I've spent some time studying domain names as I found the topic interesting and I have seen the value in a good domain name.  Several of my software programs and websites target the agriculture industry.  The whole web 2.0/misspelling/non-.com extension/drop-the-vowels doesn't work well there as it just confuses people.<p>As far as the players,  SnapNames, Godaddy, and Pool still are still around.  Enom's Club Drop is now NameJet.  As mentioned in the article, Network Solutions had an exclusive agreement with Snap (now they are using NameJet).  In the past few years, many more registrars have adopted this strategy where they partner with an auction service and make money when the domains are sold.<p>Most names with these partner agreements become available around 35 days after expiration.  These names do keep their original creation date so it's as if the original owner transferred it to you rather than it actually deleting and being re-registered.<p>If the name is with a registrar who does not have a partner agreement or a name that is not backordered during the auctions, it eventually deletes around 75 days later where the actual dropcatching referenced in the article picks up.