Long before Frank Schilling formed Uniregistry he was working hard on catching domains and leveraging their parking revenue, all the way from his Cayman Island home.
Being a social creature, Frank Schilling was already well-connected with important domain industry personalities, such as Rick Schwartz and Monte Cahn. But overall, the domain industry had no idea about Frank’s modus operandi or what he stood for.
It all changed on December 20, 2006, when CircleID published an article by Frank Schilling.
It was titled: “The Closing Window: A Historical Analysis of Domain Tasting.”
Domain tasting emerged in the early 2000s when registrants used the 5 day grace period to test large batches of domains for type-in traffic, keeping only profitable generics. As DNS updates sped up and paid-search markets matured, the practice grew, along with trademark disputes and typosquatting concerns.
While some saw it as legitimate prospecting, critics noted its abuse and the irony that registries and ICANN profited most. With returns dwindling and pressure mounting, a simple fix like a small restocking fee could finally close the tasting window.
In his virginal write-up, Frank Schilling delivers a detailed historical account and critical analysis of domain tasting, tracing its rise from early experimental batches after the dot-com crash to its large-scale commercialization in the mid-2000s.
He explains the technical and economic conditions that fueled the practice, its impact on generic domains, trademarks, and industry players, and the irony of registries benefiting from a process they publicly decried.
Schilling also weighs the ethical spectrum of tasters, outlines the challenges of sustaining the model, and suggests a pragmatic fix (restocking fees) to curb abuse without harming legitimate registrants.
That article was read by tens of thousands of domain investors and others eager to understand and learn from a source that had prior and hands-on experience with domain tasting.
Frank’s testimonial triggered the obvious question: Why don’t you have a blog?
On February 18, 2007, Frank Schilling launched his official blog on Typepad, a popular blogging platform at the time. Frank shared the news and called his blog the “Seven Mile—The official Frank Schilling blog.”
Frank’s blog is a great testimonial and resource about how one of the greatest visionaries of the domain industry evolved personally and professionally. In the About Me section, he described himself as “a regular guy living a life of unexpected, ‘Forrest Gump like’ coincidences and good fortune.”
He put his vision to good work through these early years, eventually launching his own domain name sales platform and Registry.
The blog moved to SevenMile.com on October 26, 2007, using the WordPress platform. Frank’s final post on Typad is here.
Seven Mile shut down, eventually, around 2014.
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