay tuned.

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Michael Cyger: Hey everyone. My name is Michael Cyger, and I’m the Publisher of DomainSherpa.com – the website where you come to learn how to become a successful domain name entrepreneur and investor directly from the experts. I bring on experts, people I call Sherpas, to teach us through interviews, panel discussions, and tutorials. When you learn and advance your experience and skills and make sales, I hope you come back here and do an interview like today’s guest is going to do.

Today’s Sherpa brings a wide knowledgebase across many subjects in the domain name industry, but today we are going to focus on the life cycle of domain names. In particular, what happens at the end of the life cycle, why some domains drop and are available for hand registration, and why other domains automatically seem to go to auction and sell for between tens of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars.

I would like to welcome to the show, Chris Ambler, currently a Principle Software Architect at the registrar, GoDaddy. Welcome, Chris.

Chris Ambler: Hi, how are you doing?

Michael: Great. I should preface our whole conversation by saying that I am interviewing you, Chris, the person who is an expert in many technical and political topics related to the domain name system, and you are not representing the views or policies of GoDaddy. Is that a fair statement?

Chris: I appreciate that.

Michael: All right, excellent. In preparation for this show, I did a ton of research on you, Chris, and I found some really interesting information. I am not sure if a lot of people have known you in the past, so I want to chat a little bit about your background, which will then give people an understanding of why you can talk about the domain name life cycle, which is going to be the focus of today’s interview.

So, you are a programmer by background. We talked about your role at GoDaddy, but your programming dates back to the early Commadore PET, the PET computer days in the ’70s, just like me. What is your earliest memory of learning to program?

Chris: Actually even before that. My uncle worked for the telephone company, so I would occasionally go into work with him and he worked at a central office, where they had old PDP computers. I remember playing that tech Star Trek game on a terminal.

Michael: Really?

Chris: On a printed terminal, where you would get the running printout as you were doing things, and this was in the ’70s, when I was single-digit years old.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah, that is phenomenal. All right, and so you learned on the early days of the personal computers. You went on. Practiced programming. Previous to GoDaddy, you worked at eNom, which became Demand Media, and you spend some time up here in the Seattle area at Microsoft as well.

Chris: Yeah, I got out of college around ’97. Did not really want to, but I was getting married at the time and my fiancé said, “No, you are done,” and floated my resume. Microsoft made the best offer. Moved up to Seattle. Ended up spending 17 years there.

Michael: Wow. All right, and every programmer that I know has an umbrella company that they use for launching all of their myriad of projects. We get ideas. We think we can solve something. We launch a project. Your company was called Image Online Design, or IOD. And in doing research on IOD, I found that IOD was the first to put in a request to run the .WEB top-level domain back in 1995. Is that correct?

Chris: Yeah, it was actually ’94 that we proposed it. We were actually the first to commercially propose a new TLD at all. There were about seven or eight people who had expressed interest, but we were the first to come along and say well, we can actually do it. .WEB was one of them along with a couple others. And honestly, it almost actually almost happened. John Postel basically said show us rough consensus in running code, we built a registry, and just as it looked like there might be some new TLDs in 1995/1996, that is when the U.S. Government stepped in and said wait a minute, this is bigger than all of you put together.

Michael: Yeah. So, I want to chat a couple of minutes about that because you talk about vision in the domain name industry for people that are able to spot domain names that have a high value, but they spotted it 20 years ago. That is what you did. If you are looking at all the new top-level domains, I think arguably people would say the most expensive real estate will be .APP because there are just so many apps. The whole app economy took over, and .WEB, which is still I believe in contention. What gave you the idea to want to run .WEB back in ’94 and earlier time period?

Chris: So, I started doing web design in ’94/’95, when it was brand new, and I kind of saw the value there. I saw where it was going to be going. A lot of people were thinking this is just going to be online brochures, and it was quite clear to me that we were going to have more away. Being a William Gibson fan at the time, I had the whole Cyberpunk vision in my head.

So, we started doing websites. That is what Image Online did. We did websites for auto dealers, for local businesses. Being in a college town, where everybody was on the Internet, there were actually a lot of people who could use a website. One day, I am writing a check to Network Solutions for three thousand dollars for 30 domain names, because back then it was one hundred dollars for two years. It was 50 bucks per year. You had to pay in two-year increments.

Michael: Right.

Chris: I am writing this check and I am thinking okay, this is idiotic. I can run a zone file just like the next guy. Why don’t I just create my own .COM zone file and we bifurcate the thing? And then I start thinking about DNS and I am thinking no, that is not going to work. It would have to be a separate domain. And then, at that point, who cares what it is? I just shot off an email to John Postel and Diana and said, “This is ridiculous. I would like to run my own top-level, but there is no facility in the registration template to say I want to be at the top level, not at a second level.”

And he came back and said, “Oh, you noticed that, did you?” And so, he said, “Well, which one would you want to run – just I am curious -, and we can work on this.” I actually came up with .AUTO, .CAR, and .WEB, because we had been doing a lot for auto dealers. And actually I proposed to a couple the auto manufacturers. You want dot whatever your brand is.

Michael. BRAND.

Chris: So, I came up with that too, and I had no clue what I was talking about.

Michael: Right. Exactly, because they barely understood the web at that point.

Chris: Right. Right.

Michael: Yeah.

Chris: So, that is where it all started.

Michael: So, you started the conversation, but there was no formal application process like ICANN set forth in preparing for the latest round of the gTLDs in 2012. What happened to your application between when you put in that request in 1995 and then, in 2012, when a bunch of companies put in an application for 2012?

Chris: Yeah, so I will compress a lot of stuff. The TLDR version. So, in the early ’90s, it was proposed that there would be a modest two-thousand-dollar application fee to cover costs. We put together the application, which was based on the initial domain registration template that Network Solutions was using. Network Solutions, which later became VeriSign. We enclosed a check and put it in an envelope. Gave it to John, who said, “I am going to put this on the stack of papers for when the time is right to start doing applications.”

And we asked him. We said, “Can we give this to you now so that we do not waste time, and this establishes some priority.”

Michael: Right.

Chris: And then he said sure. After the government came along, the envelope was returned to us. John Postel claimed that he never knew what was in the envelope and we slipped it into a stack of papers, yet his note returning it said, “With the government being involved, your applications is being returned.” Well, if he did not know what was in it, how did he know it is an application?

Michael: Right.

Chris: And there have been court cases and this came out in court. So, in 2000, ICANN had their round. We applied for .WEB. So did Affilias. So did NewStar. Affilias, as we know, was given .INFO. NewStar was given .BIZ. Nobody was given .WEB and Vince Surf went on the record, and you can always go back and watch the videos. He said, “We may not be approving IO Design today, but I am not comfortable giving .WEB to anybody else because they were the pioneer.” Anybody who applied in 2000 would be considered application pending, not denied, so we are approving these seven. All the rest of you, you are still pending. Let’s see how the seven go and we will revisit it later.”

And so, some 12 years later, after touching every continent except Antarctica, going to every ICANN meeting, they came along with a round in 2012, or when they started that round, and they essentially said everybody who applied in 2000, been nice knowing you. Please go pound sand.

Michael: Yeah, and you decided at that point not to put an application in, in that round.

Chris: We chose that because ICANN said if you apply, you must sign this waiver saying you have no rights from the previous round.

Michael: Right, and you were not willing to do that of course because you had been through so much.

Chris: Sure seems like for me.

