Godaddy steals domains

I had this happen many years ago as well through Godaddy as well.

Now I just direct type a url into my browser to see if it's available...so far no one has bought these out from under me.

ileneg

Do you think that you are the only one searching for domains? When you find a great domain, you should register it immediately. I've never lost one that I registered as soon as I found it. Perhaps Godaddy registers domains that other people find and perhaps not but you don't own it until you buy it.

I once made the mistake of leaving a .com domain on the table and going with a .info big mistake. Days later I received several e-mails from squatters attempting to sell me the .com and .net versions of the domain which were available several days earlier. The domain included state initials and a particular product I was selling, it would have been worthless to anyone outside of the state who wasn’t selling the product. How anyone found out that I registered the domain (I never promoted it) is beyond me. I also believe I had private registration enabled.

Bots are everywhere and anyone can own a herd if the results justifies the cost.

thanks for the info, wont use godáddy search anymore..

I tend to use on the spot registration these days.
The best bet is to come up with name combinations and type them directly into the search bar or even the address bar. if you get a parked or developed website the domain is taken but if you get a set of search results its probably available.

You also can’t really rule out the following.
1. It may be the work of disgruntled employees who wish to make Godaddy look bad.
2. Someone else may legitimately want the domain. Great minds do think alike, I’m sure there were quite a few people who came up with the idea for Facebook but didn’t act on it, someone did and is in the process of becoming wealthy because of it.

Sure... you have to register as soon as it says available... if you wait two minutes just to reach your credit card... it may not be there any longer...
This can happen with GoDaddy or any other domain registration site... It may be that there are more experiences like this with GoDaddy simply because it is one of the most popular ones...

Am I the only person who has never had this problem?

I've been buying domain names from GoDaddy for many years
and I've bought a lot of them. I usually buy on the spot if it's
a name I went looking for specifically but if I'm just playing
around with an idea I leave it for later. I've come back the
next day many times and have never been unable to get the
name I wanted.

Best advice... if you're looking for a specific name be ready
to buy on the spot... don't dink around!

The notion that GoDaddy, or anyone else... stole the name
is just silly. It wasn't yours in the first place.

Tsnyder

A few weeks ago, I was fooling around using the bulk domain search at Joker.com (not recommended) and I entered in some domains that were so good they just had to be taken. Then to my amazement, one of the one word domains that I was searching for came back as available. This domain was easily worth a few hundred thousand.

I almost jumped out of my seat. I couldn't believe it!

I checked the spelling and it was correct. Could today be my lucky day?

I ran to the bedroom to grab my credit card and immediately raced over to NameCheap to register the domain. As I jumped back in my chair, out of breath but jacked up on adrenaline, I started to register the domain and then... #@!!%! #@!!%! #@!!%! Of course it was no longer available.

I suspected some sort of foul play with Joker.com. I thought the conspiracy theory was true - that they snatched up my domain before I could register it. However, when I checked the WhoIs for the domain, it had been registered many many years ago and was never actually available for me.

I started looking around for Aston Kutcher to appear with the cameras. LOL

The domain status at Joker was wrong. I don't know if this happens at GoDaddy and other registrars, but it's worth noting.

Yep, it's really bad. A few registrars do this, including Network Solutions and (I think) Moniker.

In short, if you are doing keyword research, I always suggest to query the WHOIS directly.

I.e. use a WHOIS scan like whois.sc. If the domain doesn't exist, it'll give an error. If it does exist, it'll give its details. Is better than running it through GoDaddy and potentially having your domain taken.

I have never had a domain stolen because I used Godaddys search its unfortunate you think that happened to you.