I am currently with OptusNet and every-time I type in your website OzBargain, it goes to eBay…

Have you done something?

Yes I know sometimes I uploaded half-baked scripts onto OzBargain which caused all kinds of mess, but seriously I have not been able to work on the website for a few weeks due to general busyness. Moreover, why am I sending visitors to eBay? No way! So, maybe Optus stuffed something up? Or maybe OzBargain got hacked and the intruder now redirects everyone to eBay instead (which does have bargains every now and then). I quickly log back onto the site. Check the logs. Nope. Works for me, and I can’t seem to be able to reproduce the issue (always happen at work anyway so I am used to false alarms). Maybe if there is indeed some issues with the network, I’ll be flooded with the emails anyway so I would just wait and see…

An hour later Vikas wrote back and apologised his mistakes.

Scott — Found the problem

Click on this link and see for yourself: <OzBargain with one of ‘a’ missing>.com.au and it goes to eBay.

It must be an honor for ebay to try and get your traffic.

Huh? I know lots of people hate eBay but I do not think they will go this low to typo-squat OzBargain’s domain to get visitors. So I trace the link, and the first hop it brought me to rover.ebay.com/…. For those who are not familiar with it, it is eBay’s partner/affiliate link. So basically if you missed an “a” in the domain name, instead of coming to OzBargain to share the best deals in Australia, you’ll end up on eBay.com.au. Moreover, everything you have purchased on eBay will send a piece of seller fee to the guy who typo-squatted our domain.

Yes. Did I say a “guy”? A bit of googling reveals all the details I need — name, address, phone number, photo + a few other domains as well. While it is permissible to typo-squat domains on gTLD (and people will hate you for it), I do not think it is actually allowed on .au domain — at least auDA has published a policy against it.

Well. Complain has been sent to auDA. Let’s see how fast can they react. By the way, cheers to Vikas for spotting this.

On Monday, August 11, COVE will give away 2,000 gTLD domain names (.com, .net, .org, .biz and .info), along with 500 .AU domain names (.com.au, .net.au and .id.au).

All of these free domain names come with the standard free features you get when buying a domain name from COVE, including DNS hosting, URL re-direction, URL cloaking and e-mail forwarding.

As stated by the rep, they currently use Bottle domain for .au domains and eNom for gTLDs.

Yup. All free. No string attached. I’ve already had quite a few in mind, with availability checked. When Monday comes COVE will post the coupon codes on their website for free domain registration. I am expecting to get none as I usually score pretty low on “luck”. I already have too many domains sitting there collecting dust anyway. Just need time to develop them into something more useful…

That is the cheapest as far as I know. Certainly cheaper than everyone on the domain name price comparison website, and under-cut NetRegistry’s Hostess by a whopping 5 cents.

Not sure how Jumba can make the price that low. Especially when they are using AussieHQ as registrar, whose price is way more expensive than Jumba’s. With my previous experience with them, at least I know who I will go with my next .au domain purchase.

• Tuesday: 50% Off Hosting for NEW Customers!
• Wednesday: $26.95 .au Domains!!
• Thursday: 10% Off Day
• Friday: Pink Day!

Do check out the fourm for details. Also a word from Joseph that the 50% off hosting for new customers has been extended to today! That’s an amazing 50% off from already incredibly cheap price, hosted on either their Canberra, Melbourne, or US Dallas servers.

For today .au domain is also selling at $26.95 — even cheaper than IntaServe‘s deal! Too bad that I’ve just bought a .com.au domain from IntaServe last week :(

Sorry that there’s only 3 more hours to go before this deal finishes. Should have visited their forums more often :)

I think it is selling slightly below cost as the popular TLD are usually having wholesale price at $6/domain per year. Moreover GoDaddy is now giving a way a big list of freebies with every domain registration, like ad-supported free hosting, email hosting, full DNS hosting, etc. This offer applies to new registration, transfer or renewal. Too bad I’ve renewed two of my .net domains with GoDaddy a few weeks ago with a lesser discount :(

Promotion expires on 16 September 2006.

Privacy guard is a bit expensive at $4.99 per domain (free if you register 3+ domains). You might wish to look at NameCheap who has been offering free “WhoIs Guard” with every domain registration at the moment, if this domain privacy thing is concerning you.

I am not sure how long this great price will last, as AusRegistry, the wholeseller for all the .au domains, charges $30.50/2 years to all their accredited retail registrars.

However, the cheap price of IntaServe also comes with less than ideal services — I am mainly talking about the account management interface. Read my own experience here. Lucky you don’t need to use the account interface very often.

Which is not the case.

Bob told me the other day that he has registered another $2.99 domain from Yahoo using a different browser from a different location. I have also heard reports of Yahoo still offering the deal. Google search revealed that if you access the Yahoo domain website with a promo code attached, it’ll give you a different price. Here’s the promo code I found:

Yahoo domain registration for USD$2.99 per domain per year

You’ll see a strike across $9.95, and $2.95 displayed underneth. However, the “small print” has some changes this time:

• $2.99 is for 1st year only. Previously you can register up to 5 years.
• Promotion expires on 30^th of June.
• For customer’s own purpose only and non-transferable, i.e. you can’t buy for the sake of selling.

Still a good deal if you can abide the rules.