Michael: Yeah, of course. And so, I went to ICANN’s website yesterday because I could not remember what the status of the .WEB top-level domain is and it looks like it is in some sort of locked state. I cannot remember the number. It has probably ten or 15 applicants, one of which I think is a holding company for Google, if I am not incorrect.

Chris: Google is involved. I believe Donuts has an application in. I mean there are a bunch.

Michael: There are a bunch, yeah.

Chris: It was of the opinion it was going to go for the most money in the ICANN auction of last resort because I do not think those guys will agree amongst themselves. With the 41.5-million-dollar .SHOP sale yesterday or a couple of days ago, I think it might be second most. I think that 41.5 million might shock some people into more rational valuations, but I still think ICANN is going to collect upwards of 25 million dollars for it.

Michael: Yeah, wow.

Chris: I would like one percent, please.

Michael: Right. Well, I hope that it works out for you, Chris, because you had the vision. You got your paperwork in early. I hope that somehow it can come around to you. We are going to talk about your programming prowess and I am going to ask you kinds of things that you have worked on, but clearly anybody that has done web design since the early ’90s and then understands the domain name system enough and has the vision, clearly you have got other projects. You have worked with other companies. Do you currently operate Image Online Design? Even though your current role with GoDaddy, do you do other projects on the side as well?

Chris: I do other projects. Image Online is kind of mothballed at this point because .WEB was its thing. I actually formed an LLC with some friends called Insider House, which was our way of doing our personal projects and some consulting on the side. They say that agreements among friends are great, especially when they are in writing, so we created the LLC just to be safe. But yeah, I stand up websites all the time. I am actually known for putting up a spoof website when something interesting happens. I have put up fake election websites in the past. I actually registered Douchebag.Republican and Douchebag.Democrat, and it is my plan in the next couple months to put up some user-generated content argument sites.

Michael: Nice.

Chris: Again, for the fun.

Michael: Yeah, totally. All right, so I will put a link down below to your website in case people want to check that out. Is that at InsiderHouse.com?

Chris: Yeah, although there is not a heck of a lot up there. I mean it is just a name that we use. But I mean if anybody wants to contact me, you can find me on Facebook, on LinkedIn, and my personal email is [email protected]. You can always get me.

Michael: All right. So, Chris, let me ask you. What is the most interesting software problem that you have ever been tasked to solve?

Chris: That is an easy one. In 2003, I was looking for something interesting to do and Paul Stahura, the guy who founded eNom. We were just talking and he said, “Okay, I have an impossible problem. I think it is impossible to solve this thing. Give it a shot.” And that was the domain name drop. He had started a thing called Club Drop at eNom and they were looking at writing the code to pick up dropped names at VeriSign, mostly .COMs and .NETs. In fact, mostly .COMs and then .NETs. And he wanted to do better than everybody else.

Michael: So, let me put this in context here. Paul was running with his partners, eNom.com, which is a registrar. So, they were selling domain names, just like a supermarket would sell whatever domain names, .COM, .NET, .ORG, on down, and he started ClubDrop.com, which was a paid service for individuals, or was he using it as the registrar to grab domain names for eNom’s holding company?

Chris: No, it was a service offered to customers of eNom. So, Club Drop was like the service mark for the product. I mean the business model on dropping names has changed so many times. The initial business model was you pay a fixed amount of money to be in the club, which allows you to say what names you want. The software would go for those names and if it got it, you would pay a flat fee. There was not even an auction back then. It was whoever asked for it first.

Michael: Right. Simplicity is great, right? So, how many people are asking for them at the time? If you want a domain name, you put in your request, and if you are the first to put in your request and they grab the name, then you got it.

Chris: Exactly.

Michael: And so, what was the problem? It sounds like they had Club Drop before Paul asked you to start working on this.

Chris: So, there were many registrars who were trying to get the names and Paul essentially, like any good businessman, said, “I want the most. I want to pick up more names than my competitors. It seems to me that this is a technical problem to solve. How do you get more names than the next guy if you both have the same resources?”

Michael: Right.

Chris: And that is exactly what it turned out to be. It is what is called a scarce resource problem, where everybody playing has essentially a level playing field. But if you know what the rules are and you can I do not want to say game those rules, but figure out the optimal way to use the rules, you could do better than the next guy.

Michael: And so, were you able to figure out the rules and do better than all of eNom’s competitors to ClubDrop.com?

Chris: I was.

Michael: You were. How long did it take you to solve that problem?

Chris: Initially it took me about four months to figure out what was really going on, and then a few more months after that to confirm that my suspicions were right, write up the code, and have the first version running. After that, I spent essentially the next ten years refining it. I mean I did plenty of other stuff at eNom, but I ended up working at eNom. What happened was after a while, I solved this thing and it was working great, and I said to Paul, “Hey, what is next?” And he said, “You being an employee is next. You are not a consultant anymore.”

And so, I ended up spending ten years there and refining it. VeriSign changed the rules, sometimes on a weekly basis. I am firmly of the opinion that there were guys at VeriSign who knew what the registrars were doing in terms of trying to figure out the drop and they would change the rules occasionally and laugh.

Michael: Yeah. So, how much of you figuring out how to solve the domain name dropping problem was actual coding and how much was it sort of social engineering, getting to know people at ICANN, and figuring out how the system really worked so that you could program a better solution?

Chris: It was 98 percent technical. Two percent social. And the social was usually asking somebody at VeriSign. Hey, I noticed X, Y, and Z. Is that true? And gauging their response when they would always say cannot tell you, especially with ICANN. There is a rule that if a registry tells a registrar something of a material nature, they have to publish it for all to see. So, when I would say hey, I am noticing this bandwidth issue during the drop, they would often come back and say no comment, or they would come back and say okay, I can tell you what is going on, but keep in mind we are going to have to publish a notice to all registrars: be aware of X, Y, ad Z.

Michael: Yeah.

Chris: And then, at that point, sometimes I would say: “How about the weather,” because then I would know I was on to something and keep it from being disclosed. I would say you know what. Never mind. This is not really an issue. But coding it was the hard part.

Michael: Why was that so hard?

Chris: Well, it is black box development. You would write your code. You would run it against the registry at the drop. You only get to test your code in production once a day because there is only one drop. Analyze the results, figure out what you might have done, and then change it the next day. It is test and measure. How well did I do? Maybe you have to look at your competitors. How well did they do? And being a case where you do not know what is going on, on the other side, you cannot just take one reasonably good day and say I have cracked this nut. I mean you need weeks and months of data to see do I have a trend. I mean there might be a day when your competitor is offline because of the network error.

Michael: Right.

Chris: And you think oh my goodness, my change yesterday is succeeding incredibly. No, your competitor was just off the air.

Michael: All right. And the drops have changed significantly since the very early days, when you solved this problem. So, what we are going to talk about in this interview is what is the current process, what are the factors that can change from registrar to registrar, and then what happens at the end of drop and ways that investors and entrepreneurs can go in and look at it, because I get contacted all the time. Not only by investors who say I am watching this domain name. I want to see what happens to it, but entrepreneurs who may have the .NET, the .IO, or whatever, or a hyphen, and they want to get the .COM and they see it is coming up for auction, but they are not really sure of the process. Most of the time, I help them realize that it is actually not going to expire, that that previous registrant is just going to renew it, but we are going to talk about those different functions.

So, Chris, I want you to bring up, in your own window, if you have that ICANN domain name life cycle graphic. I am going to embed it underneath our interview so people can just scroll up on the page and look at the graphic, but I want to walk through each of these phases and just get an understanding of them. They start off pretty understandable. A domain name is available to start.

