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Was Godaddy Caught Registering Domains Names After Availability Lookup?

92 points by pier0 14y ago

Natsu 14y ago
Let's test this. WECHEATPEOPLEOUTOFDOMAINSFORFUNANDPROFITANDWEHATEKITTENSTOO.COM is available. Just $12.99* I wonder how long that will stay available?
ekanes 14y ago
One point of data, this has happened to me personally with GoDaddy.
tholman 14y ago
Pretty poor investigative journalism in my opinion... No testing, or planning to scope them out... just one email, and he can "honestly say" that they don't do it. Weak.
apawloski 14y ago
Am I just missing the sarcasm in this article? How on earth is "We can now honestly say that Godaddy is not involved with domain name 'front running'" a reasonable conclusion from that one sentenced email? The sender is someone we'd expect to deny this. Edit: The author has since edited the post. The part I quote was a direct copy-paste of the last sentence from the original version. He's since made a half-hearted attempt to qualify this.
- Trufa 14y ago
  I assumed he was being sarcastic. Otherwise it is the worst investigation I have ever witnessed.
- kevincennis 14y ago
  "Can we now..." not "We can now". It's a rhetorical question, not an assertion.
  - apawloski 14y ago
    He's since edited it. My initial post was a direct quote.
  - corin_ 14y ago
    It's a question, but not a rhetorical one.
- javajosh 14y ago
  >The sender is someone we'd expect to deny this. But if GoDaddy is front-running, and they outright lie and deny front-running, then it adds to their liability. Fraud is far less defensible than front-running itself (which could be defended as a good capitalistic use of asymmetrical information, after all). Given the increase in liability the denial presents for GoDaddy, my sense is that it lends credibility to the assertion that they are not, after all, front-running. This, plus the rather weak evidence that they're doing so (the lone assertion of a single blogger) makes me believe that there is reasonable doubt about whether they are doing it. Hey, if there are more people stepping forward, then lets see a class-action and get the proof in the light.
binarysolo 14y ago
The better question: does GoDaddy offer data services that allow other parties to check anonymized domain availability search histories?
programminggeek 14y ago
This proves nothing. They say they aren't front running and never have, and yet how many times have people looked up a domain on GoDaddy only to have it registered minutes or hours later by a GoDaddy account. That doesn't mean that GoDaddy itself is doing this, but their employees certainly could be, or they could sell domain query data to a 3rd party to keep their hands clean. Some Godaddy employees certainly have access to the data of who is looking for what. It would not be hard at all to have an algorithm that looks that those domains for dictionary words and possibly look at Google keyword search volume on each one and only buy the ones that pass some minimum criteria. That would be smarter than Network Solutions and harder to prove. I personally stopped doing domain lookups on GoDaddy because they would register domains I didn't pull the trigger on fast enough and I've been moving domains away from them as well. Just because some VP says they don't do it doesn't mean they aren't lying or there isn't some low level tech or manager who isn't doing this on their own.
- shell0x 14y ago
  I agree with you. I would say the same if I would do domain name front running. Who wouldn't lie in this situation? But there are more reasons for avoiding godaddy. Their CEO kills elephants, they had an important role in designing the SOPA bill(and moved back then) and they are expensive. I would recommend gandi.net or inwx(InternetworX) instead.
  - dangrossman 14y ago
    Gandi has the unique contract term where they can take your domain if you violate their "ethical code" or "fail to facilitate the fight against deviant use of the Internet"... which is pretty much a blanket right to revoke your domain at any time if you host user-generated content, among other things. http://www.gandi.net/static/contracts/en/g2/pdf/MSA-1.2-EN.pdf http://www.gandi.net/static/contracts/en/g2/pdf/MSA-1.2-EN.p... I'd avoid that. NameCheap has a history of standing on the side of its customers' rights. They're my current choice.
    - shell0x 14y ago
fiddle 14y ago
Recently, I was checking whois for a 5-letter domain which had just expired. It was available, but seconds after I checked it with Godaddy's whois (checked the update timestamp), it was taken by Domains By Proxy, LLC (Godaddy's company). So for anyone checking this out, consider they may only do it with recently expired domains or short domains. They may also turn off this code if this blows up in public.
- pgrote 14y ago
  They offer a domain snapping service, so if something expired they might have bought it for a customer.
ktizo 14y ago
Yet another reason to bookmark http://geektools.com http://geektools.com
datums 14y ago
This has been happening for many years now. They sell the stream to other companies who register the domain for a few days for free. They stamp the for sale page on it and wait, drop it and maybe register it again.
gddr 14y ago
Isn't that something you could investigate and prove? Look up 1000 randomly-generated domains from different IPs, check later if any of them are registered, done.
- jorgem 14y ago
  I suspect they would only register names that look somewhat "good". There are plenty of automated ways to valuate domain names -- then just pick the unregistered ones that exceed some value.
  - pbhjpbhj 14y ago
