Be forewarned, according to Internet ScamBusters if you've registered any URLs with Register.com, they are now doing auto-renew, which means they renew your account and charge your card even if you didn't ask them to extend your URL ownership for another year, and even if they didn't tell you they were going to do auto-renew when you first signed up.



News notes from a few sources on general Internet trends have shown that the number of registered dot-com names is going down this year for the first time in history. Makes sense, there are plenty of companies (and even individuals) that bought hundreds back when we all thought you had to do a "land-grab." This was partially a traffic-driving move. Way back when, we all thought surfers would just type in various URLs into their browsers to find stuff online. Then search engines like Google came along and changed everything.



Now the thinking is to concentrate on a few URLs for your company (a corporate site, a site for each major branded product you sell, and perhaps a promo content site) and focus your marketing efforts on getting them out there by investing in stuff like; paid listings on search engines.



Anyway, this trend means the URL registration firms that proliferated a few years ago are now feeling the pinch. And they may try means that aren't exactly customer-friendly to jack up profits. It's not long term thinking, but then how much online has been until recently?