Chris: I am brining up my secondary monitor.

Michael: Whoa. Okay, cool. A domain name is available. So, I want to buy MichaelCygerRocks.com. I know. We could talk about .ROCKS. I should preface this by saying the graphic that we are going to talk about is a gTLD graphic. It applies to .COM. It applies to .NET. It applies to .ROCKS. It applies to .CAR. It applies to .SHOP. Any gTLD is what this graphic applies to. It does not apply to country code top-level domains.

Chris: For the most part. There are a few that try to play by the same rules.

Michael: There are a couple of country codes that try to play by the same rules as the gTLDs?

Chris: And some are close, but they are not mandated to. They make up their own rules.

Michael: Great point. So, we are just talking about gTLDs – .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, and then all the new ones. .AUTO. .SHOP. .APP. All those new ones. Okay, so a domain name is available for registration. I go and I pay my ten dollars at GoDaddy or 14 dollars that GoDaddy.com or UniRegistry.com, or any registrar in the world, and that becomes now registered, and you can register a domain name. So, that is the first phase. Registered for between one and ten years, ten years being the maximum, one year being the minimum.

If I choose not to renew that domain name, it then, one year later, goes to expired status. What happens in expired status, Chris?

Chris: Technically nothing. When it hits that time, the big thing that happens is the other guy who wants it gets excited.

Michael: Right, because they do a WhoIS lookup and they see expired today’s date. It is like yes, I am going to get it.

Chris: Right. So, if you have auto renew turned on at any registrar, theoretically you never hit that date because they auto-renewed it a week or two or even a month ahead of time. They want your money. And if they renew it a month ahead of time, that is fine. You still get the month that you paid for at the end of your first year. It just extends that date out by a year. When that date actually hits, most registries will do what is called a presumptive renewal. They will bump the year up anyway. Now, at the registrar, they know that the name has expired and their Terms of Service will kick into play, but the registry might say we are going to presume that it is going to be renewed and kick the year. That keeps it from actually expiring at the registry.

Michael: Why would your registry do that? I do not understand why that would be something useful for them to even do since the registrar is responsible for selling domain names.

Chris: Accident of history. Presumptive renewal kept the database from saying oh, I have got to delete his name.

Michael: Okay.

Chris: So, there is a lot of stuff. All these things in life, where you just take it for granted and then you find out why it is really that way and it is like something from one hundred years ago.

Michael: Yeah, because they screwed up something in the past, so they did not want that to happen, so they put a rule in place, or something like that. Yeah.

Chris: Right, but it does not happen everywhere. So, yeah, you might see that the name has expired. You might even come back a week later and see well, wait a minute. It expired a week ago. Why is it still there? And the answer is it is in that zero to 45-day renewal period.

Michael: Right, and in the graphic that is called the auto renew grace period that can extend between zero and 45 days.

Chris: Right, and that auto is that extra year kick. That is where auto is going to come from.

Michael: Yeah, and so during that period of time, the way I understand it, and correct me if I am wrong, is the registrar will actually will turn off all services to the domain name. So, your emails will bounce. Your website will not resolve. If you are using sub-domains, those will not work. They are trying to tell the registrant, the person who has leased that domain name, that it is no longer being paid for.

Chris: So, there is a myriad of things that can happen there. You can make a grid of what is going to work and what is not going to work, and it is on a registrar-to-registrar basis. Some registrars might change nothing. You are still in the zone. Everything is still resolving. Life is beautiful. They are barraging you with emails, saying hey, your name is expired. Are you going to do something? Some might turn it off. Some might send it to parking. Some might turn your mail service off. Some might not. It is really what do the Terms of Service at your registrar say to tell you what is going to happen. And if you are a domain investor, you probably want to know this, but I am also going to say if you are a domain investor, I should hope you never have to find out. You are going to renew your names or not, and if you do not, you do not care. I mean you are going to let the name go.

Michael: Right. Yeah, definitely. And the zero to 45 days has perplexed me in the past, Chris. Why is it so up in the air and who decides whether it is zero days or 45 days?

Chris: The registrar does. So, the registrar can send an explicit delete any time they want. A registrar who does not want to upset their customers is not going to send an explicit delete on day zero.

Michael: Right, because then they have no opportunity to pull it back at that point.

Chris: Well, you can, but it is expensive. But if you issue the explicit delete on day zero, your customer comes back and says hey, I was on vacation. Give me a break, and the registrar would say well, you could have had auto-renew, and the guy says but I did not.

Michael: It is not a great way to treat your customers.

Chris: Exactly. Exactly. So, that explicit delete might happen at some point, but the registrar might put in their Terms of Service: look, we are going to give you two weeks here. We are going to try to bug the heck out of you and say do you want to delete this name or do you want to renew it. I mean some registrars might say hey, if you want to delete it, let us know and we will delete it. I mean this is the point at which people get emails from other people, saying hey, I see your name is expired. Do you plan on renewing it? If not, can I renew it for you and take it?

Michael: Right. Yeah, some investors have done that in the past. Exactly.

Chris: Yeah, sometimes that works and sometimes the person says, “Oh, really? He would pay.”

Michael: Yeah, exactly. So, the zero to 45 days is registrar to registrar. So, if I wanted to know what is the policy at GoDaddy.com, for example, I have to go to GoDaddy.com, scroll to the bottom, look for the Terms of Services for registrants, and then read the section that says how they are going to treat my domain in the auto renew grace period.

Chris: Yes. So, I mean people always complain nobody reads the Terms of Service, and I totally sympathize. On the other hand, they are there and every registrar is going to have them.

Michael: Well, if the people do not want to read it, that is fine. I do not read most of the Terms of Service either, but I am trying to point that out because if somebody is listening to this show or they are watching this show and they are like I do not know how my domain is going to be treated if I do not have auto renew, which I usually do not, and my credit card seems to be bounce and for some reason emails do not get delivered to me. How much time do I have? Go to your registrar, look for the Terms of Service, and read the section that describes how they treat domain names once they move from expired into the auto renew grace period, because it could be some number from zero to 45 and it is usually not going to be 45 days. And we are going to run through a few explicit examples during this show to show you what happens in that time period, but it is going to be some period of time.

Once it leaves auto renew grace period. So, I am assuming that each registrar is going to set their own policy. So, let’s say I run a registrar, ABC. I should not even use that example now that Google owns ABC everything. BDF.com.

Chris: The example that I like to give is I call it Bill’s Bait and Sushi.

Michael: Yeah, Bill’s Bait and Sushi runs a registrar and I set the policy at five days, let’s say. The auto renew grace period. Five days. So, I am going to program my registrar so that on day five I am going to issue that explicit delete command.

Chris: Yes.

Michael: Okay, that is the way it works.

Chris: And when that happens, you have got that domain life cycle graphic. What that does – I am looking at it here – is it is going to advance the arrow to redemption grace period at that point.

Michael: Okay, which often is referred to as the redemption grace period (RGP). And at that point, that moves the domain name from renewal or potential renewal. I am not even sure what the ICANN status flag is for auto renew grace period.

Chris: Yeah, I am not sure what the flag is either. It is expired at that point.

Michael: But then it moves it to this redemption grace period, which is also known as pending delete.

Chris: No, it is known as redemption grace period.

Michael: Redemption grace period.

Chris: Pending delete is going to happen next.

Michael: Okay, so redemption grace period. I am looking at this ICANN graphic with my bad eyes and it is saying AKA pending delete – restorable.