    You could run a list of available domain names from a domain name suggestion service as lookups using an automated system. You'd want a botnet to avoid getting your IP blocked. Wasn't the problem that the registrars could retain the domain names without having to pay for a few days? I thought that ICANN had addressed it but am pretty hazy on that point.
- TheAmazingIdiot 14y ago
  Or the other idea is to exploit their exploit. Make a LOIC-like program that queries, say, 100 domains per minute. Brute-force up to 20 char dns names. Let godaddy purchase a few million before they find out what's going on. One could lower the queries per minute to make it not look so brute-force-y.
SeanDav 14y ago
Probably not a strong case for OP, but in any case GoDaddy is evil and should be avoided in all shapes and forms. A bit of Googling will show why.
samstave 14y ago
Even worse, godaddy will routinely pick available domains and mark them as "premium" domains and hold them hostage for outrageous prices. They are not selling them on behalf of anyone - they, the registrar, are illegally marking them up.
- 1123581321 14y ago
  Sincerely, why do you think it illegal? Aren't they allowed to speculatively register domains to resell? Please understand this is a sincere question. I'm asking because I think it's legal. If it's illegal, I want to know about that, and especially how the law might view a register's squatting and an individual's squatting differently. Edit: Just so it's clear, by "register" I mean truly register the domain for a year -- not "taste" it for a few days and then cancel the registration, if that is even still allowed.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
grassclip 14y ago
Very appropriate in this situation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines
- damian2000 14y ago
  +1 came here to say the same thing.
jgh 14y ago
Hell, GoDaddy didn't even bother registering my domain after availability lookup. They waited until I paid for it and then 6 months later parked the domain with their bullshit. I never changed any settings or anything, and yet if you go to my domain, all you see is GoDaddy's bullshit.
- jorgem 14y ago
  This doesn't make sense. Please add more details...
  - jgh 14y ago
    I realize it doesn't make any sense. It was working until it wasn't. I contacted customer service and they just gave me the steps on how to set up the domain from the documentation. Since I had already done that, and it appeared the settings were correct (since it was working for a while and I never changed it afterward). I didn't bother with it any more after that because it's not worth fighting GoDaddy over $15 or whatever, I'm just taking my business elsewhere.
- bryans 14y ago
  I'm not one to defend GoDaddy, but it sounds like you just never did anything with it. If you don't point the domain to a hosting account or change the nameservers, GoDaddy always displays the parked domain page by default. You can turn it off in your account settings if you want.
  - jgh 14y ago
    Sorry, I should have been clearer in my post. The domain was set up and working, and then it stopped working.
  - tokenizer 14y ago
    When I used GoDaddy they automatically park your domain until you configure the nameservers like you said. This is the most likely explanation of his/her account.
loeschg 14y ago
I could have sworn this happened to me. I looked up my own name (.com) one day, and it was available. I checked back a week or so later, and it was taken. I monitored the domain for a year and saw no activity. At the end of a year it became available, and I snagged it at a base price. Seemed like too much of a coincidence. I don't have that common of a name. I can't prove anything though.
- mcantelon 14y ago
  Happened to me as well. I can't remember if it was Godaddy or some other web lookup, but now I only ever use CLI tools to do domain lookups.
subrat_rout 14y ago
Back in 2009 and 2010 when I was a novice (And I am still consider myself as a novice)in the field of web development, I do not remember how many times I have searched for a domain name (with a scientific terminology in it) to find that it is available but gone after few days and parked on a place such as Sedo.
ninetax 14y ago
Yet again an article that fulfils Betteridge's Law of Headlines[1]. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headlines
zupreme 14y ago
This is a very interesting discussion. I've been flipping domain names as a side-biz for years and I've had ALOT of discussions with other guys who say that GoDaddy sniped a domain from them. In some cases the people have checked on 3rd party sites (like NS), found that the domain was available, then went to Godaddy for cheaper registration only to have GD report that the domain is unavailable. In a couple of instances guys would then go back to NS or their other favorite registrar only to find that the domain was registered by "Domains by Proxy", which is GoDaddy's anonymous registration partner/subsidiary. I haven't personally had it happen to me, but too many people I trust say that it has happened to them for me to ignore it.
- gojomo 14y ago
  GoDaddy is the largest registrar, and anyone can use their anonymyzation. So 'checking other sites' and THEN seeing that some anonymous someone registered via GoDaddy provides little negative evidence against GoDaddy.
  - zupreme 14y ago
    I agree. You couldn't go to court with this type of evidence, but you have to admit that for the site to be available, then within minutes of you searching for it on GoDaddy, it then becoming anonymously registered would raise eyebrows.
    - gojomo 14y ago
