To pick up on one point ... > The weird thing though is that whois tells me that the record was created 6 > years ago. That seems a long time for someone to sit on a useless domain name.
I have plenty of domain names registered that I have reckoned will be great for particular projects but not got around to them yet, so they have been effectively blank domains for quite a few years, so 'useless' is in the eye of the beholder. One thing though, is 6 years ago before or after your friend started their business? and four letters may be someone's initials ... Alison