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Domain names today are big and basically lots of money. In the past, no other firm was selling domain names except Network Solutions for $35 per domain per year. Today however, many new Domain retailers are selling off domain names for as low as $8 per year. While Network Solutions remain steadfast in their business model, they have also been using another techniques to drive more people to use buy domains from them.

When a user searches for a domanin on NetWork Solutions, their system automatically buys any available domaiin the search query hits. When a user uses another search engine for the same domain, the hit will register as unavailable, forcing the user to go back to Network Solutions and purchase the domain from them for the steep $35.

TechCrunch reports: "So far they’ve registered over 72,000 domain names based on user searches. They are all temporarily assigned a name server of “reserveddomainname” - the number of registrations pointing to this server is public data and can be seen here "

However, this scheme does not cost Netwrok solutions anything. Registrars are given 5 days to reserve a domain and if remained unused and deleted in that period, they will not be charged. This grace period was designed to help registrars against credit card fraud. Using the grace period as a means of killing the competition is another thing. It won't be long until authorities do something about this practice or every other registrar adopts this scheme.

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