Two quick ways to find out if a domain is available

Can you be sure that they do not register the name (costs them close to nothing for the "tasting" period) after you search for it?

I've used Instant Domain search for over a year now (helped me find www.90seven.com) and haven't noticed them making a grab for any of the searches I've preformed. From their FAQ:

* Your searches are not shared or distributed, ever. We do not contact any third party to verify domain availability.
* Our service does not preform WHOIS queries on the names you search for.

IRT comment #1: exactly!

Case in point: I did a Google search for a domain a few weeks ago which came up as 'unknown'. Good, it's available! The next day when I went to register it, it was TAKEN already, and it was just referencing a geographic location, nothing hi-flyin in the news or anything.

Needless to say, I became immediately suspicious at that point about using any means for checking domain availability except at the registrar's website directly. If it is available, I get it immediately now. Even with it sitting for a short time, it's still worth paying for a wasted month of subscription for it (no I'm not 'parking' it).

Is it possible to monitor the WhoIS and ARIN sites for returned 'available' sites? Just thinking out loud, 'cause it sure seems like somebody is doing it.

What happens when the registrars become domain-grabbers themselves. What if they just returned 'not available' and then grabbed it themselves? I suppose the date of registration would be there for courts to see, just being cynical as usual...

I was turned on to http://ajaxwhois.com/ a while ago for my domain name searching, but now I use http://www.domainsbot.com/ which will also suggest various alternatives and domain hacks like del.icio.us or flickr.

I personally have been using www.domainerquicksearch.com - it has had a much faster response time for me.

I've been using www.domainerquicksearch.com - it tends to have faster response times.