
Why you should never use GoDaddy ever again (even for a domain search) - zensavona
http://zensavona.com/2012/why-you-should-never-use-godaddy-ever-again/
======
mistercow
Network Solutions and (I think) Register.com used to do this (probably still
do), and claimed it was a "service" to prevent your domain from being snatched
up by someone else before you got a chance to buy it. Of course, the fact that
it meant you'd have to buy it _from them_ was obviously just an unfortunate
coincidence that they would avoid if they possibly could. I'm sure.

If I recall correctly, what they are actually doing is taking advantage of the
grace period that is built in to domain name registration. They buy the
domain, and will resell it to you if you want it within those 5 days, but if
you don't want it, they will release it (at which point their own fees are
refunded). So all you have to do if this happens to you is wait 5 days, and
then you can buy it from whoever you like.

But yeah, it's a shitty practice, and you definitely should do your business
through a registrar that doesn't do it.

~~~
vladd
This is old news, ICANN ended "domain tasting" via the 5-day grace period in
2009 by charging additional fees for those that engage in the practice:

[http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-12au...](http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-12aug09-en.htm)

There are 104,419,043 .com domains out there [1] and GoDaddy claims to have
registered over 53 million domains (non-.com extensions included) - what are
the chances of a new domain being registered with GoDaddy? If GoDaddy were to
do domain tasting they would go bankrupt pretty soon.

[1] <http://www.dailychanges.com/>

~~~
InclinedPlane
Domain tasting used to be easy money for spammers. Simply "taste" a huge
number of domains, such as misspellings of popular sites, and put typically
ad-filled domain parked pages on them. Figure out which ones make money and
which don't, register the ones that are profitable, let the others lapse, and
move on.

~~~
wdr1
Or simply let them expire & then start another 5 day period... over & over &
over again.

Sadly, this did happen.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Yeah, either way it's win/win. The only constraint is the cost of hosting,
which can easily be amortized over all of your sites.

------
biot
So what happens if you search for a domain name on domai.nr and, three days
later, you find it has been registered through domai.nr and is available on
NameLayer which is domai.nr's premium domain selling service? Would you chalk
it up to coincidence, especially if it's a decent name? Or will you write
another blog post telling people to never use domai.nr ever again?

GoDaddy was one of the first ones to call attention to domain tasting, later
referring to it as domain kiting:

<http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/pdf/100804_letter_iyd.pdf>

[http://www.dailydomainer.com/200775-domain-tasting-
monitorin...](http://www.dailydomainer.com/200775-domain-tasting-monitoring-
searches.html)

If I, as an anonymous user, search for any of my domains on GoDaddy, I find
that they'll offer to let me use their domain buy service to backorder them
too, even for domains I've had since the 90's. Without any further evidence,
it's impossible to tell whether you actually have a legitimate case (though a
sample size of one is hardly statistically significant) or if you simply don't
understand how domain registrations work.

~~~
zensavona
I'd say that it would be quite the coincidence if this obscure and very
specific domain was registered within 24hrs by GoDaddy, completely by chance.

~~~
gojomo
But there are tens of thousands of people doing this sort of idle search, then
later register attempt, all the time.

Even incredibly unlikely coincidences will turn up occasionally (and then
trigger blog speculation). Without more evidence, coincidence is still a
highly likely explanation here.

------
eekfuh
Just because its "Registered Through" doesnt mean that Godaddy owns the
domain. Someone could easily just purchased it during that time and could be
using Godaddy (they are the worlds largest registrar).

My dad's domain is registered through Godaddy. It says the same thing "You can
view the WHOIS listing or use Domain Buy Service to get this name" when you
search for it on their website. Also he is using their privacy service and the
whois says this:

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (<http://www.godaddy.com>)

    
    
       Domain Name: XMYDADSDOMAINX.COM
          Created on: 01-Oct-03
          Expires on: 01-Oct-13
          Last Updated on: 02-Aug-11
    
       Administrative Contact:
          Private, Registration  XMYDADSDOMAINX.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
          Domains By Proxy, LLC
          DomainsByProxy.com
          14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
          Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
          United States
          (480) 624-2599      Fax -- (480) 624-2598

------
culturestate
Netsol got busted doing this in 2008[1]; they stopped after receiving a great
deal of backlash. It stands to reason GoDaddy would also stop once discovered,
but then they've never been a company to back down from controversy.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Solutions#Controversy_o...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Solutions#Controversy_over_domain_name_front_running)

~~~
unreal37
That wikipedia link states that they stopped registering domains that were
searched using WhoIs but continued doing it when searching from their home
page. So they didn't stop.

------
nl
This is known as Domain Name Front Running.

GoDaddy have said they don't do it:

 _ICANN has neither accused nor investigated Go Daddy for front running.
(Another registrar, Network Solutions, has come under fire for domain name
front running.)

The simple truth is Go Daddy deplores this type of activity and has
implemented safeguards to ensure Go Daddy customers remain protected._

I wouldn't usually defend GoDaddy, but while it is possible that they did
front-run, I suspect a coincidence, or that the blog author did a search
somewhere else too.

[1] [http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-
wi...](http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-with-your-
domain-searches/)

------
asparagui
YUP.

And then, if you hit the domain at all in the next year, they will renew it
and add it to their domain auction program, whereby you can bid (* (amount
they've spent) 2) to win!

Not that I've, uh, had this happen, of course...

------
mthoms
I am working an a domain search service that solves this problem.