Chris: Yeah, I am looking at that too and they should not have done that because pending delete all by itself means something else. Look at the next arrow.

Michael: Yeah, pending delete. Exactly. Okay, so let’s just call it redemption grace period. I am glad I ask you because then people might get confused if they are reading the graphic or not. Redemption grace period (RGP).

Chris: RGP. It is 30 days.

Michael: 30 days. What happens during that 30 days?

Chris: Nothing. It sits there. It is out of the zone, and it just sits there for 30 days, waiting to see if anybody is going to do anything.

Michael: Out of the zone. So, if I do a WhoIS lookup during that RGP period, I will not see a WhoIS record.

Chris: You will see a WhoIS record. When I say out of the zone, I am speaking specifically it is out of the DNS zone. It will not resolve.

Michael: Yeah, okay, and I can do a WhoIS lookup and it will say something like redemption grace period or something like that, and it is 30 days. So, ICANN is basically saying registrars, you can do whatever you want in the auto renew grace period. You can decide if you want it to be zero days or 45 days, but once it hits this redemption grace period, we are going to mandate that you just sit on it for 30 days. And why would ICANN want to mandate registrars to do that?

Chris: Because enough people complained that registrars either deliberately or not deliberately accelerated any auto renew and it immediately went to dro, and boom, it was gone. Somebody scooped it up. Consumers, to some degree, complained hard enough to ICANN: we want some kind of speed bump, and so this is the speed bump.

Michael: Yeah, and so let’s say I am Ben’s Bait and Sushi registrar. I register a domain name for a year. I leave the face of the earth. Head up to Iceland. I do not get any signal. They cannot auto renew. It goes through their, say, five-day auto renew grace period. Then we enter the 30-day redemption grace period. I come back from vacation on day 28. I have two days left on the redemption grace period. Is there a way for me to get that domain name back if I really want it?

Chris: Absolutely, because in that 30 days, you can say I want it back and you will experience sticker shock.

Michael: What do you mean?

Chris: Well, the registry is going to charge you money, which is passed on to the registrar to pass on to you. Registrar is going to tack on some money because there is a bit of overhead involved in getting a name out of RGP. And the cost is high enough that it dissuades people from using it as a safety net. It was never intended to be a safety net like that. So, you could be looking at upwards of three hundred dollars to get the name out of RGP.

Michael: Okay, and some people may be thinking wow, Chris, it is going to be exorbitant, but then you just threw out three hundred bucks. If I am operating a business, three hundred bucks, like yeah, I should not have let it expire, but I am playing that three hundred bucks to get my website back up and running today.

Chris: It is a life tax.

Michael: Yeah, it is a learning lesson. So, a registrant can renew the domain name all the way up to the redemption grace period exit, which is 30 days for that for that portion of the graphic. And they should contact their registrar to find out what the process is, who is then going to have to go to the registry to implement it. It is a manual process, so they have got to hustle to get it done.

Chris: It is not quite manual. I mean everything these days is automated, but there are other hoops that have to be jumped through, and the price reflects that a little bit, but it also reflects the fact that they do not want people letting things getting to RGP.

Michael: Right. It’s a fail safe, not a safety net. So, once you exit the redemption grace period of 30 days, the graphic says it moves into pending delete for five days. What happens during that phase?

Chris: So, that is the phase that I always like to say only God and a court of competent jurisdiction can get the name out.

Michael: Somebody at VeriSign knows what happens for that in .COMs.

Chris: Yeah, well, the point being that I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen a name enter pending delete and not drop. There have been a couple times where it got there by mistake because a name had been stolen. Couple times where a court did come along and say whoa, hang on a second. Trademark arguments and such. It happens so rarely that I can remember when it happened.

Michael: Yeah.

Chris: During that five days, the name essentially sits in limbo, pending being dropped.

Michael: So, it is just another five days for the domain to sit in limbo. An act of God could pull it back out of pending delete, but it has got to be significant and it is most likely going to drop. So, it allows people, once they see a domain entering pending delete, to prepare for the drop at the end of that five days.

Chris: Correct. You know it is going to drop.

Michael: Yeah, okay. And then, at the end of that five days, the last phase is released. The domain name is available. I could go to Ben’s registrar and type in the domain name and register it.

Chris: Yeah.

Michael: Technically.

Chris: You know you just opened up a can of worms.

Michael: I know.

Chris: So, in the perfect world, sure.

Michael: All right, and now we are going to talk about why there is not a perfect world in so many cases. All right, so let’s walk through this. So, I want to walk through three scenarios with you, Chris, and I want to pick some registrars because they are popular, a lot of people want the domain names at these registrars, and then we are going to use them as an example that other people can learn from.

And the three registrars that I want to walk through are Uniregistry, which currently does not have an auction partner, and we are going to talk about why that it is important and walk through the process. Then we are going to talk about GoDaddy, which is the largest registrar in the world. Not because you work for them. Just because they are the largest I want to talk about it, because they have their own unique process by which domains go to auction. And then I want to talk about Network Solutions because they have some of the oldest domain names in existence and many of which people want and they are partnered with NameJet. And then I will share a resource that allows you to then look at any registrar and try and figure out which ones are like these and then how the drop works.

So, I want to walk through, day by day, what happens to a .COM, which is just an example. We could talk about any gTLD, but we are going to just use .COM as an example right now at Uniregistry, which I verified before this interview does not have an auction partner on the day of this interview. I should also point that auction partnerships change. Relationships in the industry change. If you are watching this show two years after it first aired, you should verify the data or ask a question in the comments and I will try and clarify it.

Okay, so Uniregistry. I go to Uniregistry.com a year ago. I register a domain name. I register it for one year. The registration is coming up for renewal. They are of course going to send me emails if it is not on auto renew and ask me to renew it. Once it hits the expiration date of the domain name, it enters the auto renew grace period. Do you have any idea how long that grace period is for domains at Uniregistry?

Chris: I do not know off the top of my head. I mean I can go off and look at every registry and see how long they do it. I have not put that in my brain only because I am not a domainer. I made the conscious choice ten years ago not to be a domainer since I was working on the drop software. I really have a hard time with conflicts of interest. I do not like them. Very easy for me just to say I cannot have one because I do not play.

Michael: I appreciate that. I went to Uniregistry and I looked it up, and I read their Terms of Service and I believe unless I am incorrect that their auto renew grace period is 30 days. That means that for 30 days Uniregistry will hold my domain name. May or may not turn off services or what have you and will try and get in contact with me to renew that domain name.

Chris: Right. So, all the stuff that they do on their end is their choice, and what that is telling you is for 30 days they will do nothing with the registry.

Michael: Okay. And then, once that 30 days auto renew grace period at Uniregistry expires, it then goes to redemption grace period for 30 days.

Chris: Correct.

Michael: So, again, what happens during the RGP period for a domain name at Uniregistry?

Chris: So, what they do on their end, again, will be in the Terms of Service and they will say what they are going to do. When that 30 days is up, they are going to issue an explicit delete to shave off that extra 15 days before RGP. When it hits RGP, it is going to go out of the zone. Whether they have it in their zone or not now becomes a technical issue. And on a registrar-to-registrar basis, different things can happen at the DNS. Caching might keep it live for a couple days even though it is not in the registry anymore. None of this should really matter too much if you are a domainer, if you are an investor, because at this point, if you are experiencing these things, I am going to presume you do not care. You have let the domain go.

If you are freaking out right now, you are going to go renew it and it is going to be resolving the next day. So, what each registrar does on an individual basis technically in the DNS: do not concern yourself.

