The Bad
GoDaddy Conspiracy! Buying domains you search for!
It’s a conspiracy! I have come across a very interesting situation after searching for a potential domain to buy. I’m not alone in this conspiracy because many other’s have blogged about the same problem.
The Scenario
A few months ago I had a bright idea for a cool new web application that was on my list to do. So I went on a domain search and I used GoDaddy to check out if it was free. It was so I went and did some research and design mockups before I made a strong commitment. That’s where I went wrong and where I found out about GoDaddy’s evil plan.
When you search for a domain to see if its available not only is it checked to be free but it is also logged in a database. You can tell so because in the URL bar the search generates an ID number which means it has a record stored somewhere. Nothings wrong with that but after you have found a great domain free you should probably buy it on the spot. A GoDaddy employee will be checking a list of domains that showed as free and may nab it before you can.
This is how I proved it. In my notebook, paper not a laptop, I had a page where I was jotting down notes for this web app. I usually put a title at the top of the page and a date for future reference. I checked a few domains on the list I had on that page on GoDaddy and the one I liked the most was free. So after I was working on the back ideas, I know I should have bought it anyway, a few weeks later it was registered. The nature of the domain was obscure and wouldn’t be anything I would think would be usable so its not like it was bought by someone. The WhoIs shows that it was in fact purchased using GoDaddy and with WhoIs protection, nothing wrong with that. It’s the timeframe, verified by the date in my notebook and the date at the time, of the purchase and the research I did into it that alerted me to this scheme.
How to prove this yourself
How can this be proven? Well you can try it yourself, find a cool and available domain name then use the domain availability search on GoDaddy. Wait a few weeks or maybe a month and then check to see if its still available. Depending on how good the domain is and how attractive it would be to have it may be taken and if it is then you can do a WhoIs search on the domain. It will probably be bought by GoDaddy or a sub-company. GoDaddy may even have their own “This website is under construction” page with a billion advertisements on it.
Where this pisses me off and why I’ll never use GoDaddy again is because they have this feature if a domain is taken:
“Use a Domain Buy Agent to get this name” which means “We charge you more money to buy a domain we bought on purpose”. Also as a test lets see if any of those free domains for Angry Web Designer mysteriously get bought, .net may disappear but not by GoDaddy. The Domain Buy Agent will cost you another $59 upfront with a commission (minimum $10US)… So GoDaddy can literally name a price and then reap all the profits.
This is ridiculous because GoDaddy is purchasing domains as they please to gain profit from the people that want them. This practice, in my opinion, is a disgrace and goes against everything of what the Internet’s about. Freedom of speech and information regardless of geographic location, race or opinion you should be able to buy a domain without having it strategically squatted by a bloated domain registrar, any registrar for that matter. I can continue to rant here…but I wont.
If your using GoDaddy or are planning to, DONT! There are better registrars out there with the same or even better price. I use NameCheap because its quick and easy and, to my knowledge, wont steal domains from you.
Interesting posts related to shady GoDaddy activity:
Is GoDaddy a mass-cybersquatter? [The Legal Satyricon]
Who is monitoring your domain searches? [Daily Domainer]
Has this happened to you? Other domain registrars stealing domains from your search queries?
3 Comments
Tags: conspiracy, disgrace, domains, godaddy, squatting
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March 28, 2009 11:00 pm
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Joe Blow
This same thing happened to me. They are freakin criminals. Don’t type any name into their domain search box unless you are sure you are going to purchase it immediately. Otherwise all bets are off. They have no scruples, and you should be able to tell that by the ads they run.
RSP
Something like this happened last year with another company. What they said about this was: That as soon as you typed something, they will “RESERVE” it for “YOU” for a period of time (don’t remember exactly) because they don’t want you to LOOSE it… so they explained they will only allow the IP address that did the search to register that domain.
Justin Long
I had this happen with a .me domain name which godaddy is one of the only registers that sell them which is frustrating.