What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.128 Comments
- drawkbox, on 10/12/2007, -6/+46Also if you read the article you will see that it is not GoDaddy that bought it up, just another registar watcher.
- jwestbrook, on 10/12/2007, -5/+42if you RTFA, It's not GoDaddy, but other shady domain registrars. But nice to bring this to digg users attention
- TwoSlick, on 10/12/2007, -6/+42From the article:
UPDATE 2: OK, looks like we have an answer to what's happening here. Monkey Bites reader shaggysurfs writes in:
One of the things everyone should know is that when you submit a query for ANY domain name, it is sent out across the interenet to ALL the registrars and registries. That means everyone knows that it is a potential quality TLD. The reason they send the query out is due the amount of expired and waiting to be deleted domains. Registrars want to get you the domain that you ask for, so they query everyone to see if it is available.
There are many companies out there (registrars and private business) that search this info out. I have done business with the majority of registrars and I have found GoDaddy to be one of the honest ones out there.
Trust me, there are a lot of scumbag companies. I have worked for a lot of these companies also and seen the practices that they have. This has been going on for years and may be hard to stop.
So it's not necessarily a question of one company's sneaky practices, but in fact, an entire sector of the industry taking advantage of the freedom of such information. No matter who you're asking about a domain's availability, other people are listening. Word to the wise.
Thanks to shaggysurfs for clearing this up! And GoDaddy, consider yourselves vouched for. - e03179, on 10/12/2007, -12/+34Guys, there is no proof that GoDaddy swiped the domain. Title is misleading.
- abbott75, on 10/12/2007, -5/+26Notice the '?' at the end of the title? That indicates that the title is speculation, not proven fact.
- stevelucky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17i actually paid godaddy the extra $ to reserve a domain that was about to expire. when it expired godaddy told me that they couldn't get it and i didn't get the domain. i did a whois on the name and it told me that the domain was registered to godaddy. i contacted them and asked what the hell was up. why was the domain registered to them when i had paid to reserve it? a few days later they handed it over to me. does that sound fishy to you? it sure does to me.
- drawkbox, on 10/12/2007, -13/+26People are aware of supply and demand and markets right? Everyone knows if you query for domain avail after 3+ times that it gets bought up. Be ready to buy when you search. Its called commerce.
- SniperX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Why was drawkbox commented down??
It WASN'T GoDaddy's fault, this story has a purely sensationalist title, and the slashdot comment is even worse.
They just offer up searched domains as possible domains people might like, and thus it gets more visibility and the odds of it being bought go way up.
The wiredblog also notes that this was more than likely due to a company that camps out monitoring availability requests for decent names and buys them up in hopes to re-sell - buba69, on 10/12/2007, -10/+20The explanation does not clear up anything and is...wrong.
When you whois query a domain, it goes to the central whois maintainer for the registry, if it returns no result, then it kicks it back as available. If it returns taken, then depending on your whois client, it may kick you to the current holder. A simple whois query does NOT contact every single registrar that would be...ridiculous. - nesquik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11slythfox, the domain was not registered by GoDaddy according to whois records.
"An InterNIC whois query tells us that GoatMonkey2112's turbocow.com domain name was parked by in2Net.com, a Canadian registrar that also owns and operates the cheap hosting site Dollarhost.com." - MacGyver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9How funny would it be if this ended up on diggnation?
- dhughes, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13 "Under Review" my ass, it's happened to me and I've even said so here on digg.
...and yes it was GoDaddy. - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16I don't know if it is pure capitalism. It reeks of price fixing, and probbly violates some kind of antitrust laws. They're using insider info, about the interest in that name, to decide to increase the cost. I am pretty sure that would be found illegal, if someone testrd it in court.
I hope it is tested in court.
"Too many greedy bastards, too few bullets! " lol - pixel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Maybe we should visit registrars and fill up their shopping carts with useless domain names?
- KSUdesigner, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9If you're dumb enough to put your name and part of your SS# into a search field and send the query you oughta have your identity stolen.
- cleverboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8buba says: "The explanation does not clear up anything and is...wrong."