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Michael: Yeah, okay, and then it goes for five days into pending delete. Then, at the end of pending delete, correct me if I am wrong, Chris, the registry then removes the entire domain name from the registry zone file and anybody can go to a registrar and register the domain name.

Chris: Correct, and this is all presuming that, as we are talking about Uniregistry here, there is no auction partner, so they have no intention of doing anything with the name other than shepherding it through this process.

Michael: Exactly. All right, and Uniregistry is a relatively new registrar, so maybe they will change their process in the future, but this is the process today. Now let’s run through Network Solutions. I said GoDaddy we are going to run through second, but I think it makes sense to talk about Network Solutions next because a lot of the great domain names that are registered in the ’90s were at Network Solutions because they had a lock on the .COM registration process. I went to Network Solutions and I read the Terms of Service and I tried to find out how long that auto renew grace period was, and I thought they said it was 35 days. Let’s just say I am not a lawyer, but I am close to a rocket scientist, but I still did not have a good idea of what the auto renew grace period was.

I thought it said 35 days, but then in doing more research and looking at domain names that were listed on their auction partner, I thought that it actually goes to auction at about day 35. So, let’s work our way back from that, Chris. If I see a domain name that expired at Network Solutions that is going into an auction at NameJet, which is the auction partner for Network Solutions at day 35, how many days does that leave for each of the phases before it goes?

Chris: Well, and it can get confusing because you are posing this as an either or. It can be both. So, they could send it to auction the first day if they wanted to, and they could say you have got 35 days in the presumptive renewal phase. You have 30 days in the RGP, but on day one we are going to send it to auction and somebody is going to bid it up and on day six maybe we are going to close that auction and somebody has won the name, but they do not get that name yet. They cannot transfer the name to them because you are still in these periods. It is entirely possible for the auction house to say this is the guy who is going to get it should it make it all the way to the end here.

So, you could see that it goes in at day 35. It goes into RGP at that point, the auction happens, we wait for the end of RGP, and they say okay, the guy did not use the redemption grace. We are going to pay the money to renew it as the registrar and then, according to our Terms of Service, that allows us to now go to the guy who won the auction and say here you go. The name never went into pending delete and it never dropped.

Michael: So, let me ask you this then, Chris. If I run a registrar and I set my auto renew grace period to zero days, as a registrar, I have to hold that domain name. I can sell it, but I cannot actually deliver it to anybody else for the full 30-day redemption grace period. Is that correct?

Chris: It is going to go through redemption grace. Now, this is an agreement with ICANN that actually I would want to go back and look at again. This is one of the few places where I have not looked at it recently and I am not one hundred percent sure that I am right. I am pretty sure it has got to go through the whole thing. There may be an out where they could say in the Terms of Service: on day 20 of RGP, we reserve the right to give it to somebody else and you cannot argue with us. That may be the case. I am actually not sure because I have never bought a name. I deal more with the technical side of it.

Michael: Right, which is what I am trying to get into. This technical side. Just by listening to this show, you can hear how confusing it is if you have a technical person like yourself, who has worked with the drop in the past, and somebody who is not afraid to read legalese and it is still not clear to both of us after going through this exactly how many days it is. But I want to take a step back and say that what are these auction house partners for anybody that does not understand what the process is. Let me put it in a nutshell.

There are basically auction houses that will take domain names and auction them to the highest bidder. They use that technology with a registrar who wants to partner and then sell the domain names. And so, if a registrar says we are just going to go through the process and let the domains drop like normal, that is fine, but some of these registrars realize that these assets could have value, especially the ones that are really old. And if we partner with this auction house, then we can take the domain names at some part of the after expiration, have the auction house auction them off, and then, at the appropriate time, we will deliver the domain name to that new buyer if it comes to the point that the registrar is allowed to deliver that expired domain name to them.

Chris: Right, and this is where we want to point out that it is a zero sum game. Whichever registrar is the registrar of record for that expiring name, they get to choose how this is done. They get to choose which auction house they use. I mean theoretically, they could put it at all the auction houses and say whichever one gives us the biggest bid we use. I do not think anybody does that.

Michael: No.

Chris: But at the end of the day, it is the registrar who gets to make that decision. What is the disposition of this name?

Michael: Right. I will put a link below, but if you go to Google and you type in auction partners of domain name registrars, you will see a matrix that I maintain on Domain Sherpa that shows the largest registrars around the world and if they have an auction house partner, who that partner is. So, you will see Network Solutions on the left is partnered with NameJet, and you will see that Mark Monitor, the company that does domain name registrations for large companies, does not have a domain name auction partner. There is none. So, if a domain name expires, it just goes through the regular expiration process. And you will see Moniker uses SnapNames and you will see Name Scout uses Pool.

And then a bunch of people have asked questions like who does so and so use and who does so and so. And likely if they are small registrars, they have not built a way to auction off domain names with any large auction house, so they probably just followed the regular expiration process.

But back to the spreadsheet that I had put together here. It looks, and I was not able to verify this before our interview, Chris, that at about 35 days in, after an expiration date for a domain name that is at a registrar that partners with NameJet, like Network Solutions. At about 35 days after expiration date, it goes to auction if there is more than one bid on the domain name. If there is only one bid and the auction partner is able to secure the domain name, then that person will likely get it for the 39 dollars or 69-dollar price at NameJet, depending on the type of domain.

Chris: A lot of places just call that a backorder.

Michael: A backorder, right. And if there is more than one bid, like say there is 60 bids on it with that minimum 69-dollar bid, then it actually goes into an auction process at NameJet for three days. And I am trying to generalize. There are a lot of rules here where no one person can say that every domain name will ever work that way because the registrar decides. It may go through their automated process, but then they may actually want to pull it back for some reason. Not in the case with Network Solutions, but I have heard of registrars actually pulling back domain names that they want to maintain in their own portfolio of high value domain names.

Chris: Yes, that can happen.

Michael: That can happen, or they can do like a sweetheart deal with somebody that they know through business dealings and they can sell it themselves, or they can let it go through their auction partner, Network Solutions in this case with NameJet, and then auction it off. So, a lot of things can happen. If it is a medium domain name, it is not a crappy domain name and it is not an ultra premium domain name, it is likely going to go through the Network Solutions to NameJet auction and be auctioned off, and then delivered.

Chris: Yeah, and remember there is always the back channel. You see a name that is up for auction. You know it is in RGP. You see that the top bidder has bid five thousand dollars. You would like the name for three thousand. Find out who owns it. You contact them. You do not tell them there is a five-thousand-dollar bid at some auction house and you say hey, I will give you three thousand dollars for this name. It is a lot more than I would normally pay, but this, that and the other thing. And the guy says three thousand dollars. Yeah, awesome, having no clue that somebody is on the hook for five thousand should they let it go.

Michael: Yeah, exactly, and that is why WhoIS historical tools, like Domain IQ and Domain Tools, comes in of value, because then you can go in and look up who actually owned the domain name prior to it expiring, because often times they will update the WhoIS to say pending delete or redemption grace period and they will list the registrar’s name in that WhoIS contact information.

Chris: Right, and then actually getting in touch with that person is often like pulling teeth.

Michael: Yeah, exactly. All right, so that is the Network Solutions piece. And if it enters into auction at about 35 days, we might say that maybe the auto renew grace period is five days and then the redemption grace period is 30 days.

Chris: I am not quite sure I follow.

