The Lunch break entrepreneur

Steep warning;
As of Tuesday 1/15 2008, if a user does a search on Network Solutions web site for a domain name, Network Solution immediately registers the domain in their own name. If the user then goes to a discount registrar to register the domain, it shows as unavailable. The user must then either not buy the domain, or go back to Network Solutions and pay their $35/year fee. Outrageous of course since Godaddy and eNom charges only around $9 all in.

This is a bit questionable to say the least, I'd call blackmail, but people should just avoid Network Solutions all together and do their domain name research somewhere else. I don't use eNom, but Godaddy is cheap, good and offers ... friendly, fast and helpful phone support. I almost faint when I have to use those words in the same sentence as a domain registrar.

While I am at it, don't ever use NameSecure. They were the best back in the day, but when they took their customer support number off the site (it does not exist at all anymore) it started going downhill fast. That was years ago. Now they are simply one of the worst registrars. I have a lot of domains, too many I suppose, and even though it is a pain transferring them to another registrar I took the trouble and now only have fatfile.com left with NameSecure. And that come home to Godaddy this year.

Original Techcrunch article...