Thanks... at least someone else thought so too. I read that article, and had to double-check the site URL, because the information is just plain wrong. The "UPDATE 2" correction, is bogus, and GoDaddy is not off the hook, although it is unlikely that they would be doing such a thing (most domain names being messed around with are crap). I think "serendipity" plays a huge role in people registering domain names at the same time, so that's not entirely implausible. However, when people check for a domain names "availability" at a registrar, whether via whois OR by the shared registry "check", no other registrar is "automatically informed". If they already have it *REGISTERED* and you're doing a whois check, depending on the TYPE of whois check, and the extension, another registrar may, or may not be contacted.
Moreover, many registrars DO INDEED share information on idle "searches". For instance, BuyDomains, whom I believe is a reseller (last I checked), has an auction system, that they've "baked into" partners like "DomainZoo.com". When you search for a name on DomainZoo.com, they send information to "BuyDomains" so that BuyDomains can recommend names they are "reselling" (aftermarket). A similar mechanism is in use by Afternic, with many registrar partners. Verisign themselves wanted to implement a registry level service like this, but this plan was derailed.
I run the website "FreeWho.com", and the WHOIS script I wrote for it fairly handy... but the STATUS CHECKER is even nicer (checks multiple names). The "WHOIS" feature checks other registrars, while the "STATUS CHECKER" only checks the registry of record (COMNET -> whois.internic.net, ORG -> whois.pir.org, etc). While the site doesn't record or communicate searches to myself or anyone else.. it doesn't mean someone couldn't packet sniff my site (or any other site), and "see" what people are searching for. This is an ever lasting question on domain name forums like DomainState.com. "Someone stole my name when I searched X site... it was available before!"
From the article: "So it's not necessarily a question of one company's sneaky practices, but in fact, an entire sector of the industry taking advantage of the freedom of such information."
This ain't the half of it. Expiring names is like the Wild Wild West, and its only gotten more fragmented. I recommend to all my clients, not to search for names, unless they're ready to buy them. In general, you don't want to give anyone a heads up, or in any case, mess with your head, if someone hops on it while you're thinking it over. If I had a nickel for every sad story of a "missed" opportunity. The domain name industry in general is ill-percieved and relatively opaque to the Internet community at large. - whereswayne, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7this has happened to me twice (with godaddy), but never thought to put it on digg.
- soogy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13What the hell? You undugg drawkbox because he told the truth? RTFA, GoDaddy didn't swipe the domain. The domain is queried through multiple registries and thus, it can be intercepted by one of the others. A check on the domain proves that it was parked by in2Net, not GoDaddy.
By the way, real mature Johndoe777. Curiously, everyone dugg him. - eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I have personally seen this too often to say that it doesn't happen. People - if you want a name put it in your cart and buy it immediate;y.
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -13/+19Inaccurate. RTFA
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Godaddy also forces you to pay a 200$ "fine" if they believe you are doing any kind of spamming. This happened to a friend of mine. Someone claimed he was a spammer (untrue) and Godaddy threatened to cancel his domain. If he wanted to quite them and register with another registar he would have to pay a 200$ "fine" or they would not release/transfer his name.
Network solutions might be more expensive but at least they don't use tactics probably taken from a sicilian mafia handbook. - emostar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Innaccruate.
And of course it is inaccurate. ONE person tried to register ONE domain. Is that all it takes to prove something and post it on a blog and get it digged?
People remember the first impression, and if there was an error they are more likely to remember the first impression rather than the fact that it was an error. - kanthony, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Registrars do NOT use whois checks for their availability checks (perhaps only as a last resort). They would use a check domain command against the central registry. In this case, it's Verisign's SRS (Shared Registration System). This is a real time system that uses the RRP protocol for communication. Registrars are the only people who can communicate with this system as it is the same system used to actually register, renew, delete, redeem and modify domains. SRS Checks are much faster, and completely accurate results. Whois is not necessarily real time, the SRS is. If the SRS says a domain is registered or available, thats the truth.
- Notluf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Let's not forget that Verisign/Network Solutions is the ultimate EVIL bastard, redirecting domains with 404's to their servers, etc. Remember that a few years ago they hijacked any non-existant domain and redirected to their servers? All email, telnets, SSH, POP, etc.. was directered at their servers?