We make it impossible for our servers to know your domain searches. We also
clearly explain how, so you can verify yourself.

Contact me for beta access.

------
dkoch
GoDaddy explicitly states they do not practice domain name front running:
[http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-
wi...](http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-with-your-
domain-searches/)

------
mkaxlevin
GODADDY sniffed a domain that I was tracking and grabbed it on the day it
expired. It is now being offered through BLUERAZOR.COM. ( a proxy company used
by Godaddy to hide frontrunning activity)

GRABBING DOMAINS IS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW

IS GODADDY USING FAKE REGISTRANT INFORMATION TO REGISTER THESE DOMAINS?

USING A FAKE NAME TO REGISTER A DOMAIN IS IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW

CAN GODADDY THEY PROVIDE PROPER REGISTRANT INFORMATION FOR THE COUNTLESS
DOMAINS THAT THEY HAVE STOLEN?

------
user49598
no one uses the whois unix command?

~~~
Auguste
Not everyone is on Unix. Whois doesn't ship with Windows, but it can still be
downloaded at [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/sysinternals/bb897435.asp...](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/sysinternals/bb897435.aspx).

------
redact207
1) The domain is cheap, should have registered it the first time round. 2) If
GoDaddy is domain tasting, then they'd return it in 2 more days and you should
be able to register it normally? 3) You shouldn't use GoDaddy because Bob
Parsons is an elephant killing douche, not because they do domain tasting.

~~~
jQueryIsAwesome
I bet the CEOs of other domain registers are cow killing douches.

------
ignaciogiri
I had the same problem 2 years ago - <http://cl.ly/ITnW>

------
ck2
You never should query a REGISTRAR, always directly query the REGISTRY for
domain availability and whois info.

Any coder worth their salt should be easily able to make a query program as a
weekend project. All the registry whois addresses are readily available.

------
joelrunyon
Do you know if this is standard practice or just GD?

Also, will this kick in if you search using something like
<http://bustaname.com> (I'm assuming they query the whoIS database directly,
but I'm not sure)

~~~
irunbackwards
Several registrars practice this, sadly.

------
digvan
They once screwed me for a domain in their auction. They hold my money for 45
days to refund after my credit card company sued them. They customer service
is also horrible. Never ever I will use their services.

------
kunle
If this is true, someone should build a bot that randomly creates garbage
domains and searches for them through godaddy repeatedly (so they buy millions
and millions of garbage domains).

------
greghinch
If you liked it you shoulda put a ring on it (aka domains are cheap, buy them
and worry about the idea later)

------
theli0nheart
What are you implying? If GoDaddy purchased every domain searched through
their site, they'd go bankrupt. It's not a very sustainable business model.

Isn't the more likely explanation that someone else also thought of your
excellent name and purchased it?

~~~
mistercow
Nope. There's a five-day grace period on domain registrations. They snatch the
domain to encourage you to buy it from them, and if you don't, they delete the
registration and get their money refunded. See
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting>

~~~
zcvosdfdgj
He doesn't claim that it happening here. He said: I searched for a domain, and
3 days later someone else registered it.

He has no complaint here. He has no right to domains he simply searched for
but refused to buy.

~~~
mistercow
>He said: I searched for a domain, and 3 days later someone else registered
it.

No, he said he searched for a domain, and when he went to register it 3 days
later, it was already taken. That is consistent with the hypothesis that
GoDaddy is tasting, since 3 days would be within the 5 day grace period.

~~~
zcvosdfdgj
He said it was registered _through_ godaddy. Not that godaddy owns it.

Honestly, if he really believes godaddy is tasting, there's a simple way to
end the debate. Post the name of the domain so we can all see the whois.

Of course he won't do that, because his entire post is BS

------
chris_wot
Time to start inputting every domain ever into the system.

------
cuero
domai.nr is an excellent domain search alternative.

------
annon
I'd say more than 75% of the registrars do this.

------
zcvosdfdgj
He checked on a domain name, it wasn't registered. He waited 3 days, and
someone else registered it through Godaddy (most popular registrar.. so he's
not the only person who uses it). Godaddy offered to help make an offer to the
person who purchased it.

He doesn't say Godaddy OWNS it.. someone else registered the domain through
Godaddy. BFD.

What is the complaint?

I'm not a fan of Godaddy (I'm moving all my domains to name.com).. but he
doesn't have a complaint here.

If you liked the domain you should have bought it.

~~~
zensavona
I understand that i should have bought it at the time (see the preface to my
post - "Although this is untimately my fault") I have trouble believing that
the domain was purchased by another individual because of it's obscurity, and
that is the reason I'm kinda annoyed I can't have it.

~~~
zcvosdfdgj
This has happened to me before. Millions of names being registered, and
sometimes more than one person has the same idea.

Which is why now days if I find a domain that I think I _might_ use, but am
not entirely sure about it, I waste the $8.

Chalk it up to lesson learned.

~~~
zensavona
For whatever reason that I happened to lose this domain, the lesson is
obviously now learned... Next time I will most definitely snap it up when the
opportunity presents itself.

~~~
chrischen
Since the domain isn't available anyways, what is it?

------
drivebyacct2
People don't do backups when warned. People don't change passwords or use
password managers when warned. Interestingly enough, people don't stop using
GoDaddy when warned.

------
franzus
Old news. I'm pretty paranoid when checking for domains that might be free. I
never use my registrars search (only if I'm about to buy in the next 10
seconds).

I have been burnt a few times by godaddy in the good ol' days :)

