Patent ID: 7664831

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining alternative domain names for a domain name that is already registered, the method comprising: receiving a request from a user to register a specified domain name, the domain name including a top-level domain name portion and a second-level domain name portion, the top-level domain name portion specifying a top-level domain and the second-level domain name portion including at least one word; determining that the specified domain name is not available to be registered; determining alternative domain names that are related to the specified domain name by: determining word alternatives for the words included in the second-level domain name portion, the determined word alternatives including synonyms of the included words or translations of the included words into other languages; generating alternative domain names whose second-level domain name portions include at least one of the determined word alternatives and whose top-level domain name portions specify the specified top-level domain; selecting generated alternative domain names that are available to be registered as the determined alternative domain names; determining a numerical percentage relevance rating for each of the selected alternative domain names, the numerical percentage relevance rating indicating the relevance of the alternative domain name to the domain name specified by the user independent of the other alternative domain names; sending information to the user indicating that the selected alternative domain names are available to be registered and displaying the numerical percentage relevance ratings; reserving automatically at least one of the selected alternative domain names for a limited time without registering the at least one selected alternative domain name; receiving a request from the user that indicates to register at least one of the determined alternative domain names; and registering the at least one of the indicated alternative domain names for the user.