Well, they still do that, but only with domains that they have registered and are expired. I let two of my domain names expire over the Easter weekend and didn't renew them until Monday (hey, I was busy, I knew they expired, and I also know that Verisign will hold the domains for me for awhile.) During the "expired" phase all email, telnets, ssh, pop, etc.. was directed to one of their "redirect" servers. They even went so far as to have reverse DNS records created for my expired domains that pointed to their "capture" servers. Every port I tested against their servers accepted a connection and responded like it was the service I was testing, like POP, it accepted the password, SSH, it took the password, etc...
Verisign is evil. - davs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7same for me. once i didn't have my credit card with me, and another i just wanted to see how much i would have to pay for the domains... bought the domains within the next few days.
- sensei_zebub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I too had this happen to me using GoDaddy, not to say it IS GoDaddy but I was using GoDaddy. This BS of domain sniping has got to be stopped. Cuz unfortunately once the domain is snagged and squatted there's not really much you can do other than deal with these kinda asses, or find a different domain. I like the idea of everyone searching for and adding bogus domains to their carts till this new rash of squatters are put outta business.
Similar story posted to digg:
http://digg.com/links/Thinking_about_registering_a_domain_Don_t_check_if_it_s_available_ - slythfox, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13Yes, but if you've heard the somewhat hidden news about GoDaddy over the past year, it's definately believable.
- Beacon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Isolated incodence? The commentators on this story apparantly beg to differ.
- KSUdesigner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Highly doubt diggnation is going to bash their own sponsor.
- wired4u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I believe this article is true. I work at a web hosting company, and have heard people complain of this very issue. At first I thought they were just nuts, but then more called in now I read this article and I believe it. Sound like something a deceptive company would do.
- MasterDwarf, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Good to bring to people's attention. Reported inaccurate because title and synopsis is misleading.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -68/+73Well I just ran my own test, I expressed interest in all these domains (added to cart, got to step 2 then cancelled)
GOFAGGY.COM
GOFAGGY.NET
GOFAGGY.ORG
GOFAGGY.BIZ
GOFAGGY.INFO
GOFAGGY.US
GOFAGGY.TV
GOFAGGY.WS
GOFAGGY.NAME
GOFAGGYONLINE.COM
GOFAGGYHOME.COM
GOFAGGYSITE.COM
GOFAGGYWEB.COM
GOFAGGYLIVE.COM
BESTGOFAGGY.COM
NEWGOFAGGY.COM
MYGOFAGGY.COM
THEGOFAGGY.COM
OFFICIALGOFAGGY.COM
GOFAGGY.COM
GOFAGGY.NET
GOFAGGY.ORG
GOFAGGY.BIZ
GOFAGGY.INFO
GOFAGGY.US
GOFAGGY.TV
GOFAGGY.WS
GOFAGGY.NAME
GOFAGGYONLINE.COM
GOFAGGYHOME.COM
GOFAGGYSITE.COM
GOFAGGYWEB.COM
GOFAGGYLIVE.COM
BESTGOFAGGY.COM
NEWGOFAGGY.COM
MYGOFAGGY.COM
THEGOFAGGY.COM
OFFICIALGOFAGGY.COM
lol, lets see if they buy em up. - knightblade2oo4, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6bihira.com registers the ***** domain when you go to order, then cancel.
which is annoying as hell/ - JimmyJohnJedi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7You know, this story is yet another great example of why digg is really starting to suck and suck hard. There used to be some really intelligent people posting stories and digging them. Now all we have is goofballs that read headlines and digg them without reading the story or at least making a half assed effort to see if it holds water or not. This same basic scenario gets posted on a regular bassis (SEE HERE http://digg.com/links/Thinking_about_registering_a_domain_Don_t_check_if_it_s_available_), always a different registrar and some crybaby whining because his domain got "stolen". If you want to register a domain and it is available, whip out the plastic and register the damn thing. DON'T cry when someone else plays with your toys if you don't really want your toys until someone else is playing with them. Didn't your mother ever teach you that? And don't demonize good companies that have absolutely NOTHING to do with you being stupid and/or so naive. Here's a couple of free tips from yer Uncle JJJ: If you want a domain, register it and guess what!!!!! You become the owner of it and can put goofy ass pink ponies, dancing hamsters or whatever your fetish is and no entity can stop you. And if you don't know what a WHOIS server is and how it works, then do NOT ever ever post comments or digg a story about domain "theft" because there ain't no cure for stupid.