      But that scenario -- searching only through GoDaddy (preferably HTTPS), and seeing that domain gone minutes later -- is not described in the comment I responded to. Nor in the parent linked article. Nor was it in the prior report this article mentions. And yet, even if that did happen, GoDaddy gets millions of registrations per year, and many times that in lookups. So losing a domain minutes later is certain to happen many times per year for strictly innocent/coincidental reasons. And some of the advice being given in these sorts of threads -- use DNS/whois lookups, use other random website services -- could be increasing the risk. (Those protocols are eavesdroppable, those services have less to risk than GoDaddy.)
juan_juarez 14y ago
Why is anyone relying on a 3rd party to check domain availability? You can do DNS lookups and whois searches from the comfort of your own machine. There's no need to let anyone else know you're interested until you're actually ready to pull the trigger.
- gojomo 14y ago
  That might be more dangerous. If you trust GoDaddy, and do a search in an HTTPS session with them, there's little risk a third-party could learn of your interest/idea and snap up the name. OTOH, dns and whois are unencrypted protocols. Eavesdroppers could see your lookups. Depending on which DNS or WHOIS servers you are consulting, their administrators may be untrustworthy. For example, many whois installations default to asking NetworkSolutions, who at one point (2008) was definitely front-running by their own admission.
barryrandall 14y ago
Sorry guys, I'm pretty sure you're chasing ghosts. I was a development manager there a few years ago, and they go to extremes to avoid anything that even comes close to looking like this. The capability doesn't exist in their software, and it would be a massive effort to enable it. In high volume systems, low probability events happen very frequently.
- tokenizer 14y ago
  How do you explain users mentioning the who is data linking back to GoDaddy? I'm trying to believe this is just rotten luck, but every single account of this happening seems to link back to GoDaddy.
  - nivla 14y ago
    Buy a whois protection from any registrar and the registrar's name shows up. Given the risk of publicizing your real email and the cost of just $3.99 per year, most people do opt for whois protection.
- jcrites 14y ago
  > The capability doesn't exist in their software, and it would be a massive effort to enable it. What makes this a massive effort? I assume that GoDaddy has existing software to register a domain name given the name, and some fixed configuration like who should be listed as owner, contact, etc. So we need to call that logic, passing as input each domain that has been searched for. Upon every search for a domain name, enqueue the search term to a queue. (This can happen e.g. after the page load completes.) The search results already indicate whether the name is registered, so only write unregistered domains to the queue. Set up a fleet of workers to pull items from that queue and call the functionality that registers a domain. It seems feasible to have a basic prototype of this functionality operational within a day or two of effort (e.g., a dumb implementation that simply registers every search term that's a valid domain). I'm sure the production version will need to be smarter, like not registering every single search, or estimating the value of a prospect and only registering high-value prospects - but wouldn't a basic flagrant implementation be fairly simple?
bg_info_guy 14y ago
Previous discussion/accusation here (~ 2 years ago): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326790 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326790 ICANN investigated (generally, not godaddy specifically) 3 years ago, no evidence was found: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090807/0048175795.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090807/0048175795.shtml GoDaddy's own support background here: http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-with-your-domain-searches/ http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-wi... The current CEO of GoDaddy is not Bob Parsons (the "elephant hunter"). GoDaddy was sold to a group of investors this year and Parsons stepped down shortly after: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576420372308902058.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230458400457642... Warren Adelman took over for Parsons last year, followed by current CEO Scott Wagner who took over this month as interim CEO: http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/godaddy-ceo-steps-down-scott-wagner-named-interim-ceo/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/godaddy-ceo-steps-down-scot...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
franzus 14y ago
Hmm, I can only speak from my experience where I checked domains with GD and when I came back one week later to register them I was greeted with a "this domain has been registered. but you can buy it for $50"-type message. This was around 2003 and since then I'm avoiding godaddy.
isalmon 14y ago
I had EXACTLY this situation with GoDaddy earlier this year. I was looking for a good domain name, found it (intelface.com), but decided to sleep on it. Next morning it was gone. I know you can't prove anything, but it looked very suspicious at that time.
jakeonthemove 14y ago
Well, I'm glad I don't use GoDaddy - I'm always paranoid when searching for a domain name, though - if I find a good one, I tend to register it right away out of fear that it might be taken right after the search. Guess there's some truth to that.
pbhjpbhj 14y ago
Back in 2008 I did a test on a couple of sites. I found that Easily.co.uk claimed a made up domain name "nobodywantsadomainnamewithlotsofnumbers1231891904817401" - used as a one time test string for this registrar alone - was already taken on 3 TLDs (I've got a screenshot saved) ... the chances of that being a random collision seem pretty low.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