Michael: If it enters into an auction at NameJet, after 35 days, because I tracked a couple of domain names and it looks like they start auction at NameJet at day 35. Is it fair to say that if NameJet is auctioning it off and able to deliver the domain name at the conclusion of auction, that they would auction it off with a five-day auto renew grace period and a 30-day redemption grace period?

Chris: You could say that or you could say at day 35 they issue the explicit delete and the 30-day RGP begins immediately at the same time that the auction begins. This is a case of, to find that out, you could either ask them, because I mean that is not going to be in the Terms of Service. So, you could ask them and they might tell you, or you could just pick a couple example domains and see exactly what happens. When you do a WhoIS at the registry, you will see what the flags are, and then you can see what state it is in.

Michael: But the redemption grace period is always 30 days you said.

Chris: It is supposed to be always 30 days.

Michael: So, if I want that domain name, I cannot get it before the end of that redemption grace period.

Chris: I believe so, although this is the one place where you are making me second guess myself, so I was not sure. I would actually go back and look and see if a registrar has the ability to say this name is in RGP. Keep in mind there is a way to exit RGP. Pay for the name.

Michael: Oh.

Chris: So, it is entirely possible that they may never allow the name to hit RGP by actually paying for it because in the Terms of Service it says that they are allowed to do that.

Michael: So, wait a second. So, if I am a registrar and I am partnered with an auction house and I deliver that domain name at the end of my stated auto renew grace period, like 35 days let’s say, because I want to be a good registrar for my customers who are registering domain names, and then I give to the auction house. They get enough bids on it that it is going to be worth me to renew it as the registrar. I can just renew it right then and then let it start the auction, and I am technically the owner until I deliver it to the new owner.

Chris: Correct, and this is a policy issue that you are making me think what didn’t I prepare for in this interview. This is the one thing where you are bringing this up and I am going yeah, I am actually not sure, because I have personally never been in this situation nor have I ever dealt with any domainers that I consult for. I educate them well enough ahead of time that they never get into this position.

Michael: Right. Well, but this is the thing. If you want to get a domain name, you need to understand how that registrar actually works. And it is not the registrar you are at. It is some entirely different registrar likely, because which investors are paying Network Solutions 35 dollars per year for a .COM domain name? Not too many that I know.

Chris: Really.

Michael: Okay, so what I appreciate you bringing up is that there are a multitude of options that can happen. Even though this seems to be defined well, there are exceptions, like somebody can actually renew the domain name during that redemption grace period and potentially pull it out of that and then deliver the domain name at the end of the auction. So, that is an example of Network Solutions. It could be any domain name registrar and any auction house. We can see that that can happen.

Now let’s talk about GoDaddy because GoDaddy Is a unique beast. They are the largest domain name registrar in the world and they have a lot of domain names there. At GoDaddy, I went and read the Terms of Service and it says the auto renew grace period is eight days. And then I assumed that the redemption grace period was 30 days, and then the pending delete was five days because that is what the ICANN graphic says. But I will include a link to GoDaddy’s policy because they are very clear about what happens on each day after the expiration date and they are very clear that an auction can start on a domain name that expires at GoDaddy using GoDaddy’s own auction platform on day 25.

Chris: Okay. This is where I say that I am glad I am the technical guy and not the policy guy because it confuses even me. Not to say that this is bad in any way. It’s actually politics. ICANN gets involved and makes all of these rules and there are negotiations, and this is what we are left with. It works. It is confusing.

Michael: Yeah, and GoDaddy auctions a domain name and there can be a winner of the auction, and I have heard multiple cases where the previous registrant of the domain name can actually pay the fee – I think it is 60 dollars – and get the domain name reinstated or renewed for another year.

Chris: Yeah, the consumer has protections and the whole conept here is that when it goes into auction, a reasonable person is going to say the odds of that happening are pretty slim. The fact that you have heard of this and it is notable speaks to how rarely it happens. Typically when a name gets to this point, the registrant is going to let it go.

Michael: Yeah, good point.

Chris: And you also have to realize that you cannot wait until one second after the flag drops into pending delete because at that point you cannot get it back. So, you have to, at some point, say we are pretty darn sure that this name is going to be let go, and so we can facilitate its transfer before it gets locked out. And in the unlikely event that the original owner comes and grabs it, that is just the way the system works. You are not going to lose your money. If you put down money for that name, it is not going to be taken from you with a so sorry.

Michael: Right. And if you did win the auction and pay for the auction and it does get pulled back by the last registrant, you get your money back. It is not an ideal situation, but it is not like you are going to lose your money. You may lose access to your money for a few days while they sort it all out, but that is what happens at GoDaddy because they run their own auction house, so they take the domain names that are going through the expiration process. They will auction it off.

If there is nobody that puts a bid on a domain name that is in expiration at the GoDaddy auctions, what then happens at the end of the process, Chris?

Chris: If nobody buys the name, it is going to expire.

Michael: It is going to expire.

Chris: This is true of absolutely everybody. If nobody pulls it back and nobody buys it, the name becomes available again and it drops, and that is where the frothy fun begins.

Michael: All right, and we are going to get into that. So, just to reiterate, what are the differences between .COM and other gTLDs like .NET, .ORG, .XYZ, .TOP, and .CLUB?

Chris: None really.

Michael: None.

Chris: At the fundamental level, all gTLDs are pretty much equal. The new ones that are coming out are having all the rules normalized with .COM. There are differences between the TLDs in other things, like registry premium names, where the registry of these new TLDs can say this name costs a lot of money because it is a dictionary word. You do not find that in .COM because, well, they are all taken.

Michael: Yeah.

Chris: So, those are some differences, but when it comes to the life cycle of domains, they are trying very hard to keep everything normalized.

Michael: Now, how do I, as an investor or an entrepreneur who wants a .IO for my tech startup company let’s say? How do I track the life cycle of a country code top-level domain, like .DE or .CN or .NL or .RU?

Chris: Yeah, black magic again. You go read the Terms of Service at the registry as well as the registrar. This is often a case where you might send a support email to your auction house of note and say, “Do you support .IO,” and they will tell you we do or we do not because and they might tell you why. So, when it comes to dropping names, for example, there are different rules for country codes that do not apply to gTLDs. One of them notably: we never played in the drop when I was writing the software for .UK because they had rules that said if you slam us in the drop, we are going to penalize you as a registrar. We do not like the drop. We do not like you pounding us, so cut it out.

Many registrars then sold .UK drops at a premium because they had to be very careful. They could not slam. You got penalized for every ad command that failed. So, each CCTLD is kind of different.

Michael: Okay, so go read the terms at the registry of that CCTLD and then the registrar where you want to buy it.

Chris: Right.

Michael: All right, so now let’s talk about a domain name that is expiring. It has an auction house partner for the registrar, but it does not get any bids at all. So, we are going to wait. Let’s say that I have spotted a diamond in the rough. Nobody else realizes it is a diamond. It goes through the entire expiration process and drops. How do I grab that domain name?

Chris: Okay, so there are two scenarios here that we will take the same time. One is a name dropping and a registrar that does not have an auction partner, and a name dropping at a registrar that does. So, if they do, you could be the only one bidding on it. 15.99. 29.99. Whatever. No auction happens and they say okay, we are going to pull it back before it actually drops and give it to you. In the case where there are no bids and there is an auction partner, at that point, the auction partner is irrelevant because there are no bids, or there is no auction partner. It hits the five-day pending delete. Those lists are published, so we know five days ahead of time what the names are that are going to drop.

