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I've seen a few of these domain name generators / suggestion tools, and always wonder how they verify that the domain names are available? I've yet to find an API that lets me query them, and merely checking if there's a server registered for the domain name isn't sufficient, as it isn't required to have one.

I guess what I'm really asking is, how do you verify that they aren't taken already?

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Fastest way is to check whether it exists in the nightly zone file, and then a DNS lookup, and whois query.

What is the nightly zone file?

It is zone file from the last night (or day). It requires free account from Verisign for .COM and .NET. I used such account for a while.

edit: "Zone file" is the file containing the records of all registered domains in a zone (.com or .net). Last time I checked it was something 80M records for .com

Check the DNS first, that eliminates most of them. If there's no DNS record, you have to do a whois check.

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