Limes102 14y ago
This has happened to me a couple of times, but it doesn't prove that GoDaddy are the ones who are actually registering them.
soapdog 14y ago
This happened to me. I checked if a domain was available, it was, I went out of the house to tell my friend. We went back to register it and it was gone. damn! Now, I just use whois from the terminal.
silentific 14y ago
I'm shocked that anyone is surprised that this still happens. The author claims he broke the news in 2008, but NetSol has been doing this for a very long time. I remember using a service that let you do wild card domain searches before going anywhere near a registrar. "Domain Surfer", I believe. These days I just pull the trigger instantly when I find an available domain. Pull the trigger!
LouLang 14y ago
Wouldn't it be trivial to perform some sort of analysis on this? That is, write a script to test an appropriately sized sample for domain availability. Then after some predetermined time, check the availability again. I'd imagine if GoDaddy is registering domains, then we'd find that our data was statistically significant.
n0mad01 14y ago
I had such an presumption many years ago with another Registrar. My guess is that they check manually all searched (yet free) domains and register the best ones after a while, it wouldn't even surprise me if this is the standard.
antonios 14y ago
I'm just another soul that experienced the same despicable behavior from GoDaddy. Far too many coincidences, I say.
ortusdux 14y ago
Could someone with an amazon turk requester account please test this?
donohoe 14y ago
I have had two domains, months apart (back in 2009?), that I looked-up via GoDaddy and then were gone the next day when I went to register. These were obscure names, one with numbers. This is just my experience, could be plain bad luck/timing. However at the time I wondered about this (nice to know it has an actual term) - emailed them angrily and got a placating response. This makes me reconsider.
j45 14y ago
This absolutely happens. Only with GoDaddy? Not sure. I have searched for some obscure domains in unpopular niches (imagine <extremely obscure keyword><extremely rare/popular suffix>.com> to find them registered mysteriously 24 hours later to someone on.. you guessed it.. Go daddy. This has happened enough times to me that I now only search for domains after I login into the control panel at the domain provider I use. Many domain/whois tools do the same things. My semi-educated guess is all searches are queued, sorted by popular keywords, and most likely hand picked off by an official employee, or someone who may have access to the data. OTOH, I'm surprised no one has done a honeypot experiment to catch this type of behaviour in the act.
TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Searching for some made-up names on GoDaddy. Will check them tommorow. * now-why-would-they-register-such-an-obscure-domain-122828178327 * now-why-would-they-register-such-an-obscure-domain-211278327 * now-why-would-they-register-such-an-obscure-domain-218398211
- wpietri 14y ago
  You might have to try a larger number of things that would score higher in terms of domain value. If I were front-running, I might concentrate on domains that were likely to have resale value beyond the original purchaser. Also, given that GoDaddy is being accused of this right now, they'd be smart to stop any front-running for a few weeks.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    Yep. They weren't taken today.
- thebigshane 14y ago
  Here's your honeypot `j45`.
harel 14y ago
Its quite easy to do a sting operation on them to prove the practice. I searched for a random domain name now. Silly name: YABODABODOODIDA.com. Took screenshots of the search and its availability. Lets see in a couple of days who owns this domain name.... Then rinse, and repeat the process...
alohahacker 14y ago
This once happened to me about 2 years ago. I got furious and called up godaddy wanting to talk to someone that could give me an answer. They said we don't buy domains but when a domain is looked up on our website sometimes it is publicly available and sometimes other people end up buying them on speculation. I searched for the domain godaddysucksbigbigballs.com multiple times and it ended up being taken after 10 mins. I assume that since there was a grace period where people could simply drop a domain and get a refund after a couple days that squaters somehow obtained the information and weree buying domains that people were searching in hoping to profit.
Wingman4l7 14y ago
Isn't this domain tasting? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  Or maybe it's domain name "front running": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running
bbayer 14y ago
İ personnally experienced those kind of issues with GoDaddy and this was the main reason of switching to name.com. They don't front running all domains but I believe they do for some keywords which is relatively valuable
rsanchez1 14y ago
I thought this was common knowledge already. Look up most guides to starting your own website, and they will list front running as a precaution people should take when looking for a domain name. A lot of guides recommend having a list of preferred names in mind, then checking their availability. If the domain name is available, buy it on the spot. If not, move on to the next domain name on your list. I know the first thing I do when I want to start a website is secure the domain name. Then I worry about hosting.
damian2000 14y ago
With the massive amount of backlash they got from SOPA, I seriously doubt whether they would be doing this sort of thing.