PEACE.... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8GoDaddy pulled this ***** a few years ago with http://www.toothpastealien.com
And if you email the guy, I bet he will give you all of the sordid details.
DIGG!!
Just because the article is believable.
Oh, BTW, I did a domain search for my name, with the last four letters of my SS# attached to the end, and did not add it to the shopping cart, just a search. There was no domain listed of that name.
The next day, the domain name came up on the search, and I was told that it would cost me out the ass.
So yeah, I believe it, and yes, I will sue if they sell it to someone else, as it's copyrighted IP, and a violation of my privacy, i.e. identity theft, and yes, I do know an attorney and we are just waiting for them to screw up.
And no, my email address isn't even close to my real name.
:-)
Go Daddy, I need the money. :-) - skilic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3No Network Solutions wouldn't do that, they'll do much worse, see here: http://www.textism.com/article/490/
- Saintlink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Netsol did this same dirty thing a few years back with a couple of domains that I had showed interest in purchasing. It even said "purchased" and "order complete" then they proceded to tell me I couldn't have the domain because it was already taken. Two days later a Netsol parking page was there! Not available my %$^&*!
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Incoherent rant be in here digg!!
- Burgerman851, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4What is up with you people modding down comments by those who actually obviously RTA?!?! The least popular comments here contain the most common sense.
- asdfer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This might not be the fault of GoDaddy.com, the company. It could be the action of certain individuals who has access to the query database.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+10I've had EXACTLY the same thing occur at several other domain registrars, after I checked to see if a damain was available (no shopping cart stuff) then went back a day or, in one case, a couple of hours later. They had either been parked, or registered by someone else (and a 'whois' showed nothing).
- Rickler, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4GoDaddy has a lot of problems they need to fix, one of those being never bid on a domain until the last minute or a ***** BOT will find that someone has bid on the domain and buy it right at the LAST ***** SECOND.
Yea it's happened many times. Joker.com for the win. - davs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i don't think it really works out for them.. most of the time if you're buying a domain, you check if its available. if it's taken, then you just choose a different one.. you're most likely not going to pay 10-100 usd for a domain if you want it for personal use.. unless you're a big company and you can afford it, you just look for another one. if godaddy does this, they need to have clever people choosing which domains to buy , otherwise they could probably lose money instead of making more.
- slythfox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you want some complaints and bad stories, here are 500 comments on GoDaddy. They've been sorted for you to show the post rather than the topic, and by relevancy
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?searchid=826638
You'll of course find some good stories and good comments about them, but seeing how many people seem to like GoDaddy so much, it makes sense to have some. I actually haven't looked at this in a long time, but I did about a year ago when I was deciding where to buy my first domain.
Enjoy. - battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Sort of. SRS is used by betterwhois.com
That is the place where us regular folk can check the veracity. - cranium, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Register.com did this to me. One day after I did a lookup, using register.com, they snapped it up.
I'm only using whois from now on! - battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Actually, NO, if you RRTFA, you will see that this guy tried it at godaddy after hearing of it happening elsewhere (where you mention, but wrongly say godaddy).
- webroker, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1When I search for a domain name I type it directly into the address bar of my browser... I don't trust any of the registrars at all... Call me paranoid, but it's happened to me before.. I searched for a few domain names, waited too long to check out and they were gone. Not with GoDaddy, but with NetworkSolutions.. If I come up with a blank page in the browser, my next step is to do a "whois" search. After that, I'll hit goDaddy and register the domain.. I haven't had any problems since.. Also, I have done some seaches with NetworkSolutions and left my shopping cart full of domains and signed off or X'd out.. A week or so later I'll receive an email telling me the same domains I searched for are "Still available" awaiting me to register them.. so, they obviously keep a very significant database of domain searches..!!
- crythias, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why should you expect a domain to be live and ping-able? If ICMP is blocked or the domain's IP isn't available, you'll get false negatives.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you register your name as a domain, nobody else can park it until it expires. This problem only happens if you query it with the domain name registrars.
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