Use DomainTools’ whois history to research the history of a domain name you’re buying.

When you’re ready to shell out a bunch of cash for a domain name, it’s important to understand the ownership history of the domain name. There’s no title insurance for domains, so the onus is on you to make sure the domain isn’t stolen and has clean title.

In fact, it was DomainTools’ whois history that saved me from buying a stolen domain name for $5,000 back in 2005.

To access whois history, just search for the domain on DomainTools. Scroll down to “DomainTools Exclusive” to see if there are any archived whois records:

Clicking on the link will bring you to a page that shows all of the dates of recorded whois records. Red dates indicate records protected by whois privacy, and shading generally indicates similar records.

You should look for frequent changes in ownership, as well as short ownership periods. In the case referenced above, the domain was owned by one person until it briefly changed hands (and registrars) for 5 days, only to jump to a different owner and registrar after that. I ended up calling the previous registrant who told me the domain was stolen. The extra effort was a small price to pay to avoid losing $5,000.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Twitter related .me domain names sells for five figures.

The latest premium .me domain name auction is coming to an end, and Tweet.me looks to be the winner at $11,505. I can see this being used for a Twitter service, but I’m a bit concerned about all of the services popping up that use variants of Twitter and Tweet in their names: could Twitter ever come after them for trademark infringement?

Lease.me sold for $7,605 with 139 bids and Massage.me sold for $6,005 with 32 bids. Other sales included:

Name/Price/Bids

preview.me $2,605 52
only.me $2,540 166
excuse.me $2,505 140
rome.me $2,015 103
zoe.me $2,011 55
england.me $2,005 70
aweso.me $2,005 93
escorts.me $2,005 124
brand.me $1,805 221
budget.me $1,805 24
bookmark.me $1,755 120
france.me $1,510 48
view.me $1,505 49
social.me $1,455 51
sanfrancisco.me $1,330 63
oglasi.me $1,155 64
arizona.me $1,116 51
ohio.me $1,116 65
bring.me $1,110 80

It appears that at least one domain name in the latest auction was sold at a previous auction, so perhaps it was never paid for.

The next premium .me domain name auction takes place on NameJet June 5.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Twitter related .me domain names sells for five figures.

The latest premium .me domain name auction is coming to an end, and Tweet.me looks to be the winner at $11,505. I can see this being used for a Twitter service, but I’m a bit concerned about all of the services popping up that use variants of Twitter and Tweet in their names: could Twitter ever come after them for trademark infringement?

Lease.me sold for $7,605 with 139 bids and Massage.me sold for $6,005 with 32 bids. Other sales included:

Name/Price/Bids

preview.me $2,605 52
only.me $2,540 166
excuse.me $2,505 140
rome.me $2,015 103
zoe.me $2,011 55
england.me $2,005 70
aweso.me $2,005 93
escorts.me $2,005 124
brand.me $1,805 221
budget.me $1,805 24
bookmark.me $1,755 120
france.me $1,510 48
view.me $1,505 49
social.me $1,455 51
sanfrancisco.me $1,330 63
oglasi.me $1,155 64
arizona.me $1,116 51
ohio.me $1,116 65
bring.me $1,110 80

It appears that at least one domain name in the latest auction was sold at a previous auction, so perhaps it was never paid for.

The next premium .me domain name auction takes place on NameJet June 5.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.