92 points by pier0 14y ago

Natsu 14y ago

Let's test this. WECHEATPEOPLEOUTOFDOMAINSFORFUNANDPROFITANDWEHATEKITTENSTOO.COM is available. Just $12.99* I wonder how long that will stay available?

ekanes 14y ago

One point of data, this has happened to me personally with GoDaddy.

tholman 14y ago

Pretty poor investigative journalism in my opinion... No testing, or planning to scope them out... just one email, and he can "honestly say" that they don't do it. Weak.

apawloski 14y ago

Am I just missing the sarcasm in this article? How on earth is "We can now honestly say that Godaddy is not involved with domain name 'front running'" a reasonable conclusion from that one sentenced email? The sender is someone we'd expect to deny this. Edit: The author has since edited the post. The part I quote was a direct copy-paste of the last sentence from the original version. He's since made a half-hearted attempt to qualify this.

Trufa 14y ago
I assumed he was being sarcastic. Otherwise it is the worst investigation I have ever witnessed.
kevincennis 14y ago
"Can we now..." not "We can now". It's a rhetorical question, not an assertion.
- apawloski 14y ago
  He's since edited it. My initial post was a direct quote.
- corin_ 14y ago
  It's a question, but not a rhetorical one.
javajosh 14y ago
>The sender is someone we'd expect to deny this. But if GoDaddy is front-running, and they outright lie and deny front-running, then it adds to their liability. Fraud is far less defensible than front-running itself (which could be defended as a good capitalistic use of asymmetrical information, after all). Given the increase in liability the denial presents for GoDaddy, my sense is that it lends credibility to the assertion that they are not, after all, front-running. This, plus the rather weak evidence that they're doing so (the lone assertion of a single blogger) makes me believe that there is reasonable doubt about whether they are doing it. Hey, if there are more people stepping forward, then lets see a class-action and get the proof in the light.

binarysolo 14y ago

The better question: does GoDaddy offer data services that allow other parties to check anonymized domain availability search histories?

programminggeek 14y ago

This proves nothing. They say they aren't front running and never have, and yet how many times have people looked up a domain on GoDaddy only to have it registered minutes or hours later by a GoDaddy account. That doesn't mean that GoDaddy itself is doing this, but their employees certainly could be, or they could sell domain query data to a 3rd party to keep their hands clean. Some Godaddy employees certainly have access to the data of who is looking for what. It would not be hard at all to have an algorithm that looks that those domains for dictionary words and possibly look at Google keyword search volume on each one and only buy the ones that pass some minimum criteria. That would be smarter than Network Solutions and harder to prove. I personally stopped doing domain lookups on GoDaddy because they would register domains I didn't pull the trigger on fast enough and I've been moving domains away from them as well. Just because some VP says they don't do it doesn't mean they aren't lying or there isn't some low level tech or manager who isn't doing this on their own.

shell0x 14y ago
I agree with you. I would say the same if I would do domain name front running. Who wouldn't lie in this situation? But there are more reasons for avoiding godaddy. Their CEO kills elephants, they had an important role in designing the SOPA bill(and moved back then) and they are expensive. I would recommend gandi.net or inwx(InternetworX) instead.
- dangrossman 14y ago
  Gandi has the unique contract term where they can take your domain if you violate their "ethical code" or "fail to facilitate the fight against deviant use of the Internet"... which is pretty much a blanket right to revoke your domain at any time if you host user-generated content, among other things. http://www.gandi.net/static/contracts/en/g2/pdf/MSA-1.2-EN.pdf http://www.gandi.net/static/contracts/en/g2/pdf/MSA-1.2-EN.p... I'd avoid that. NameCheap has a history of standing on the side of its customers' rights. They're my current choice.
  - shell0x 14y ago

fiddle 14y ago

Recently, I was checking whois for a 5-letter domain which had just expired. It was available, but seconds after I checked it with Godaddy's whois (checked the update timestamp), it was taken by Domains By Proxy, LLC (Godaddy's company). So for anyone checking this out, consider they may only do it with recently expired domains or short domains. They may also turn off this code if this blows up in public.

pgrote 14y ago
They offer a domain snapping service, so if something expired they might have bought it for a customer.

ktizo 14y ago

Yet another reason to bookmark http://geektools.com http://geektools.com

datums 14y ago

This has been happening for many years now. They sell the stream to other companies who register the domain for a few days for free. They stamp the for sale page on it and wait, drop it and maybe register it again.

gddr 14y ago

Isn't that something you could investigate and prove? Look up 1000 randomly-generated domains from different IPs, check later if any of them are registered, done.

