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Vasteras, Sweden - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - April 26, 2006 - Data from Information statistics firm, Ipwalk.com, has verified that the ”add/drop scheme,” also known as ”domain tasting,” has reached alarming proportions and is continuing to skyrocket. More than 90% of the .com domain names added on any single day are part of the add/drop scheme.

According to data collected by Ipwalk, every month, around 30 million .com domain names are registered, but over 90% of these are never paid for. This scheme is possible thanks to the ICANN 5-day add grace period, where if a registrar drops an added domain name within 5 days, the registrar is issued a full refund.

Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of GoDaddy.com, recently attacked this practice in his Hot Points blog, commenting, ”’In one year the scheme increased fifteen fold! In fact, it is so lucrative that more companies are joining the scheme each and every day! Millions of good .com domain names - on any given day over 3.5 million and climbing - are unfairly made unavailable to small businesses and others who would actually register and use them in ways for which the names were intended.”

Further data collected by Ipwalk verifies that the vast majority of added .com domain names are dropped within days. The trend is clearly visible when comparing the graphs for added and dropped domain names.

It is surmised that if this is allowed to continue, within a year, more than 60 million domain names will be added and dropped every month. Almost all of these domain names will be part of the add/drop scheme. This will cause enormous costs for registries and make legitimate domain name business close to impossible. Other smaller TLDs, like .net and .org, are also seeing a similar increase in domain tasting.

According to Mr. Parsons, the solution is simple. He proposes that the ICANN fee is made non-refundable, stating, ”The net effect of this would be every time a domain name is registered, the registrar would have to pay ICANN 25 cents. This would bring the add/drop scheme to a screeching halt.”

GoDaddy.com has tried to bring attention to this before. Warren Adelman, President and COO of GoDaddy.com told Ipwalk, ”We wrote a letter to ICANN and VeriSign about the add/drop scheme back in October 2004. We never received a response. It appears ICANN has not taken any measures, up to this point, to prohibit domain tasting.”

Until ICANN changes its rules, the registries’ hands are tied, and this practice will continue to grow. Pressure from large registrars like GoDaddy.com and the public awareness that brings are going to be necessary to push through such a decision.

Ipwalk is a global information company providing statistics based on a continuously updated database. Ipwalk is processing and analyzing more than 60 million domain names and 50 million IP addresses on a daily basis. This information is provided through the Ipwalk.com website and through customized trend reports.

To learn more, please visit: www.ipwalk.com/general/show_news/id/22.