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Is there any way to look up the availability of a domain name without risking it being reserved or registered by someone else who is snooping domain name look ups?

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How would they know that you're looking up the availability of a particular domain name? – joeqwerty Nov 25 '09 at 16:08
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I guess I should have done a better google on this question first. This is a good article I just found: blog.domaintools.com/2007/03/stealing-domain-name-research – P a u l Nov 25 '09 at 16:22
@Paul, that really is a good article. Cheers! – JMD Nov 25 '09 at 16:52
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closed as off topic by Gareth, Simon Sheehan, Wuffers, Nifle, Sathya♦ Oct 28 '11 at 11:31

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2 Answers

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I believe the asker's question is much simpler than what most people seem to be reading. He is concerned, rightly so, that some domain name lookup services will gladly accept your request for a domain name search, and then a day or two later, the same search will show that the domain name has "coincidentally" been registered.

My advice, if you're serious about wanting a particular domain name, is to not even check on its availability unless you're also willing to drop a few bucks to immediately register it, at least for a short term. That way if you find that it's available you can immediately register it for relatively cheap and you've bought yourself a year (or however long you decide) to act upon it. (Given that the domain namespace is so crowded it's probably best to have a few candidates in mind.)

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Well worded answer. – P a u l Nov 25 '09 at 16:40
well a domain name lookup service that captures your search and sells it to someone who then registers the domain name isn't really snooping then, is it. if you're using their lookup service, they're not snooping on you, they're capturing the information that you are willingly typing into their search tool. there's a diiference between a lookup service selling info about my search and someone "snoopng" my search. – joeqwerty Nov 25 '09 at 19:31
Sorry, @joeqwerty, call it what you like, but I think @Paul's question and subsequent article show that this is pretty much what he was asking about. He wasn't asking about some middleman sniffing router traffic looking for people issuing domain name searches. – JMD Nov 25 '09 at 20:50
@jmd: That could be the case, but the op stated that he was worried about someone snooping his lookups and i took that to mean a snooper, not a registrar selling his search info to someone else. i can only interpret the question the way it's asked. i can't interpret the intention behind the question. if i ask for something blue should you interpret that i really want something green? – joeqwerty Nov 26 '09 at 2:23
@jmd: also, no offense intended. i addressed the question i thought was being asked. – joeqwerty Nov 26 '09 at 2:24
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Use a proxy or a VPN. That way, they can't find out anything unless you give it to them.

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