Domain Tasting Loses Its Appeal

If you plan on tasting a domain before you decide to commit to it, you might be alone, or at least in very limited company, writes Alex Athans from Sedo’s Legal Team.Domain tasting — the practice of using ICANN’s five-day “add grace period” (AGP) to test the marketability of domains — has seen a sharp decline in the past few months to the tune of 84 percent. This drop-off in tasting is based on numbers taken a month after ICANN’s implementation of a $.20 fee on all domain names back in June 2008.Tasting used to be an attractive practice, mainly due to the full refund granted if a domain was not kept before the AGP elapsed. The absence of a $.20 fee helped incentivize tasting as well.To read this Sedo article in full, see www.sedo.com/links/showhtml.php3?Id=2260.