For Sale Registrars doing business with Registrars

[Nexus]

Playing with Status Checker this morning and I while I was running Snap Names' partners through it I was looking at a happenstance involving registrars, that I found amusing.

Here is Snap Name's
partner list (and related whois servers):

1dni | whois.1dni.com
4Domains | whois.4domains.com
BulkRegister | whois.bulkregister.com
Directi | whois.directi.com
Dodora | whois.dodora.net
domaindiscount24 | whois.rrpproxy.net
DomainPeople | whois.domainpeople.com
DomainSite | whois.domainsite.com
EnCirca | whois.encirca.biz
NameBay | whois.namebay.com
NamesBeyond.com | whois.namesbeyond.com
NameSecure.com | whois.namesecure.com
NameSystem.com | whois.namesystem.com
BB Online UK LTD | whois.nominate.net
pairNIC | whois.pairnic.com
Capital Networks PTY LTD. | whois.totalnic.net
TotalRegistrations | whois.totalregistrations.com
VeriSign | whois.networksolutions.com

I pasted these into the checker, and looked at the "registrar" column of the results. I thought it was interesting that registrars like 1DNI.com and Encirca do not use their own service for the registrar of its whois domain (on record). I can understand the trepidation when just beginning, but it still comes off as a bit odd. Don't they trust their own service? Did they just forget about it? Is it a complicated project once you're in business? It seems to open the door to letting the stability of your business rely on a direct competitor... which seems like an uncomfortable way to go about things.

Moreover, Encirca as a SnapNames partner is registered with Dotster... who runs NameWinner! Enough connections, and you'll have the "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon" of the registrar set... but in a way that might not be so positive. I'm sure that not all registrars truly consider themselves "competitors" (though they share the same basic function) and so this may not be an issue for them.

I thought I'd put that out there anyway. An idle musing for the day. Results from NameWinner's partners make more sense. Names Direct (whom I understand is a NW partner) is registered with and by Dotster (who owns NW). URS Inc. uses its own service through NewDentity however.

Dotster, Inc. | whois.dotster.com
NamesDirect.com, Inc. | whois.namesdirect.com
Universal Registration Services, Inc. | whois.newdentity.com

EDIT: BB Online UK LTD's whois was corrected.

Some food for thought I guess,
~ Nexus (Hope I didn't leave you starving)