jorgem 14y ago
I suspect they would only register names that look somewhat "good". There are plenty of automated ways to valuate domain names -- then just pick the unregistered ones that exceed some value.
- pbhjpbhj 14y ago
  You could run a list of available domain names from a domain name suggestion service as lookups using an automated system. You'd want a botnet to avoid getting your IP blocked. Wasn't the problem that the registrars could retain the domain names without having to pay for a few days? I thought that ICANN had addressed it but am pretty hazy on that point.
TheAmazingIdiot 14y ago
Or the other idea is to exploit their exploit. Make a LOIC-like program that queries, say, 100 domains per minute. Brute-force up to 20 char dns names. Let godaddy purchase a few million before they find out what's going on. One could lower the queries per minute to make it not look so brute-force-y.

SeanDav 14y ago

Probably not a strong case for OP, but in any case GoDaddy is evil and should be avoided in all shapes and forms. A bit of Googling will show why.

samstave 14y ago

Even worse, godaddy will routinely pick available domains and mark them as "premium" domains and hold them hostage for outrageous prices. They are not selling them on behalf of anyone - they, the registrar, are illegally marking them up.

1123581321 14y ago
Sincerely, why do you think it illegal? Aren't they allowed to speculatively register domains to resell? Please understand this is a sincere question. I'm asking because I think it's legal. If it's illegal, I want to know about that, and especially how the law might view a register's squatting and an individual's squatting differently. Edit: Just so it's clear, by "register" I mean truly register the domain for a year -- not "taste" it for a few days and then cancel the registration, if that is even still allowed.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

grassclip 14y ago

Very appropriate in this situation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines

damian2000 14y ago
+1 came here to say the same thing.

jgh 14y ago

Hell, GoDaddy didn't even bother registering my domain after availability lookup. They waited until I paid for it and then 6 months later parked the domain with their bullshit. I never changed any settings or anything, and yet if you go to my domain, all you see is GoDaddy's bullshit.

jorgem 14y ago
This doesn't make sense. Please add more details...
- jgh 14y ago
  I realize it doesn't make any sense. It was working until it wasn't. I contacted customer service and they just gave me the steps on how to set up the domain from the documentation. Since I had already done that, and it appeared the settings were correct (since it was working for a while and I never changed it afterward). I didn't bother with it any more after that because it's not worth fighting GoDaddy over $15 or whatever, I'm just taking my business elsewhere.
bryans 14y ago
I'm not one to defend GoDaddy, but it sounds like you just never did anything with it. If you don't point the domain to a hosting account or change the nameservers, GoDaddy always displays the parked domain page by default. You can turn it off in your account settings if you want.
- jgh 14y ago
  Sorry, I should have been clearer in my post. The domain was set up and working, and then it stopped working.
- tokenizer 14y ago
  When I used GoDaddy they automatically park your domain until you configure the nameservers like you said. This is the most likely explanation of his/her account.

loeschg 14y ago

I could have sworn this happened to me. I looked up my own name (.com) one day, and it was available. I checked back a week or so later, and it was taken. I monitored the domain for a year and saw no activity. At the end of a year it became available, and I snagged it at a base price. Seemed like too much of a coincidence. I don't have that common of a name. I can't prove anything though.

mcantelon 14y ago
Happened to me as well. I can't remember if it was Godaddy or some other web lookup, but now I only ever use CLI tools to do domain lookups.

subrat_rout 14y ago

Back in 2009 and 2010 when I was a novice (And I am still consider myself as a novice)in the field of web development, I do not remember how many times I have searched for a domain name (with a scientific terminology in it) to find that it is available but gone after few days and parked on a place such as Sedo.

ninetax 14y ago

Yet again an article that fulfils Betteridge's Law of Headlines[1]. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headlines

zupreme 14y ago

This is a very interesting discussion. I've been flipping domain names as a side-biz for years and I've had ALOT of discussions with other guys who say that GoDaddy sniped a domain from them. In some cases the people have checked on 3rd party sites (like NS), found that the domain was available, then went to Godaddy for cheaper registration only to have GD report that the domain is unavailable. In a couple of instances guys would then go back to NS or their other favorite registrar only to find that the domain was registered by "Domains by Proxy", which is GoDaddy's anonymous registration partner/subsidiary. I haven't personally had it happen to me, but too many people I trust say that it has happened to them for me to ignore it.

