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GoDaddy

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.

Go Daddy Staff Participate in Write-a-thon

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They say content is king, and having good content written by experts is even better. According to a variety of Twitter posts on Friday, Go Daddy held a “write-a-thon” this week, and the result will benefit customers and others searching for information about domain names, Go Daddy, hosting, and a variety of other topics.

GoDaddy operates its Inside Go Daddy blog, which the company updates regularly. Inside Godaddy is described as the:

inside source for what’s going on with Go Daddy’s tech experts. You’ll get insight and opinions from Go Daddy’s tech leaders on industry topics, company projects & open source initiatives … the leading edge, unconventional, “behind-the-scenes” information you won’t find anywhere else. It’s not PR, it’s not executive talk, it’s the story straight from Go Daddy’s developers, engineers & IT personnel.”

Some of the expert blog writers include CTO Wayne Thayer, Internal Audit Director Mark Milne, Director of IT Security Operations Scott Gerlach, Chief Scientist David Koopman, Vice President of Product Development Richard Merdinger, and a variety of executives and directors.

Holding a Write-a-thon like this is a great way for the company to expand its search footprint with expert articles. The company seems to be taking advantage of Google’s authorship program (via Google Plus), giving the search results an even larger presence with author photographs right in the results.

Many companies and website owners outsource their content to writing services and ghostwriters, but it looks like Go Daddy is doing things the right way. They are having their own experts provide the content.

Go Daddy Policy Change May Help DomainTools

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I read about a policy change at Go Daddy’s TDNAM auction house that was implemented as result of domain investors circumventing the system to acquire domain names that had been previously auctioned. The company described the problem in this way:

Domain investors often watch Go Daddy Auctions ® for expired domain names of value. When they find domain names they want, they use the public Whois records to harass the current registrant into redeeming the domain name and selling it directly to the investor. Based on customer complaints, many investors participate in this practice, and some even hire outsourced teams.

Although I think losing out on sales was more of a problem rather than Go Daddy’s concern about domain investors harassing their customers, I think this “fix” will probably bring additional business DomainTools rather than solving any problem. The Whois History tool is a powerful tool that can essentially circumvent privacy and allow people to see the prior Whois information, enabling them to contact domain registrants as they have been doing.

With that said, I don’t see why Go Daddy doesn’t have the same sort of system employed by other registrars that prevent customers from re-registering domain names after the grace period. I suppose it would be a potential customer service issue if a registrar is auctioning its clients domain names rather than using a partner like Net Sol does with NameJet).

In my opinion, the solution won’t really work for Go Daddy because anyone who is buying names like this will sign up for a DomainTools account and continue as usual (if they don’t already have one). I think the way to stop the problem is to change the timing of the auctions.

What Are Single Letter .ORG Domain Names Worth?

Yesterday morning, Go Daddy and the Public Interest Registry announced that one and two letter .ORG domain names would be coming up for auction. Of the 42 auctions, 15 are single letter domain names. The auction dates haven’t been set yet, but each auction will take place over 10 days, and bidders must be pre-approved.

In the press release announcing the news, it was said that “it is expected the historic auction of these single- and two-character .ORG domain names will not only generate high bids, but also help define the aftermarket prior to the introduction of new gTLDs.”

I am curious about what you think single letter .org domain names are worth.


Go Daddy to Auction 1 & 2 Letter .Org Domain Names

Go Daddy and the Public Interest Registry (PIR), the non-profit organization that operates the .org domain registry, have jointly announced a special auction of one and two letter / character .org domain names. This is the first time that single character .org domain names are available for sale.

In total, 42 domain names will be auctioned on a special page at Go Daddy Auctions (see list below). In order to participate in the auctions, interested companies and individuals must be pre-approved. According to the press release, “there will be some requirements for the winners of a single- or two-character .ORG domain name, although re-branding is not mandatory.” This is similar to other registries that have auctioned single letter domain names, although I am not sure what the requirements are.

I would imagine the single letter .org domain names are going to see bids into the six figures, although it might be a challenge for a non-profit organization to spend that kind of money on domain names (imagine a cancer organization explaining a $500k domain purchase to donors). PIR is planning to “forward its share of the proceeds to programs that enhance open development and Internet security.”

The auctions will last ten days each, and although the exact date has not been set, the auctions are expected to begin in the coming months.

.Org domain names at auction:

Your Favorite Domain Registrar Is…

There were a couple of surprises when I asked for you to nominate your favorite domain name registrar. I wasn’t surprised that 15 registrars were nominated, but I was surprised that Moniker and eNom were not. Just a few years ago,  Moniker would probably have been a top 3 vote recipient. How times have changed.

After a few days of voting, the favorite domain registrar choice of those who voted was Go Daddy, by a fairly solid margin. The company offers 24/7 phone support, is generous with coupons and discount codes, and it offers dedicated account executives for many people who are active in the domain industry.

Here are the five best domain registrars from the poll I ran:

  • Go Daddy
  • Namecheap
  • Dynadot
  • Name.com
  • Fabulous

One thing to note is that with the exception of Fabulous, all of these companies have cultivated a strong following on Facebook and Twitter. For many people like myself, it does make a difference when dealing with companies that you “know.” These social media accounts take on a company personality, and that could help with brand loyalty.

UPS Store Moves, So Does Domains By Proxy, LLC

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I am sure you’ve seen a domain name registered to Domains By Proxy, LLC in a Whois Lookup before. Chances are good that you’ve probably seen it hundreds or maybe thousands of times before. That’s because it’s the privacy service operated by Go Daddy.

For a while, the company listed 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160 in Scottsdale, Arizona as the main address. About three months ago, the address changed, and it was updated across the millions of domain names registered to Domains By Proxy, LLC.

The reason for this move? Apparently, UPS Store #1669 changed locations. The store is now located at 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309 in Scottsdale, Arizona, and now all Domains By Proxy, LLC registered domain names have been updated to reflect this. I would imagine the company has a huge mailbox.

Interestingly, and on a side note, United Parcel Service (UPS) owns both UPSStore.com and TheUPSStore.com, but for some reason, the shorter UPSStore.com is not resolving or forwarding despite being on the UPS.com namerservers. Hopefully, they fix that problem soon.

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