They'll have the first- mover advantage for at least six months, if not a year. Names can expire because the owners aren't using them or owners forget to renew their registrations, as in recent cases involving Hotmail and J.P. Morgan.
Companies are accidentally or negligently letting their domain names expire.
SnapNames will notify them and help them get their names back. When one of the registrars sends an addition, deletion or modification to a DNS record, SnapNames receives a copy of that change and maintains its own comprehensive database of domain name registrations called Whois. Part of the deal is that they have to give us instant access to their Whois databases. . . . We get that at no charge, and they get a percentage of the revenue we do. SnapNames is offering domain name monitoring services targeted toward large corporations, Web site design shops and law firms specializing in intellectual property practices.