Jordan Rieger
Webnames’ TBR page gets a refresh to be more user-friendly
We’re happy to announce our new page for browsing TBR domains! But what are TBR domains? Read on for a little context. (If you’re already familiar with TBR, skip ahead to read about our improved UI.)
The life of a domain
We might think of our favorite web sites as permanent fixtures, but the reality is that web sites, and the domain names that host them, come and go all the time. Most of them don’t have the decades-long staying power of symbolics.com (makers of Lisp machines and operators of The Big Internet Museum) which has been registered since 1985! Domains are constantly becoming available when they are allowed to lapse by registrants who no longer want to pay to renew them.
Domain lifecycles vary across the TLD (top level domain) registries, but most follow a policy like this:
- When a domain expires, it is auto-renewed by its registry to give the current registrant and registrar another chance (typically a 30-45 day period) to renew it before it is marked for deletion.
- If it’s not renewed, the registrar puts the domain into a redemption grace period for 30 days. During this time, only the original registrant and registrar can redeem (renew) the domain, usually for an additional fee.
- If the domain is not renewed, it is placed in pending-delete status for five days. At the end of the five days, it is deleted, and the name becomes available to anyone.
What if you want a domain that you or someone else has allowed to lapse? Then you have to grab it as soon as it becomes available! At the popular generic TLD registries like .com and .net, deleted domains become available at a random time within a set window each day. Because of this, most motivated registrants will use a name “catching” service (or multiple such services) to try to continually hammer at the registry to obtain the specific domain(s) they want out of the 100,000+ as soon as they are “dropped.”
.CA TBR – a politer, more Canadian system?
In keeping with the Canadian reputation for politeness, the system for releasing .CA domains is a bit less contentious. Each week, CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, holds TBR (To-Be-Released) sessions on Wednesday at 19:00-20:00 UTC. During TBR sessions, domains that have been deleted or left to expire by their previous owners are released for registration. These sessions often feature highly attractive domain names, with multiple registrars vying to get their customers’ top picks.
Each registrar is allowed to send only one domain registration command every five seconds, and there is a temporary penalty box if a registrar tries to exceed this. As a result, registrars are on a more equal footing. That said, registrars can pay a $1000/yr fee to obtain as many additional connections as they want. And registrants can still pre-order the same TBR domain with multiple registrars to increase their chances.
We have honed our TBR process at Webnames.ca for over a decade and employ proprietary software and timing strategies to get the best results for our customers. We charge no additional fee for TBRs; unlike some other registrars that charge backorder fees or even auction off the most coveted domains, at Webnames.ca you pay the same amount for TBR domains as you do for any other.CA domains.
You can find more information on CIRA’s website about the .CA domain lifecycle and the TBR program.
Our new TBR page
At https://www.webnames.ca/TBR, you will find our overhauled TBR page. On any given week, there are 10,000 to 15,000 domains coming up for release. That’s a huge volume of domains to browse through, so we’ve built some tools to help. Here’s an edited screenshot to point out the most important new features:
- You can now filter domain names by any keyword substring. The list is filtered in real-time as you type, no need to click to reload.
- CIRA releases upcoming TBR lists two weeks in advance. Using this filter, you can limit the results to one or both of the next weeks’ releases.
- Shorter domain names are known to be more attractive for branding and user recognition. Use this filter to limit the results to domain names with as little 2 characters.
- Once you’ve found the domain you want, you can pre-order it through our shopping cart. Remember, your credit card will only be charged if we successfully obtain your domain during its TBR session.
- If you’re a serious power user, you can download a full spreadsheet of upcoming TBRs in CSV format, allowing you to slice and dice to your heart’s content.
We hope this powerful new TBR page will help our customers find proven and memorable domains for their business and personal use.
Follow Webnames’ weekly TBR domain picks on Instagram and Twitter for great domains available to pre-order. If you have any questions or concerns to share about the TBR, please share your feedback with Webnames Support.