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.

CNN: New service back-orders domain names

SnapNames will use its database of information about prospective domain name owners to facilitate auctions of inactive and expired domain names.

CNN: New service back-orders domain names

With a relational database, you start with the domain objects, and represent them in a way that guarantees that virtually any query can be expressed.

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These services are strong in the aforementioned Microsoft domain, but also in database, application performance, virtualization, and many other areas.

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Anybody can get in that database and get all kinds of information about the domain-name holder.

CNN: Is domain name system vulnerable to slamming?

Mr Black said many domain registries like Nominet felt frustrated by Icann's stance, given that the root servers only held a database of the 300 or so computers with detailed lists of which domain was where.

BBC: Net's servers under scrutiny

Since 1998 Icann, a policy-making group, has controlled domain registration on the Net, logging new sites in an open database called Whois, but the data isn't verified, and even gobbledygook triggers no alarms.

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