Originally Posted by trader

I seriously doubt any of the larger registrars are monitoring searches and reg'ing them, or have ever done so in the past. Perhaps on very rare occasions by a rogue employee but even then not common.

There was a large thread on Webmasterworld a few mos ago about this and the Mod challenged members to prove it by doing a Whois on large lists and then checking availability later. Virtually none were registered when later checked.