CIRA’s TBR domain name registrations

If you’re based in Canada or have a company operating there, you already know the powerful statement a .ca makes for your web site.

Since 642,483 “Canadian” domain names are currently registered (as of today), it’s clear the aftermarket for dropped (or released) domains is significant. The TBR list, historically published daily by the CIRA was intrumental in foreseeing which names were going to become available. Hundreds of active domain traders have relied on the TBR to find valuable names… and getting them has usually been quite an ordeal since competition was so fierce.

Now things are changing at the CIRA has decided there would be new rules for Canadian domainers. It’s still unclear why the change happened by, in their own words, here’s what’s happening:

The “To Be Released” (TBR) domain name registration system has been unavailable since January 24, 2006. TBR domain name registrations will resume on March 15, 2006. Once TBR domain name registration sessions resume, they will be held once a week.

CIRA will resume publishing the list of TBR domain names for upcoming TBR registration sessions, on the CIRA public site, at no later than 14:00 (EST) on March 13, 2006. CIRA will publish the list here.

When the list becomes available, anyone who is interested in attempting to register a TBR domain name on the list should contact a CIRA Certified Registrar as soon as possible.

Part of the success for the .ca has been based on the open access everyone has to the precious TBR list. Domainers and the general public alike could follow the releases and hunt for domain gold.

The new TBR system should remain popular, even though the daily format has perviously been a major draw.

2 Responses to “CIRA’s TBR domain name registrations”

1. Rob says:

   April 29, 2006 at 8:22 am

   I found that after the TBR names were released, the list of names released for that day (and previous days) were no longer available.

   So I built my own TBR name system.

   On my site you can see what names were added for each day and view all previous TBR names as far back as August 12th, 2005 (with the exception of September 19th, 2005).

   You too can search in it.
2. baremetal says:

   June 12, 2006 at 4:05 pm

   Baremetal.com is one of the 6 registrars that “play” the TBR domain registration game seriously. Pool / sibername / internic / egate and higihat are the others.