GoDaddy is a privately owned, Internet-based company that provides a variety of services including domain name registration, web hosting and e-business software sales. The company, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, was founded by Bob Parsons. Parsons previously owned a financial services software company, which he sold in the mid-1990s upon retirement. He came out of retirement in 1997 to form Jomax Technologies, the predecessor to GoDaddy.
Since it’s inception, GoDaddy has risen to become the largest domain registrar in the world, with tens of million of domains registered to its clients. The company ranks as the world’s largest ICANN-accredited registrar; it’s approximately four times larger than its nearest competition. Recent corporate acquisitions include Outright, Locu, Afternic, and Media Temple.
GoDaddy has redefined Internet hosting services, and it has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades. Among these awards are the 2001 Arizona BBB award for Business Ethics and the 2011 SC Magazine award for Best Security Team. In 2011, it ranked number four in the Phoenix Business Magazine list of “Best Places to Work in the Valley” and it made the 2012 Forbes list of “Best 100 Companies to Work For.”
Known for its sometimes controversial commercials and interesting spokespersons, GoDaddy also sponsors a number of charitable causes in support of domestic violence and child abuse awareness, and sports events, including NASCAR and the Super Bowl. In 2013, the company shifted its advertising strategy to focus more on small to medium sized business owners (SMB). Reflecting this change, its commercials and advertising materials shifted from “sexy” to smart.
If you have been trying to log in to your GoDaddy account this afternoon (or morning) and saw an error message, it’s not just you. When I tried to log in to my GoDaddy Auctions account on my desktop this afternoon, I was shown this error message: “Yikes! Something went wrong. Please, try again later.”
Andrew Allemann wrote about a GoDaddy Auctions “glitch” that caused a bidder to lose an auction that he thought he had won. I can see how he would be upset because the messaging does indicate that he won the auction despite the fact that he lost the auction.
I received the same email from the person who emailed Andrew, and I spoke with Joe Styler about it yesterday. Paul Nicks provided a comment to Andrew about what caused this situation.
I noticed something interesting over the weekend that I thought I would share with you. I typed in OutOfTheWorld.com to see if it was registered, and I was forwarded to a GoDaddy search results page. As is typical for a domain name listed for sale via Afternic with a buy it now price, the purchase option was what showed up after being forwarded:
I sold a domain name last week and Escrow.com instructed me to transfer the domain name to the buyer. Because the buyer wanted to keep the domain name at GoDaddy, he sent me his account number and the associated email address. When I went to do an account change, I was shown the following error message:
“The recipient’s contact information can’t be used to register the selected domains.”
When I place a bid on GoDaddy Auctions, there is a bid confirmation screen that shows me my maximum bid amount. This is helpful in the event that I made a typo in the bidding field, allowing me to confirm that I my bid is for the intended amount. Here’s a screenshot of the confirmation page that I see when bidding on GoDaddy Auctions:
Several weeks ago, I saw that Jebidiah Burnett had left Donuts to pursue other domain industry opportunities. Jebidiah has also worked with the new gTLD domain names at Rightside and eNom. Yesterday afternoon, I learned that Jebidiah was hired by GoDaddy to do outbound marketing on the company’s NameFind domain portfolio as well as some of the premium new gTLD domain names owned by its registry partners.
