Back in the mid 80’s and early 1990’s there were “available to register” domain names that have now some 20+ years later have become million dollar domain names all by themselves. These are likely still taking place as the world changes and new terms become more popular, but that will take some time. That is one of the very exciting things about domain names!
There is a specific feeling you get when you find a domain name you think is valuable and it’s “available to register” or even purchase in an auction or so on! Kind of like winning something! Well, I had that brief feeling when looking up a domain name in whois today:
Well, sadly for me, CM.com is not really “Deleted and Available Again” as stated in DomainTools whois that I can tell. Technical error of some kind, but it didn’t stop me from checking to see if I really could register the domain. Domain names do get deleted from the registry, so it was at least worth a shot!
Heck, even the registry for .com domain names, Verisign was showing the domain wasn’t in the registry:
I’m not sure really why this is happening and most domain name registrars do not even allow to search for two letter .com domains for being “available” so I had a connection I have check at his registrar! Everything else shows the domain is “available” all but where it matters most, the registrar!
Update: As stated in comments below, the domain CM.com is held by the registry. Andrew of DNW.com did a story on it as well, and the past owner did comment in the comment section, but never posted a follow up comment as to why Dotster deleted the domain he said was registered until 2020.
Update 2: 1/21/2015 The story with CM.com continues with new updates.
Two-letter .com names that were deleted are blocked by registry. They will not be available for registration anymore. That also applies for all future drops (if any).
Thanks Mike! I didn’t even think of looking at the “expire” date in whois history, but thanks for the added info!
It does appear that CM.com is the only two letter .com that expired and is held by the registry. I was aware of the single letter .com’s that some are held by the registry but not the two letter.
Guys, take a look now.
Verisign is definitely a dodgy company. I also tried to register it in June of last year. I wrote many emails to ICANN (no idea why this org exist seriously….) and to Verisign. Verisign and ICANN told me, once dropped, 2 digit gTLDs cant be registered anymore. And now take a look via whois ….. all I can say is LOL … Verisign is abusing his authority and ICANN… can do nothing …
Domain Name: CM.COM
Registrar: CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 299
Whois Server: whois.corporatedomains.com
Referral URL: http://www.cscglobal.com/digitalbrandservices
Name Server: DNS1.CSCDNS.NET
Name Server: DNS2.CSCDNS.NET
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 19-jan-2015
Creation Date: 16-jan-2015
Expiration Date: 16-jan-2016
Money rules 😉
Thanks for pointing it out Steve! This amazes me!!!!!
Thats more frustrating than amazing ;-(
Yes, frustrating! I said amazes me, because it’s frustrating! “We” don’t own anything, yet we have to pay for domain names to “use” them and they can be taken away at any time… and they will just come up with “something” to do! CM.com is a clear example of this! Basically stolen from the past owner, Verisign was “happy” with whatever was presented to them via CSC and the took it.
Yep I was somehow following the story, I think they owner was from Japan. I also read some other stories about Verisign where thousands of domains where taken away from their owners by a dodgy court order. It’s ridiculous. I was just wondering that there is no-one taking actions.
Anyway, looks like we have to swallow their business methods and move on.