
NameCheap and .cloud Domain - willart4food
I was looking at domain names for a new project, and I was using NameCheap.com to search for available domains, when I came across something very interesting and SHORT let&#x27;s call it<p>domain.cloud<p>yes, the .cloud TLD.  I continued to scroll through the list of domains available with other TLD but I didn&#x27;t find anything, so I decided to go back to the<p>domain.cloud<p>only to be told by the system that it was no longer available, but - of course - I could make an offer<p>uhmm.... sounds fishy to me.<p>And I can&#x27;t find a whois server that will give me the name of the registrant or at least the date of registration.<p>Can anyone cast some insights into this?
======
kugelblitz
At Namecheap I've also had some weird stuff happen a couple of times with some
more exotic TLDs. It would show up as available, when I tried to buy it, it
would not be available anymore. Some repeated search will then correctly mark
it as unavailable. Though the whois will show an older registration date. So
I'm not sure what went wrong. Perhaps the specific whois gave some false
information or there was some API error or so.

I still use Namecheap as domain registrar, though I also use a local one
(country in EU), and a EU one (gandi). A not-all-eggs-in-one-basket sort of
thing, especially since domain names are often crucial to web sites / apps and
their branding.

------
thedangler
I remember a while ago network solutions was buying up domains names people
were searching. I reported this, I forget to who, but they were doing it. I
had multiple people try random domain names and sure enough they were bought
within minutes of leaving their site. Maybe name cheap does it for certain
domains.

~~~
iDemonix
That was some time ago now, but I remember it. Specifically because I wrote
some scripts to just continuously ask for garbage domains, thousands per day.

~~~
willart4food
LOL. Good Troll!

------
chmielewski
.cloud has been a TLD since 2015, there's nothing special about them and
they're not expensive compared to other TLDs. I would retry or attempt using a
different registrar's search whom also supports the .cloud domain.

------
fucking_tragedy
Interesting. Have you tried searching for the availability of the domain under
another registrar?

~~~
willart4food
I have tried again today at namecheap and at GoDaddy, same results it's not
available.

I will try again in 10 day or so, if I remember correctly from the
"domaingate" scandal of a few years back that someone esle mentioned, the
loophole is that a registrar can "return" a domain within 7 days for a full
refund.

Now that I've got a taste, I want that .cloud domain!

