I looked up various domain names yesterday. Overnight I decided on (let's call it) "foo.org", which I had found available according to both godaddy and networksolutions. Bang! it no longer is. Now what puzzles me is that the networksolutions record looks like this:

==========
Registrant:
Foo Inc. (FOO2-DOM)
<address>

Domain Name: FOO.ORG

Administrative Contact:
<blah>
Technical Contact:
<blah>

Record expires on 09-Nov-2003.
Record created on 09-Nov-1999.
Database last updated on 21-Feb-2003 08:51:49 EST.

Domain servers in listed order:

BAR.COM <IP>
BAZ.VERIO.NET <IP>
==========

...where the "last update" evolves continually. "Foo Inc" seems to be a very small company; they also have foo.net and foo.com, but only seem to operate a one-page website (a feedback form, essentially) at foo.com, and nothing at the other two domains.

So, my question: is it common for domains to become briefly available like that, before the posted "expiration" date? Or was it just an error? IOW, is this opportunity likely to reproduce itself? If so, is there a way to predict when?

Network Solutions own whois is NOT authoritative. Try http://www.internic.net/whois.html instead.

Thanks. I take it you mean that this must have been an error, a domain can *not* be available before the scheduled "expiration"?

This is what internic gives -- IIUC, they seem to defer to networksolutions for further details:

==========
Created On:09-Nov-1999 15:46:50 UTC
Last Updated On:05-Nov-2001 19:14:56 UTC
Expiration Date:09-Nov-2003 15:46:50 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R63-LROR
Status:OK
Registrant ID:63-C
Registrant Name:CONTACT NOT AUTHORITATIVE
Registrant Street1:Whois Server:whois.networksolutions.com
Registrant Street2:Referral URL:www.networksolutions.com
<snip>
==========

(Not sure what Registrar R63-LROR means -- is it Network Solutions, or perhaps BulkRegister.com -- see http://www.internic.net/registrars/registrar-63.html ?)

But I emphasize: both godaddy and networksolutions showed it as available for purchase yesterday, and no longer today.