Seems like domain registrars strip off “www.” from the beginning of domains when searching, even when trying it as a second level domain. I just wanted to see if any such second level domains were available, so I tried “www.net” in Porkbun’s search. The list of domains it showed availability for were all “net.” whatever, no “www” involved. I tried several other registrars and they did the same thing:
- Dreamhost
- Gandi
- Hover
- GoDaddy
- Namecheap
- Name.com
- Uniregstry
None of them gave suggestions with “www” in them, only “net”. Dreamhost and Uniregstry were the only ones that at least showed that “www.net” itself was taken.
Kinda funny. I doubt any “www” second level domains are even available, but it would be nice to be able to look. I tried whois for several and they were taken:
- “www.net” has no A record
- “www.org” nicely goes to “w3.org”
- “www.com” is just a parked page with adverts and a link saying to inquire about purchasing the domain at Uniregstry
- “www.me” goes to a Montenegro info site that’s so heavy that it was still loading and the menus weren’t working after a minute or so, whois implies it’s a special registration
- “www.us” has an A record but didn’t resolve when I tried, whois implies special registration
- “www.one” has an A record but doesn’t resolve and the whois implies special registration