March 7, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting provider and domain registrar Tiger Technologies (tigertech.net) took a jab at Network Solutions, and a stab at notoriety, Friday, offering to rescue domain names searched by unsuspecting users and held by Network Solutions (networksolutions.com).
The offer refers to Network Solutions’ widely criticized and now notorious practice widely referred to as front-running, wherein it registers domains as visitors to its site search for them, making it impossible for them to register the names from Network Solutions’ competitors.
Tiger’s “We’ll Pay the Ransom” program offers to either pay Network Solutions the $34.99 it charges to register the domain on the customer’s behalf, or will credit the money to the customer’s account if they already have paid Network Solutions, and will transfer the domain to Tiger Technologies.
Call it savvy marketing, or something else, but the promotion by Tiger appears to be an effort by an otherwise unknown Web host to get some attention at the expense of a well-known name. In its press release, Tiger compares Network Solutions’ actions to holding domain names “hostage,” while characterizing its own motivations for offering the deal as entirely altruistic.
“We are happy to be offering this special deal for people whose domain names are being held hostage by Network Solutions,” says Robert Mathews, president of Tiger Technologies. “It’s a great opportunity for people to see our commitment to customer satisfaction and fair business practices.”
On its website, Network Solutions says it implemented the reserve period to respond to growing customer concerns about domain names being registered by someone else after they perform a domain name search, and that the reserve period “isn’t specifically held for the initial customer who searched for it, this reserve period helps to protect our customers against domain front running.”
To qualify for “rescue,” customers are required to sign up for a year of hosting at Tiger for $75, which the company says is less than the equivalent plan at Network Solutions, which runs for $128.50.
Last week, Network Solutions was hit with a federal class action lawsuit accusting the company of front-running domain names.
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