Buzz Marketing with Blogs: Bad Buzz for GoDaddy

Bad Buzz for GoDaddy

For an example of why businesses need to pay attention to the blogosphere even when they don’t start a blog, check out this post on Wired’s Monkey Bites blog today:

As the user GoatMonkey2112 (no relation) points out, he performed a little test of his own design at GoDaddy.com. He went to the domain registrar’s site, found an available domain name, added it to his cart, and then cancelled his shopping cart. He returned the next day to find the domain name parked, and thus available only by paying an inflated fee. ... If GoatMonkey2112’s story is true, then GoDaddy is yet another company to put on your “sneaky business practices” list.

Commenters on the post speculate about just which business might be responsible for the purchase, which most folks regard as underhanded. Ryan left this comment:

I have experienced this more than once with GoDaddy: I actually warn people that if they are fairly certain of their purchase, they should not hesitate to “invest” the nine dollars in buying an avaiable domain.

My thoughts were always that the same people who buy expired domains had some insider information from godaddy on recent searches/shopping cart leavings, not that godaddy themselves were the vultures. Still, this would suggest the existence of some official (or cloak and dagger) way to scrape this data.

I suppose it could also be old-fashioned packet sniffing, though, so who’s to say GoDaddy is playing Big Brother?

This is actually a great opportunity for GoDaddy—assuming they aren’t actually engaging in the suspect behavior—to make it clear what kind of business they are and clear up the rumor. For kicks, I sent the link to the post in via GoDaddy’s customer support email system. I’ll be keeping an eye on this post to see whether a GoDaddy rep shows up.

UPDATE: Wired Monkey Bites reports that GoDaddy, rather than being engaged in shady business practices, is conducting business as usual:

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.

The number of comments on the post has doubled, but there’s no GoDaddy representation visible.

UPDATE 4/20: Yesterday, Wired Monkey Bites wrote a new, clarifying post based on the comments and feedback received on the original. Happily, there was a long comment from GoDaddy VP Tim Ruiz:

There are many companies doing domain “tasting” on the Internet and many millions of domains being grabbed each week as a part of this process.

While we appreciate those of you who have vouched for GoDaddy.com in this thread, there is an important correction to be made.

When an availability check is done on a domain name, the information is sent to only registries, NOT registrars. When this is done, secure communication methods are always used by GoDaddy.com.

We believe our communications with the registry are secure and that it is 99.99% impossible to check our availability list through those communications.

I’m glad to see GoDaddy finally adding their voice to the discussion, even this far in. And for demonstrating my point—companies, especially those that work in the tech sphere, need to be monitoring blogs so they can be part of conversations like this, rather than a corporate monolith.

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 04/18 at 12:42 PM • Blogs -- Marketing

Comments

I think GoDaddy is also sharing information to the US Government just like the phone companies. I tried to get an answer from GODdaddy and they will neither confirm or deny this.

There was an article about GoDaddy opening an office in Washington to help with fraud issues, but I am willing to bet they are also sharing information.

Any one else care to jump in?

http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/011906_Web_Host_Go_Daddy_Opens_DC_Offices.cfm

Posted by Perry on 05/14 at 08:40 AM
I checked the status of 2 very unique and specialized domain names at GoDaddy - not something you randomly just make up out of a dictionary - even with a fancy algorithm. Within 2 days, both of them were “parked” by different companies, who obviously have no interest in the name other than to try to resell it. It’s infuriating.

Posted by Web-Dzynz on 03/20 at 04:56 PM