End of tasting within reach

Ostensibly to curb domain tasting, ICANN is considering keeping its $0.20 annual fee per URL, even if domains are forfeited during the five-day Add Grace Period.

The Add Grace Period enables people to return domain names purchased with misspellings, for example. Domain tasting occurs when profiteers purchase multiple URLs, load them with ads, and return unprofitable performers before the Add Grace Period elapses.

The practice of domain tasting contributes to the high number of link farms that depend on ad clicks for profit, reports The New York Times.

In January 2005, ICANN found 1.7 million .com and .net domains were registered — and 700,000, or 41 percent of them, were deleted during the grace period.

Fast-forward to January 2007, when 51 million were registered but an alarming 48 million — 94 percent — were deleted.

Earlier this week, Google said it may alter its AdSense policy to prevent domain tasting. If Google's ruminations become reality, new domain owners will not be able to load AdSense onto their pages until a site is at least five days old.