Has anyone tried the domain tasting tactic? I've seen some bigger domain companies use this tactic, where they backorder domains and taste them basically. If they find a good traffic domain, they register it long term, otherwise they let it go onwards to the public.

I have never really heard of that term, but I am aware of such technique.
Never practiced if personally so I wouldn't know how effective it is.

I heard about domain tasting. As long as the rules allow for practice to take place, then it's hard to really blame the ones who do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting

I found out about it, after someone I know, who works at godaddy tries this practice. He's gotten some good names from this type of tactic. I also hear that ICANN will be cracking down on it soon, because it technically is unfair to other people.

Just buying a domain and checking the traffic, then asking the registrar to delete it = domain tasting. I hope it does get banned, because many domain name collectors/resellers use this tactic and take as many valuable domains as possible. So in the end your left waiting or have to pay them a ridiculious amount of money for it.