IDN demystified

I have been drop catching IDN .jp’s for over 3 years now, and have amassed some awesome domains.

Drop catching in .jp has received very little coverage, but actually all the information is out there in the public domain.

Like all ccTLD’s there is no zone file, but I have a private database containing ten’s of thousands of entries, and almost certainly most if not all of the top terms. This has been gathered via the old Overture database that IDNtools references (some 500k historical terms) plus a few dictionaries thrown in for good measure. What it makes is a very unique reference point for good Japanese terms.

Things are changing too in the drop scene, a few formal drop catching services have emerged, and some horror stories I could talk about.

What all this means, is the game is changing, gone are the days when you can register a drop 24 hours after it dropped knowing there is little competition. Now, just like other extensions, competition is heating up and more often than not private auctions are run for drop caught domains.

Bearing all this in mind, I am considering posting an article discussing all the in’s and out’s of jp drop catching. How to be successful and which methods/services to use or not.

and most importantly, I will publish the all important drop lists via IDNtools – this is key to everything, as in this game, it’s not being fastest that will win, it’s knowing that domains are dropping in the first place.

The poll on the right will be open for 1 week, and is anonymous.

Poll Result

It would appear there are more people than I had expected still drop catching, and while the poll was always going to favour debating this topic further – with more that half of the votes coming from active drop catchers I will stfu and file the 2nd part of this blog post along with the growing collection of draft posts categorised as not to be demystified just yet.

What I will say in summary, is that if you want to get into this game, there is clearly still a lot of scope for picking up gems – and all the info you need on the drop cycle is out there if you look. But the all important list of what is dropping is key, and this is what the drop catchers cherish the most as it’s compilation is usually the labour of many many hours of effort.. so for now, just like any other ccTLD, you’re just going to have to be creative in compiling it.

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