One issue that is sometimes cited for low live domain auction sales is the lack of publicity. I have an idea that may help Jay Westerdal’s DomainTools live auction and perhaps other auction houses who are hosting domain auctions in the near future.
If Jay would add a link to Whois lookups for domain names that are up for auction, he could inform the searcher that the name will be for sale. This simple tactic would allow domain investors and non-domain professionals to see that the name they just looked-up could be acquired in an upcoming auction. For example, if someone looks up Whois.sc/WireRack.com using Domaintools’ service, they would be able to see that the name is not only for sale, but coming up for auction soon. With Domaintools’ interface, they could sign up and place a bid prior to the auction without much hassle.
I don’t know the technicalities involved with doing this, but it doesn’t seem like something that is difficult. With all of the mergers, acquisitions, partnerships…etc in the domain business, I would think this could be done for other auctions using other Whois look up services. It’s a simple idea, but it could be impactful.
***UPDATE BY ELLIOT***
Just received an email from Jay:
“I would like to do that, and it will be done in 2008 at some point. However that feature is not done yet.“
Jay already does this for domains listed with Sedo and Afternic, but I’m sure it would be a huge task to do it for auction bound domains. Maybe for DomainTool’s auction, since he would have the final list, but TRAFFIC auction etc, would be hard.
I think with-in a regisrants whois info, should be an option to offer the domain for sale or not for sale. Some people do this by putting Domain is For Sale instead of having there name, but there should be an easier way.
Maybe a whole new system all together for end-users to find a domain they are searching for……
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
There wouldn’t be a reason for Jay to do it for other auctions. He could just do it for his own auctions. Godaddy could do it on their Whois lookups for their auctions. Moniker could do it to their Whois lookups for TRAFFIC auctions. Although Domaintools arguably has the most popular lookup system, other registrars could potentially add this for their own partners.