And on day six, as these names move through the system, they become available. And the way they become available, if you know anything about database programming, it is like saying select every domain that expires today or that hits that day six today and set its status to available. And they drop an order and that is only of interest to drop catchers, but they drop in a particular order. It starts at 11AM Pacific time, so two ‘o clock Eastern US time, and that is whatever daylight savings happens to be in effect or not in effect. It is always two ‘o clock.

And then it takes the better part of a couple hours for them all to drop. You are looking between 60 and 80 thousand names a day. Some days have significantly more. Accident of history, and this is kind of interesting. There have been days when the drop did not happen, and I am talking about .COM in this case. VeriSign had a systems failure. Drop did not happen. They said, “Well, we are going to drop all the names tomorrow. We are going to double up.” Well, as a result of that, more names are registered on that day. A year from then, when names start expiring, there are significantly more expiring then.

Michael: Right.

Chris: And I call that the power outage baby boom. It is the exact same theory of why you have lots of babies born on the same day. Well, look, nine months earlier, there was a power failure or a snowstorm or whatever.

Michael: Yeah.

Chris: So, a certain number are going to drop on a particular day. The drop catchers are going to attempt to pick up those names for people who want them. So, when you go to an auction house, you can say I do not want to bid on a name that you have a registrar partner for. I want to bid on a name that you do not have a registrar partner for in the event that that name should actually drop. And if the name is going to drop, it is because either nobody bid on it some place else – slim chance, but not zero -, or it is coming from a registrar that does not have an auction partner, so you know it is going to drop.

Michael: Right.

Chris: And then that auction house who is also a drop catcher is going to say all right, we will try to get it for you. And when the name starts dropping, they do what I like to call the world’s largest legal denial of service attack, pounding the crud out of the registry with ad commands, trying to get that name. And it is truly first come, first serve. The first credential, the first connection to the registry that gets that ad command in after the name has become available will get it. And when I say commands, these are what is called EPP. It is the protocol by which registrars and registries communicate. You and I do not get to do this. Domain investors do not get to do this. This is a registrar acting on your behalf.

Michael: Right, and so when the news comes out that so and so drop catching service just bought ten more registrar credentials, what does that mean for them?

Chris: An arms race. So, the registries will give each registrar a certain amount of bandwidth. A certain amount of connections with which to annoy them with ad commands. VeriSign started. I think it was we got 40 connections with no bandwidth limiting. Then immediately they saw what was going on, so we were bandwidth limited. Then it was 20 connections with less bandwidth. It got all the way down. I think ten, four. Four is a magic number now. They are essentially just trying to not have to buy more bandwidth for this whole drop thing.

So, what drop catchers would do is they would say okay. Well, I just need more registrars then, because this all aggregates. So, at first, they were going to other registrars, saying hey, I will tell you what. If you let me use your connections to drop catch, I will give you X percent of whatever I sell a name that I catch in your credential for. Then Pool came along with their model and they said you know what. That is not quite fair because that is kind of random. If you let us use your credential, we will give you X percent of every name that we catch because it is a big pool and we will split this up.

So, instead of 20 percent of the value, if I catch at your credential, you get one percent of everything. May or may not be more money, but it is more consistent income I suppose. And if you like that model, you went with them. And so, it got to a point where there was what we called cred proliferation, where the different drop catchers would try to get more and more credentials to try to beat each other, and your success was defined by how many credentials you had, which was how many bullets you could fire versus how good your software was, which was how accurate your gun is. If your gun is really accurate, you need fewer bullets. If your gun is terrible, you need more bullets.

Michael: And if you had a great gun and more bullets, you are going to win the race, right?

Chris: Absolutely, and that is why one day, you saw that eNom all of a sudden had all of these registrars named eNom 491 and eNom 492, eNom 493, and people were going who are these registrars. They were drop-catching registrars. And at the time, it was quite profitable. Now, with more names being held back going straight to auction, not dropping, not quite as profitable, holding on to these registrars, which costs money every year. There is a price to performance curve that you have to look at.

Michael: Definitely. So, let’s take the example at Network Solutions. A great domain name is expiring. Let’s say it goes over to NameJet. NameJet says it is going to auction. A bunch of pre-bids come in and then the registrar says yeah, let it go. It then goes to auction. There is a winning bidder. NameJet shares some of that revenue generated back with the registrar and then delivers the domain name to the new customer that was the high auction.

Now, if nobody bids on the domain name, then the registrar actually does not release it to NameJet. It goes through the expiration process, and then it enters that five-day pending delete. If I am an investor or an entrepreneur and I am like oh, I just missed my opportunity, I can actually go to NameJet and put in a drop catch bid I guess to use their drop catching service to be the first to grab the domain name once it actually is deleted from the zone file of the registry.

Chris: Correct, but I want to add. You are saying NameJet in all cases here. When a name is going to drop, any advantage to being tied to the registrar of record is gone. There is no advatage at NameJet for drop catching a name at any registrar versus any other, whether they are partners or not. Once it is going to drop, it is going to drop. So, at this point, since it is a zero sum game again, only one drop catcher can get it. It is in your best interest, if you want that name, to put in a bid at every single drop catcher and then step back and wait and see who got it.

Michael: Is that the case at GoDaddy?

Chris: It is the case everywhere.

Michael: GoDaddy offers a service to drop catch domain names, but before it actually enters pending delete, I thought maybe if it does not go to auction and I use their drop catching service, maybe that gives me some advantage to get the domain name without it going through pending delete, and that is not the case.

Chris: Well, it is, but the terminology is wrong. You are not using the drop catching service. What you are doing is you are putting in a back order saying that since you have access to this at the registrar of record, I want it before it is ever going to drop. There is no difference there between what we have been talking about for the past half hour. Once it hits pending delete, it is no longer a would you go grab this for me and give it to me if I am the only bidder or the high bidder. At that point, it goes from that to drop catching.

Michael: Got it.

Chris: Two completely different things, even though you might use the same software platform, like GoDaddy’s aftermarket, Afternic, NameJet, or whatever. They might use the same platform, but it is drop catching at that point. When it drops, everybody is on a level playing field.

Michael: Okay. So, on Domain Sherpa, I have a list of drop catching services. I actually entitled this List of Domain Name Backorder Services. Is that technically incorrect? Should it be called list of domain name drop catching services?

Chris: Yeah. Now, they may also be backordering services, but that is not what we are talking about now.

Michael: Right. Once it has fully gone through the pending delete, that five-day period, and it is released from the registry, the first service to go in and grab it once it is being deleted or once it is available is going to be the winner of that domain name. And this list includes BackorderZone, DropCatch.com. Dynadot has one. GoDaddy has one. Hexonet. NameCatch. NameJet. Park.io for certain TLDs. Pheenix. Pool. SnapNames. Those are all drop catching services that could be called backorders as well.

Chris: Yeah. See, I would play the semantic game and say do not call it backorders because backorder means something else.

Michael: Okay, and I appreciate that. For somebody in the industry, what are you calling it? So, every drop catching service has the same chance theoretically to grab an expired domain name.

Chris: It is a game theory issue, where you can say that if everybody is playing with perfect knowledge, meaning they know how the drop works and their software is all equally efficient, then your chances of getting that name are one over N, where N is the number of credentials being used.

Michael: Right, but that is not the case in real life.

Chris: No, in real life, the software that everybody runs is of different efficiencies. And as a domain investor, you probably do not have to worry about that too much because like I said, at this point, if you really want the name, if you want to play in the drop, put in your bid everywhere. You have nothing to lose. I do not believe there is a single drop catcher who says if we do not get it, you do not get use of your money. It is not like they say it costs ten bucks to bid, and if we do not get it, you are out your ten bucks.

