Does GoDaddy Spy On Your Domain Reg Searches?

I have had that happen a few times also.

Try namecheap, they don't pull those kinds of punches . . .

There is another similar thread to this with the same claim.

I registered a very valuable domain name with oneandone once. It went through the reg process in the same way as every other domain has in the past, however it didn't quite clear. Upon questioning it, they claimed it was already taken.

To this day, I still believe there was more to the story.

No domain I've registered has ever had that problem. Usually it's impossible to register taken domains and there's little chance someone was registering in tandem with me.

I have this happen so obviously , one minute checking domains , next minute domain has been purchased by unknown source and is listed in godaddy auction ummmmmmmmmmmm pretty sure godaddy steals the premium domain searches and puts them up for auction.

Wouldn't surprise me at all because godaddy is the modern day Roth child's when it comes to hosting and domain reg.

I've found one of my own domains that I OWN in an auction that I didn't set up. I don't know why to this day. I transferred it to namecheap though.

GoDaddy has been doing that for a while now, this is why I never both checking a dmoain in there.

Now, my advice is mainpulate GoDaddy, by searching lousy domain names see how their automated system will do with that

This has been going on by many registrars for a long time. You should never do a domain name search "outside" of your registrar. I used to have this problem until I started logging in to my Dynadot account and searching.

I too have had this happen.

Looked at a domain, thought it was cool but wasn't convinced, realized it was awesome then was taken about 24 hours later.

I had it happen to me on a 3 letter domain on godaddy. It came up available, checked it twice cause I couldn't believe it , wasn't logged into my account and by the time it took me to log in and purchase it it came up already taken. I'm talking less then 60 seconds here. So I know they are watching and to me thats just plain theft.

My sister was searching for domains at GoDaddy. When she went to buy them the next day, every single one of them had been registered! I think they buy them and hope to charge you a huge amount in auction!

This is called "domain front running". So if there is an industry term invented for it, it has probably been done for some reason....

However, it is primarily a Network Solutions who has been reported to that practive few years ago (in 2008?). Not sure if GoDaddy does that. However, I was couple of times in a situation when the name I was checking through GD was registered few days later.That could have been just a coinsedence though because I have only expirienced it once or twice.

Nevertheless, I often check domains through DNS novadays, without using any WHOIS website or registrars.

Here is how to check domain availability through DNS:

- Windows -> Start button -> Run
- type "cmd", press Enter
- it will open an MS DOS text window with black background
- type "nslookup", press Enter
- it will run the DNS utility
- you would see the ">" prompt
- now just type the domain name in question, like "mydomain.com" then press Enter
- it will take a few seconds to resolve the name into IP address
- if domain name is registered, it will resolve into IP address. This is because most modern registrars would put DNS records right after registration without user even taking any action or pointing to their own name servers
- so if your domain in question has returned IP address, the name is taken. If it says " blah blah ERROR ..." then the name is most likely taken.
- if it says "blah blah ... NON EXISTING DOMAIN ..." then 99% that the name is AVAILABLE. However, there could be 1% with very old name / odd registrars when DNS would not know about it however it would still be registered. Well, this probably is very rare, maybe much less than 1%
- this way, you have checked your name and GoDaddy or WHOIS website operator has no way of knowing about your interest in that name
.

I figure this is the guy that was banned earlier for his anti DynaDot spam.

Mark

These kind of threads get pretty ridiculous. The truth is that GoDaddy does not register domains of any kind for any reason to sell at auction. 100% of their auctions are either expiring domains or domain owners selling their domains. Exactly 0% of those domains are owned by GoDaddy.

Anyone in these threads claiming that GoDaddy swooped down and stole their idea for a domain so they could put it in their auction is simply mistaken. Something else is happening, but it's hard to say what without knowing the specific domains in question.

What does the creation date say? If it pre-dates your search then it was indeed taken all along.

Besides, it's highly unlikely that a "very valuable" domain would escape the drop catchers and sit there available for registration long enough for you to get it. You can still get great domains for development purposes for ten bucks, but anything with a significant intrinsic value is gone literally less than one second after it drops.