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AWS Outage Causing Afternic Landing Page Issues

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There’s a major AWS outage that is causing problems for websites and web-based services around the world. GoDaddy is one of those businesses that is impacted by the outage, I learned this afternoon.

When I visited one of my Afternic-listed domain names that resolves to a GoDaddy landing page, the incorrect landing page was shown. Instead of the newer “custom” landing page with BIN, Make Offer, and Lease to Own options shown, the older BIN landing page was displayed. This particular landing page doesn’t include camel casing.

DomainNames.com: GoDaddy’s “Ultra Premium Domains” Marketplace

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A couple of weeks ago, Afternic hinted that it would soon be launching a new domain name marketplace on the ultra generic DomainNames.com domain name. The launch was today, and the DomainNames.com platform marketplace was introduced for the first time:

At a quick glance, the marketplace appears to be stocked with some top quality inventory from the start. Domain names like Harmony.com, Natural.com, FL.com, Invitation.com, Encourage.com, Bankroll.com, and others are exceptional and must be in high demand. Each listing has its own logo, and there is an informational landing page with some suggested uses for each domain name.

GoDaddy to Launch “Premium Domain Marketplace” on DomainNames.com

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The Afternic X account posted a link on X without much context that caught my attention this morning:

When Whois Contacts Fail, I Use GoDaddy DBS

One of the things I enjoy most about domain investing is the negotiations. Most don’t work out, but I enjoy the thought and effort that goes into a negotiation. It stimulates my brain in a way most other aspects of this business do not. This goes for both buying and selling my domain names.

On occasion, I will use GoDaddy’s Domain Broker Service (DBS) to try and buy a domain name. If I am not hearing back from a domain registrant and don’t want to continue to press, I might connect with a DBS broker to attempt to get a price. In these cases, I am probably not making a substantial enough offer to elicit a reply, so the broker won’t usually be able to help.

GoDaddy “Reputable Search” Tab Addresses Front Running

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Since domain names first became commercially available to register, people have accused domain registrars of front running. In short, front running is when a registrar is suspected of using customer search data to preemptively register domain names that someone else searched for, with the intent of reselling them at a higher price. This undermines trust in the registration process.

As the world’s largest registrar, GoDaddy has faced many accusations of front running. The company has repeatedly and emphatically denied that it does this. I’ve published official statements from GoDaddy regarding front running at least three times.

Lsland.com Typo Auction on GoDaddy into the 4 Figures


The Lsland.com domain name is in an expiry auction on GoDaddy Auctions. There are several bidders competing for this typo domain name, and the high bid is $1,010. Peter Askew highlighted this on X earlier this morning: