I have no proof of anything GoDaddy specifically does.
A while back I came across some of my archives that mentioned a BBS name that was popular in the past. Thinking it would be neat to own the domain name of the company that went out of business, I went to GoDaddy and checked. It was available awesome. Got distracted, came back an hour later and it was no longer available, but was at auction.
My first suspicion is nothing nefarious happened. I could have misread available vs auction, but I don't think so. I might have mistyped the domain name, but I don't think so. Something didn't feel right.
A few days later I checked another domain using whois through icaan. No resolution. Available. Pop over to GoDaddy and do the same thing ... check name is available. As a test, I wait an hour and come back to the name at auction.
I cannot explain what happened it except maybe GoDaddy's name check leaks or someone had the exact same name ideas when I had them. Again, this was years ago and am unsure if it still occurs.
I can. I used to work at GoDaddy and they have an "Executive Domain Team" that is basically just a fancy word for a group of people that assist domain kiters. If you search for a domain on GoDaddy's whois, they put a hold on it and publish the list to potential domain "investors" (read: kiters) who then have the option of purchasing it out from under you. These are people that literally invest thousands of dollars to buy up domains on the off chance that they can resell them at a profit. Anytime there's a sunrise period on a new domain TLD, these guys go in and buy all the popular and common names wholesale and they have a dedicated person that works at GoDaddy to help them do this.
Anytime you have a question about whether something is a scam or not, just ask yourself where the money is. In this case, it's in GoDaddy making money off of any time a domain name is sold, re-sold, auctioned, or if it changes hands. It's where the majority of their money made comes from, outside of services where people just don't know that better alternatives exist.
This sounds exactly like what happened to me. I had a few .london domains in one of the early stages of the TLD launch. Sat there for about 60 days, and then all of a sudden - gone.
GD support were useless and I lost out on a few quality domain names. Never used them again since. In fact, I don’t even think I got my money back!
This is a known trick of many registrars, but GoDaddy has to be the leader. Happened to me on two occasions as well.
Recently it's supposed to be a bit cracked down on as they have strict quotas on how many domains they can reserve without outright buying.
As for my case, it was a couple years ago where they would also host a small site redirecting to the auction. It states that it is owned by some XYZ entity, but if you peel enough layers of the onion scheme you can get to their name.
Doesn’t give you the price though which is one of the things people are looking for when searching for a domain and if it’s not one of the popular TLDs where you already know a ballpark figure.
I also have no proof, but I have heard enough other stories like this one that I firmly belief something is going on. Using GoDaddy to check if a domain is available is a good way to make that domain become unavailable.
I also had this experience once a few years ago (2011 or 2012). I found it extremely suspicious and spent a few days running a some experiments. I came up with a list of domains and watched what happened after a GoDaddy search: some (but not all) of my domains were suddenly purchased by a GoDaddy organization. Literally all of the ones that were purchased were available again after a few days (I assume this has to do with the grace period).
Since then I don't type any candidate domain into any registrar / online tool unless I'm ready to purchase.
This is called domain kiting or "tasting"[0]. The founder of Go Daddy decried the idea a decade ago[1]. Of course this was after running their own kiting operation for some time using ad placement via Google Ad Sense for Domains (no content necessary, just a domain name). I know, because I worked on the app that serviced 20M domains and fed metrics back to the team that decided to buy or release. The project was shuttered after some employee abuse (buying the domains for themselves) and shortly before Bob declared the moral high ground.
You should find a registrar that does not engage in this behavior. I use gandi.net. I pay almost twice as much as the cheapest registrars charge but I never have to worry about how they are going to treat me.
This isn't limited to Godaddy. A friend of mine tried to register a domain name on Network Solutions way back when they were still called that. He typed in his credit card number wrong. By the time he got an e-mail stating the transaction failed, someone else had already registered his domain.
My impression is that a domain checker works as a password checker: each domain/password inserted gets listed in a database. In case of domains, a simple script is enough to skim them and get the 'gold'. In case of passwords, even if the password was unique, after checking it won't be anymore..
I seem to remember a time (probably over a decade ago) where Netsol actually admitted this, tried to defend it, then eventually backed down and said that they would stop doing it. I've always used command-line whois to check for available domains since then, never had one snatched up either.
I was happy with Namecheap until they redesigned their website and included a tonne of JS which slowed everything down. Doing something as simple as changing an A record became unbearably sluggish, and I tend to think I have a fairly high tolerance for that kind of thing.
I gave them a few months to see if it was teething problems with the new design but it persisted. Eventually I moved everything to gandi, which has been better in every way as far as I can tell - cheaper (for me), better website, better features out of the box.
No they don't. At least not in the way that GoDaddy does it... NameCheap does this with domains that have expired and domains that are searched and reserved but fail for some reason. Since part of the service they provide is contingent on covering for people in the event of failures (missed renewals, misspellings, etc.), NameCheap auto-renews domains and reserves variations of others when they're registered. If the user doesn't end up actually renewing the domain, they mark it up and sell it as a premium domain since they now have paid for a domain without a buyer. NameCheap mostly does this as a service for existing customers. GoDaddy, on the other hand, does it explicitly for the revenue they can generate from desperate people who need domains they previously searched for.
I've never experienced this in my 5 or 6 years of using them (not definitively saying it doesn't happen). I frequently search for domains and then come back at a later date to purchase them for the exact price they were originally listed at.
Namecheap is good. Porkbun.com is worth keeping an eye on. I've got a few domains with them. Excellent support and really competitive pricing. gandi.net is also decent for certain international TLDs.
I check https://tld-list.com regularly for ultra cheap renewals. I have two .party domains that I previously renewed for ten years for about $1/year a while ago.
I recently got into the first wave of Cloudflare's domain registration, but I have had a pretty good experience with Namecheap over the years. It looks like I can save a few bucks here and there, but my next expiring domain isn't for a few months so hopefully I can read other's experiences by then.
Look at NameSilo.com. Their renewals are less expensive and that includes free domain privacy while NameCheap.com charges for domain privacy after the first year. They also have free 2FA and accept BitCoin.
Porkbun.com is a bit less expensive than NameSilo.com and also offers free domain privacy but I haven't tried it.
Another inexpensive one is NameBright.com but no free domain privacy, but some might prefer it if they don't care about domain privacy. I haven't tried this one either.
Namecheap is also scammy. I searched for a random URL (smithstein.co.ru) and it said that while they don't sell co.ru they sell smithstein.com ( https://i.ibb.co/FxmMH81/Screenshot-20181212-133716.png ) . After clicking the button to buy it shows an error ( https://i.ibb.co/2Zbp7hB/Screenshot-20181212-133828.png ) and then when trying to search for smithstein.com I am given the option to make an offer (ie. not buy because someone else owns it)
Nothing new. I used to buy and sell (mostly buy) lots of domains and wrote a review of several registrars in 2014 placing Godaddy at the very last place recommending users to stay away. Here below is what I wrote then:
"Godaddy has improved slightly on their interface since last years review. However they still have large menus that are complicated to navigate through and seem to be using the same bait and switch methods as before. After finally finding a domain that you like you will receive several offers for email, hosting, etc before you can even get to the cart. All prices seem to have an asterisk or two telling you that their super low price is only valid if you pay for 2 years or more. Going from previous experience I feel as if Godaddy wants to lock me in to use their services for as long as possible or to simply get as much money out of me before I leave. Looking around for what Godaddy charges for renewals I found several red flags where users are getting charged “market prices” for their renewals. You can see a forum thread regarding how Godaddy charges way too much for renewals here (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1365680). This post here (https://www.authormedia.com/6-reasons-authors-should-avoid-g...) even gives an additional 6 reasons why you should stay away from Godaddy."
I think I saw your post long time ago and switched from GoDaddy to Namecheap because of it. Now I'm using Google Domain. Thank you for your contribution!
The premium renewal thing blew my mind when I first saw it. I couldn't believe they were so bold as to say that one .com is more expensive to renew than another.
Moving away from GoDaddy was one of the most rewarding "online service" switches I've made. I used to cringe visiting GoDaddy when renewing domain names where I've had to carefully navigate my way through their Dark UX patterns which feels like I've ventured into the "Dark side of the Web" where you can't trust what you read and everything is designed to upsell scams out of you.
I've moved everything to Google Domains, at $12 /y for .com domains it's only a little more expensive than GoDaddy (with Coupons) but it has a straight-forward simple and minimalist UI where I can get everything I need to get done (e.g. dns config/renewing) quickly and easily.
It's an example of a UX-focused UI built for you by contrast I view GoDaddy's user-hostile UX was designed against your best interests.
I totally agree. I always dreaded the time when I had to renew my SSL cert with GoDaddy. Then, each year, while navigating on their website, I always ended up asking myself if they hired a group of psychos to design their UI.
After a couple of years I finally found Namecheap and never looked back.
FWIW, GoDaddy isn't the only site I've seen do this. I had the same issue a couple years ago when I tried to use Google Domains to find a domain for my website. At the time I was trying a few and found, to my delight, that nothingofvalue.com was available.
I started the process of purchasing it and then got scared when it came time to list my personal address for ownership. I stopped for about an hour to call my father to see if he would mind if I used his PO Box as the address. When I went back to redo/complete the registration, I was told the domain had been purchased by someone else.
For the next year or two, I checked it periodically, just to see if anyone had actually built a page of it. Nope. Just squatting.
I purchased nothingofvalue.org instead and have had it ever since. I also transferred the domain to Namecheap.
I remember I once searched for a domain name on Godaddy, and found that it was available. I waited a couple days before I decided on buying it, but next time I checked it was registered by Godaddy. If you wen to the address, you were directed to a website stating the domain has been "parked for your convenience", and you could buy it from them for now twice as much. I remember feeling so completely cheated I never did business with them again, and certainly never searched for available domains with them.
