When you hit "Search", a new window in your browser will open, and Easily will pause whilst it searches the indexes. You'll then be shown a page which first tells you which of the variations of the domain name are available, and which ones have been taken.

Is your favoured domain name already taken?
If so, don't despair, because no-one owns a domain name; you only "rent" it for a fixed period - anywhere between 1 and 10 years. You can use any of the methods described here to find out information on who owns the domain name, and often, when their rental of the name is due to expire. If they fail to renew it (and this happens to thousands of domain names every day), you may be able to grab it yourself.

Don't expect to pick it up the instant it expires; there's usually a grace period of several months before an expired domain name becomes freely available on the market.

The amount of information that you will get about the current holder of a domain name will vary depending on the organisation administering the "top level" of the domain name hierarchy. There's usually a wealth of info about .com 'owners', but Nominet, who administer the .uk domains give away very little info.

Is your favoured domain name available?
So.. maybe there are some of the domain names that you would like that are available. How do you go about buying domain names? What are the pitfalls? Who should you buy from? Read on...