gojomo 14y ago
GoDaddy is the largest registrar, and anyone can use their anonymyzation. So 'checking other sites' and THEN seeing that some anonymous someone registered via GoDaddy provides little negative evidence against GoDaddy.
- zupreme 14y ago
  I agree. You couldn't go to court with this type of evidence, but you have to admit that for the site to be available, then within minutes of you searching for it on GoDaddy, it then becoming anonymously registered would raise eyebrows.
  - gojomo 14y ago
    But that scenario -- searching only through GoDaddy (preferably HTTPS), and seeing that domain gone minutes later -- is not described in the comment I responded to. Nor in the parent linked article. Nor was it in the prior report this article mentions. And yet, even if that did happen, GoDaddy gets millions of registrations per year, and many times that in lookups. So losing a domain minutes later is certain to happen many times per year for strictly innocent/coincidental reasons. And some of the advice being given in these sorts of threads -- use DNS/whois lookups, use other random website services -- could be increasing the risk. (Those protocols are eavesdroppable, those services have less to risk than GoDaddy.)

juan_juarez 14y ago

Why is anyone relying on a 3rd party to check domain availability? You can do DNS lookups and whois searches from the comfort of your own machine. There's no need to let anyone else know you're interested until you're actually ready to pull the trigger.

gojomo 14y ago
That might be more dangerous. If you trust GoDaddy, and do a search in an HTTPS session with them, there's little risk a third-party could learn of your interest/idea and snap up the name. OTOH, dns and whois are unencrypted protocols. Eavesdroppers could see your lookups. Depending on which DNS or WHOIS servers you are consulting, their administrators may be untrustworthy. For example, many whois installations default to asking NetworkSolutions, who at one point (2008) was definitely front-running by their own admission.

barryrandall 14y ago

Sorry guys, I'm pretty sure you're chasing ghosts. I was a development manager there a few years ago, and they go to extremes to avoid anything that even comes close to looking like this. The capability doesn't exist in their software, and it would be a massive effort to enable it. In high volume systems, low probability events happen very frequently.

tokenizer 14y ago
How do you explain users mentioning the who is data linking back to GoDaddy? I'm trying to believe this is just rotten luck, but every single account of this happening seems to link back to GoDaddy.
- nivla 14y ago
  Buy a whois protection from any registrar and the registrar's name shows up. Given the risk of publicizing your real email and the cost of just $3.99 per year, most people do opt for whois protection.
jcrites 14y ago
> The capability doesn't exist in their software, and it would be a massive effort to enable it. What makes this a massive effort? I assume that GoDaddy has existing software to register a domain name given the name, and some fixed configuration like who should be listed as owner, contact, etc. So we need to call that logic, passing as input each domain that has been searched for. Upon every search for a domain name, enqueue the search term to a queue. (This can happen e.g. after the page load completes.) The search results already indicate whether the name is registered, so only write unregistered domains to the queue. Set up a fleet of workers to pull items from that queue and call the functionality that registers a domain. It seems feasible to have a basic prototype of this functionality operational within a day or two of effort (e.g., a dumb implementation that simply registers every search term that's a valid domain). I'm sure the production version will need to be smarter, like not registering every single search, or estimating the value of a prospect and only registering high-value prospects - but wouldn't a basic flagrant implementation be fairly simple?

bg_info_guy 14y ago

Previous discussion/accusation here (~ 2 years ago): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326790 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326790 ICANN investigated (generally, not godaddy specifically) 3 years ago, no evidence was found: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090807/0048175795.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090807/0048175795.shtml GoDaddy's own support background here: http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-with-your-domain-searches/ http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/you-can-trust-go-daddy-wi... The current CEO of GoDaddy is not Bob Parsons (the "elephant hunter"). GoDaddy was sold to a group of investors this year and Parsons stepped down shortly after: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576420372308902058.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230458400457642... Warren Adelman took over for Parsons last year, followed by current CEO Scott Wagner who took over this month as interim CEO: http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/godaddy-ceo-steps-down-scott-wagner-named-interim-ceo/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/godaddy-ceo-steps-down-scot...

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franzus 14y ago

Hmm, I can only speak from my experience where I checked domains with GD and when I came back one week later to register them I was greeted with a "this domain has been registered. but you can buy it for $50"-type message. This was around 2003 and since then I'm avoiding godaddy.

isalmon 14y ago

I had EXACTLY this situation with GoDaddy earlier this year. I was looking for a good domain name, found it (intelface.com), but decided to sleep on it. Next morning it was gone. I know you can't prove anything, but it looked very suspicious at that time.

jakeonthemove 14y ago

Well, I'm glad I don't use GoDaddy - I'm always paranoid when searching for a domain name, though - if I find a good one, I tend to register it right away out of fear that it might be taken right after the search. Guess there's some truth to that.

pbhjpbhj 14y ago

Back in 2008 I did a test on a couple of sites. I found that Easily.co.uk claimed a made up domain name "nobodywantsadomainnamewithlotsofnumbers1231891904817401" - used as a one time test string for this registrar alone - was already taken on 3 TLDs (I've got a screenshot saved) ... the chances of that being a random collision seem pretty low.