Michael: So, there are some that say pay us 14.99 or 49 dollars, or whatever that drop catch order is. If we do not catch it, then you can use that for another drop catch in the future.

Chris: Right, and I mean that works fine for me, especially if you are going to be going after a lot of names.

Michael: But it does not work fine for me, especially if I am not going after a lot of names or their service is just really bad and they are never going to catch anything for me.

Chris: Yeah, in that case, you have made your business choice.

Michael: Right. Okay, so there are some that do that. There are others that say free backorder with a credit card on file. And then, to your point, you are saying everywhere that offers a free drop catch backorder, do it because it cannot hurt you. If they do not get it, they are not going to charge you.

Chris: Right, but keep in mind that most of them have Terms of Service that say, like with a credit card on file, should you be the only one to order this name and should we get it, you are on the hook to buy it. You cannot then say oh, no, forget it. So, if the cost is 60 bucks and they catch the name, expect your card to be charged 60 bucks and you to get the name.

Michael: Right. Yeah, exactly. But for example, GoDaddy. It is $24.98 if they successfully catch a .COM, and you prepay that to start with.

Chris: Okay.

Michael: And then there are others like DropCatch, which is a free backorder. And then, if they successfully catch it, then it is 59 dollars. So, go to Domain Sherpa. I will include a link down below that includes that list. And again, just like you did, Chris, that is not the right terminology. You should not call it a backorder. You should call it a drop catching service and their fees. Please let me know in the comments because I want to correct those as well.

Chris: A lot of places might call it a backorder because that is the business name for it, which is fine. When I am being semantically ornery here, I just want to make sure that everybody watching this understands what is going on. Call it a ham sandwich. You are either getting it before the drop or you are getting it after. Just know which one you are playing.

Michael: Now, how can I, as an investor that is new to the industry, figure out who has got the most powerful, the most efficient – I hate to use the gun terminology, but the most efficient gun and the most number of connections? Which one of these drop-catching services is actually going to be the best to grab it? Is there any way to know that?

Chris: Well, like the weather in the city you live, you do not like it, in ten minutes it will be different. There are ways to find out, and those ways are usually to read the Trade Press. Watch your podcasts. Read DN Journal or Domain Insight. Well, Domain Insight would not cover that too much, but there are a number of places that you can go and read and see oh, yesterday such and such service bought five hundred ICANN accreditations. They are now the most powerful. It is truly an arm’s race.

Michael: Yeah, it is.

Chris: So, I could tell you today who has which creds and whatnot. By the time you publish this, it might be obsolete.

Michael: Exactly, and I hate to even say like one drop catcher is doing better for me or not because in my few years that I have been in the industry, I have noticed a change. Right now, whenever I want a domain name that I do not want to put in a bid at say an auction house because I do not want others to discover it and maybe find it, I will watch it go through expiration, but I know I am not the fastest to be able to hand register it. Nobody is going to be able to do that at 2PM Eastern, so I will put in backorders at a number of places that allow me to put in a free backorder, and I do catch a lot at Pheenix. But again, that can change. And I remember when I was before in the industry Pool.com used to catch everything.

Chris: So, there was a time when it was eNom, SnapNames, and Pool. Those were the big three. I mean I remember the day when I discovered something about the drop that nobody else had figured out and we actually doubled our success rate for a better part of a month, until everybody else figured it out. And there was a time when Pool started eating our lunch for about a month and I could not figure out what the heck was going on, and then I discovered it and went back to parity. I mean it was fun. One of these days, I will probably write a book that six people will be interested in because it will be nerdy and lots of math, but to describe how this whole thing works. I think it was fascinating, but then again, I think lots of things are fascinating.

Michael: Yeah. Well, so do I. Chris, that is everything that I wanted to talk about. You have really illuminated a lot of different areas that were not clear to me in the past. Is there anything that I did not bring up that you thought I should have mentioned?

Chris: The one thing that I would bring up. A question I am asked a lot is: what is going to happen to all of this? Where is this going to go? And we almost lost the drop half a decade ago when VeriSign tired to propose that they were sick and tired of being pounded and all of the politics and the griping. They wanted to set up a system where it was deterministic how names would expire. That the registrar of record losing and gaining would each share in the revenue. And surprise, surprise, VeriSign would share in the revenue.

That was shouted down at ICANN. And it is kind of funny because the big registrars did not like it because they were able to play in the drop and make a lot of money. The small registrars did not like it because they did not have enough names under management to get to play in scheme. And if you flip it to the opposite, it was good for them for the opposite reasons, but nobody saw it that way. But one day the drop is going to stop, especially because the value in the drop names have gone down. There is a long tail of names now that people are still making money on the drop, but not nearly as much as they used to. I have a feeling that eventually it is going to normalize. We are going to get rid of the drop.

It might be another half decade before it happens. Let’s see all the new TLDs get a whole bunch of name and it to get even more confusing. If you are a drop catcher now and you have to support a thousand TLD drops, that is kind of a pain. And the second thing – I think a lot of your audience is interested in – would be can I hand register these things. What if I do not want to go to a service and plunk down 60 bucks for a dropping name? What are my chances of getting it on my own?

And the answer to that is quite simple. If the name is contested, if anybody else wants it, your chances are slim to none. If you go to a registrar and you punch in the name on their front of site and try to register it, by the time it goes through the whole process, if it has not dropped yet, you are not going to get it. And if it has dropped, by that time, somebody has picked it up. And by somebody, I mean a drop catcher who has millisecond timing. So, your only time that you are going to get a name if you are going to hand register it is if you feel darn certain that nobody else wants it. And then yeah, wait five minutes and you can get it. A lot of people are getting names that way, and to you it might be a fantastic name.

Michael: I have tried it. I have tried it and it has been sucked up by one of the drop catching services. One of the drop catching services that belongs to a large portfolio owner. They hoover up all that middle stuff. And they are not phenomenal domains. They are not crappy domains. All that middle stuff that investors may spy. Those go really quickly.

Chris: And keep in mind if they can get that name at a discount, so if they can get that name for let’s just say registration fee, they get it for the registration fee. Call it ten bucks. If that name makes more than ten bucks a year in parking traffic, that is a net positive. And even if it is only making one dollar a year, but you have got one hundred thousand names.

Michael: Ten percent return on investment is pretty good.

Chris: Okay.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Chris, this has been phenomenal. If you are watching this show and you have questions, please post them below the video on Domain Sherpa and I will ask Chris to come back and answer as many as he can. He is speaking in technical terms, not as a policy for anybody that he has worked for or currently works for. If you are watching this show and you are thinking I know something unique like Chris just shared about the industry or about investing and I would love to be a Sherpa, then come on over to DomainSherpa.com. Top left-hand corner, there is a small link with the text: be interviewed on Domain Sherpa. Click that, fill out the form, and let’s chat about the topic.

I also encourage you, who are watching the show or listening to the show while you are working out or at the gym or on your commute. Come back to Domain Sherpa, come to this interview, and post a quick thank you to Chris in the comments, or use the button that is just below the video to thank Chris on Twitter. I am going to be the first to do that right now.

Chris Ambler, Principal Software Architect at GoDaddy and all around technical genius. Thank you for coming on the Domain Sherpa show, sharing your knowledge about the domain industry and the expiration of domain names, and thanks for being a Domain Sherpa for others.

Chris: Sure thing. It was fun.

Michael: Thank you all for watching. We’ll see you next time.