I've experienced sketchy practices from several domain brokers and hosting services. GoDaddy is just the most widely used amongst my friends and clients--making them a necessary evil in my life--luckily not at my expense.
They once charged me, if memory serves, $75 to resolve a complaint about one of my domains. They wouldn't tell me what the complaint was, who brought it, or how it was resolved. They just charged my card on file $75 for the "service".
I transferred my domains out and never looked back.
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A while back I came across some of my archives that mentioned a BBS name that was popular in the past. Thinking it would be neat to own the domain name of the company that went out of business, I went to GoDaddy and checked. It was available awesome. Got distracted, came back an hour later and it was no longer available, but was at auction.
My first suspicion is nothing nefarious happened. I could have misread available vs auction, but I don't think so. I might have mistyped the domain name, but I don't think so. Something didn't feel right.
A few days later I checked another domain using whois through icaan. No resolution. Available. Pop over to GoDaddy and do the same thing ... check name is available. As a test, I wait an hour and come back to the name at auction.
I cannot explain what happened it except maybe GoDaddy's name check leaks or someone had the exact same name ideas when I had them. Again, this was years ago and am unsure if it still occurs.
Anytime you have a question about whether something is a scam or not, just ask yourself where the money is. In this case, it's in GoDaddy making money off of any time a domain name is sold, re-sold, auctioned, or if it changes hands. It's where the majority of their money made comes from, outside of services where people just don't know that better alternatives exist.
GD support were useless and I lost out on a few quality domain names. Never used them again since. In fact, I don’t even think I got my money back!
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As for my case, it was a couple years ago where they would also host a small site redirecting to the auction. It states that it is owned by some XYZ entity, but if you peel enough layers of the onion scheme you can get to their name.
You can read more about the practice and measures here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tastinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running
It's what I've always turned to first for availability. Super fast and less chance of a middleman grabbing it because you expressed interest.
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Since then I don't type any candidate domain into any registrar / online tool unless I'm ready to purchase.
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting
1 - https://web.archive.org/web/20070707203924/http://www.bobpar...
It was a trendy .com domain that was available, naively I didn't grab it right away, 2 days latter I went to purchase it, it was taken..
Cloudflare is also entering this business and looks promising.
I gave them a few months to see if it was teething problems with the new design but it persisted. Eventually I moved everything to gandi, which has been better in every way as far as I can tell - cheaper (for me), better website, better features out of the box.
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Namecheap also does domain name front running and tasting, so it's not really any different.
I check https://tld-list.com regularly for ultra cheap renewals. I have two .party domains that I previously renewed for ten years for about $1/year a while ago.
Porkbun.com is a bit less expensive than NameSilo.com and also offers free domain privacy but I haven't tried it.
Another inexpensive one is NameBright.com but no free domain privacy, but some might prefer it if they don't care about domain privacy. I haven't tried this one either.
They are suspect as all hell.
Didn't they recently stop that?
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"Godaddy has improved slightly on their interface since last years review. However they still have large menus that are complicated to navigate through and seem to be using the same bait and switch methods as before. After finally finding a domain that you like you will receive several offers for email, hosting, etc before you can even get to the cart. All prices seem to have an asterisk or two telling you that their super low price is only valid if you pay for 2 years or more. Going from previous experience I feel as if Godaddy wants to lock me in to use their services for as long as possible or to simply get as much money out of me before I leave. Looking around for what Godaddy charges for renewals I found several red flags where users are getting charged “market prices” for their renewals. You can see a forum thread regarding how Godaddy charges way too much for renewals here (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1365680). This post here (https://www.authormedia.com/6-reasons-authors-should-avoid-g...) even gives an additional 6 reasons why you should stay away from Godaddy."
https://archives.tenghamn.com/best/domain/registrar/2014/10/...
I've moved everything to Google Domains, at $12 /y for .com domains it's only a little more expensive than GoDaddy (with Coupons) but it has a straight-forward simple and minimalist UI where I can get everything I need to get done (e.g. dns config/renewing) quickly and easily.
It's an example of a UX-focused UI built for you by contrast I view GoDaddy's user-hostile UX was designed against your best interests.
After a couple of years I finally found Namecheap and never looked back.
I started the process of purchasing it and then got scared when it came time to list my personal address for ownership. I stopped for about an hour to call my father to see if he would mind if I used his PO Box as the address. When I went back to redo/complete the registration, I was told the domain had been purchased by someone else.
For the next year or two, I checked it periodically, just to see if anyone had actually built a page of it. Nope. Just squatting.
I purchased nothingofvalue.org instead and have had it ever since. I also transferred the domain to Namecheap.
They once charged me, if memory serves, $75 to resolve a complaint about one of my domains. They wouldn't tell me what the complaint was, who brought it, or how it was resolved. They just charged my card on file $75 for the "service".
I transferred my domains out and never looked back.