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Limes102 14y ago

This has happened to me a couple of times, but it doesn't prove that GoDaddy are the ones who are actually registering them.

soapdog 14y ago

This happened to me. I checked if a domain was available, it was, I went out of the house to tell my friend. We went back to register it and it was gone. damn! Now, I just use whois from the terminal.

silentific 14y ago

I'm shocked that anyone is surprised that this still happens. The author claims he broke the news in 2008, but NetSol has been doing this for a very long time. I remember using a service that let you do wild card domain searches before going anywhere near a registrar. "Domain Surfer", I believe. These days I just pull the trigger instantly when I find an available domain. Pull the trigger!

LouLang 14y ago

Wouldn't it be trivial to perform some sort of analysis on this? That is, write a script to test an appropriately sized sample for domain availability. Then after some predetermined time, check the availability again. I'd imagine if GoDaddy is registering domains, then we'd find that our data was statistically significant.

n0mad01 14y ago

I had such an presumption many years ago with another Registrar. My guess is that they check manually all searched (yet free) domains and register the best ones after a while, it wouldn't even surprise me if this is the standard.

antonios 14y ago

I'm just another soul that experienced the same despicable behavior from GoDaddy. Far too many coincidences, I say.

ortusdux 14y ago

Could someone with an amazon turk requester account please test this?

donohoe 14y ago

I have had two domains, months apart (back in 2009?), that I looked-up via GoDaddy and then were gone the next day when I went to register. These were obscure names, one with numbers. This is just my experience, could be plain bad luck/timing. However at the time I wondered about this (nice to know it has an actual term) - emailed them angrily and got a placating response. This makes me reconsider.

j45 14y ago

This absolutely happens. Only with GoDaddy? Not sure. I have searched for some obscure domains in unpopular niches (imagine <extremely obscure keyword><extremely rare/popular suffix>.com> to find them registered mysteriously 24 hours later to someone on.. you guessed it.. Go daddy. This has happened enough times to me that I now only search for domains after I login into the control panel at the domain provider I use. Many domain/whois tools do the same things. My semi-educated guess is all searches are queued, sorted by popular keywords, and most likely hand picked off by an official employee, or someone who may have access to the data. OTOH, I'm surprised no one has done a honeypot experiment to catch this type of behaviour in the act.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago

Searching for some made-up names on GoDaddy. Will check them tommorow. * now-why-would-they-register-such-an-obscure-domain-122828178327 * now-why-would-they-register-such-an-obscure-domain-211278327 * now-why-would-they-register-such-an-obscure-domain-218398211

wpietri 14y ago
You might have to try a larger number of things that would score higher in terms of domain value. If I were front-running, I might concentrate on domains that were likely to have resale value beyond the original purchaser. Also, given that GoDaddy is being accused of this right now, they'd be smart to stop any front-running for a few weeks.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Yep. They weren't taken today.
thebigshane 14y ago
Here's your honeypot `j45`.

harel 14y ago

Its quite easy to do a sting operation on them to prove the practice. I searched for a random domain name now. Silly name: YABODABODOODIDA.com. Took screenshots of the search and its availability. Lets see in a couple of days who owns this domain name.... Then rinse, and repeat the process...

alohahacker 14y ago

This once happened to me about 2 years ago. I got furious and called up godaddy wanting to talk to someone that could give me an answer. They said we don't buy domains but when a domain is looked up on our website sometimes it is publicly available and sometimes other people end up buying them on speculation. I searched for the domain godaddysucksbigbigballs.com multiple times and it ended up being taken after 10 mins. I assume that since there was a grace period where people could simply drop a domain and get a refund after a couple days that squaters somehow obtained the information and weree buying domains that people were searching in hoping to profit.

Wingman4l7 14y ago

Isn't this domain tasting? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting

Wingman4l7 14y ago
Or maybe it's domain name "front running": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running

bbayer 14y ago

İ personnally experienced those kind of issues with GoDaddy and this was the main reason of switching to name.com. They don't front running all domains but I believe they do for some keywords which is relatively valuable

rsanchez1 14y ago

I thought this was common knowledge already. Look up most guides to starting your own website, and they will list front running as a precaution people should take when looking for a domain name. A lot of guides recommend having a list of preferred names in mind, then checking their availability. If the domain name is available, buy it on the spot. If not, move on to the next domain name on your list. I know the first thing I do when I want to start a website is secure the domain name. Then I worry about hosting.

damian2000 14y ago

With the massive amount of backlash they got from SOPA, I seriously doubt whether they would be doing this sort of thing.