GoDaddy Up For Auction 191
An anonymous reader writes "GoDaddy.com, the closely held website that registers Internet domain names, has put itself up for sale in an auction that could fetch more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The company, which currently has more than 43 million domains under management, is well known for its edgy advertising, including Super Bowl commercials and ads featuring different 'Go Daddy Girls,' including racing car driver Danica Patrick."
Ugly UI (Score:3, Funny)
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Ugh. I used them for a year or two. Sure, it was easy signing up...but when I had multiple domains to renew every year I had to uncheck a dozen "option packages" on 4 different pages just to renew a domain. Transferring out to another registrar is even more of a pain. Despite following the exact steps required Godaddy still denied the transfer saying I had not responded.
I made sure to tell them the sole reason for my transferring my business to another registrar was solely based on their annoying websit
Could we see a WikiLeaks dump (Score:4, Interesting)
of GoDaddy's deep dark secrets?
Like the way they (supposedly) steal customer domain ideas after you whois a domain?
Somebody on the inside? How about it?
Also, does anybody have the link for that story from Slashdot a couple years ago, I can't find it.
Re:Could we see a WikiLeaks dump (Score:4, Informative)
Domain tasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting) essentially doesn't exist now. Back in Aug 2009 15 million domains were being tasted per month. Currently it is down to less than 60,000.
Icann adopted a 20 cent charge for each domain that was tasted. Beyond that, a number of TLDs upped the charge to several dollars.
It went from a totally free way for companies to check the value of domains to being a very expensive way.
Re:Could we see a WikiLeaks dump (Score:4, Informative)
I've used all the big names and Moniker.com or Namecheap.com come out on top imho.
The control panel UI is "better" at Namecheap but Moniker's is just fine too. Customer service is good at both. Namecheap has coupons to get the cost down to $9, Moniker is flat-out $9 for a .com.
Note that all registrars need to upsell (figure profit on a domain registration is only around $1). These two are comfortably subtle about it.
Neither do the scummy 60-day lock-in that Godaddy relies upon (i.e. no transfers for 60 days for any registration and/or whois changes).
Lots more detailed reasons but I'll stop there.
Bottom line is that there really is no reason to use Netsol or Godaddy.
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Does anyone know a better alternative registrar?
Very much depends on what you want that would make one better over the others. I use NameCheap for most things these days, having used GoDaddy in the past. I took one domain with NC to take advantage of some special offer (I remember not what, it was some time ago) and found their interface to be a *lot* less spammy though that was not enough to make me want to bother switching my other existing domains. I came close to switching as the GoDaddy interface became progressively more irritating and finally swit
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They're not the cheapest but I use Domains For You [domainsforyou.co]. They have a good selection of TLDs and they don't try to upsell you.
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About a year ago I moved all my domains from GoDaddy, where they'd been since 1998, to 1&1, where I'd had web hosting since 2003 or so. GoDaddy was increasingly irritating (does their upselling never end??!); 1&1 was nice to start with and has done nothing but get better (got more for the same money as time went on, no marketing BS, and tech support always has Real Clues).
Having hosting and domains in the same place makes it real easy -- I use 1&1's control panel to point each domain at a subdir
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accused?
you make it sound like there was some doubt that they did that.
When pricing a domain name for a friend I had to use a slightly altered domain name because after checking with the first registrar(godaddy in my first few tests) the domain would get locked in for (I think)72 hours so no other registrar could be used.
Essentially it locked people in to whatever service they checked the availability with first unless they were willing to arse around and wait for the registrars to unlock it.
It's shady as f
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Are you sure? My wife started a business this year and when she searched GoDaddy.com to see if the domain was available prior to registering her business with the state. The domain (which was kind of a play on words, with a intentional misspelled version of a real word, so not something that would be randomly registered) was squatted on within a couple days. GoDaddy is shady and I'll never do business with them again. Even if they don't themselves register domains, the must sell the searches to 3rd parties,
Let's buy it! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure we could scrape together 1-2 measly billions. Who wants to setup the PayPal account for donations?
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With math skills like that, you are definitely not in charge of the money.
Going... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Going... (Score:5, Funny)
goatdaddy.com [goatdaddy.com] is also taken (no, I am NOT going to click on the link and see where it leads), foedaddy.com, gomommy.com, nogodaddy.com, goaddy.com, g0daddy.com, but h0daddy.com is availabile, and so is goatdaddie.com. Knock yourselves out.
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And women say "All the good men are either married or have boyfriends." :-)
It's simply not true that all the good domain names are taken. Sure, I've seen people register longdomainnameatsoandsoplaceihavenoida.com because they have no imagination, but the supply of good short names is
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While I *did* come across a 5-letter, I settled for the 6-letter one instead because I just knew people were going to mis-type it (and the 6-letter was available for all 3 of the "good" TLDs, and had never been registered before, whereas the 5-letter was a lapsed registration).
I ignore anything that's not com|org|net; if I get the com, I don't really care about the other 2 - they're just a bonus, and if I can't get com, I won't bother with the other 2 anyway.
.aero, .biz, .coop (let'
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Amazingly, chicken.coop is actually a website about a chicken-processing co-op.
I can think of one other .coop worth having, but can't see why I'd want to spend the $8. :)
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It's more like $74.00 [encirca.com], $120.00 [domains.coop], or $90.00 a year [goodluckdomain.in]. And in their stats section, you'll see that a state that has 14 coop domains registered lists the same domain a dozen times (Alabama - I picked the first state in the list). Talk about puffing up
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*cough*gasp*choke*
Okay, I can see spending the money for what chicken.coop is, because that one makes sense (good pun, appropriate content), but otherwise... this falls under More Money Than Brains.
But so do most of the alternative TLDs... or else under "What were they thinking??!"
So if you want to register flewthe.coop, feel free, cuz I ain't gonna do it ;)
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When I let it lapse because I had no further use for that project, someone else bought it, let it lapse after they couldn't sell it, and now someone else has been trying to sell it for the last decade (which will be kind of hard - they don't even have the name resolving to a parked site, which tells you how l
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I picked up one of my .coms (that I actually use for regular stuff) after some squatter let it lapse, tho the .net is still squatted -- but apparently to no great success as like your example, it isn't even parked anywhere. I gather bulk domains can cost as little as a buck per year, but still, I'd think it hardly worthwhile to keep a stable of stuff that's not even worth a parking page, so it's not even advertising itself. I wonder if some such domains just get lost in the shuffle when a squatter has thous
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Yeah, I've had the same thing happen... no plan survives contact with the internet ;)
And I don't go grabbing a bunch just to have 'em; I've only got a dozen or so and at least have SOME notion what they're good for, or else they're a word or businessname that is already associated with me (like my longtime usernames). And a couple I manage for other folks.
If everyone did like us, there wouldn't be this squatter market in the first place. It occurs to me to wonder how much of GoDaddy's billion-dollar value i
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Throw in the others, and you've probably got 20% to 30% (there are private companies that also have millions of domains "under management") of the internet that's typo-squatting or otherwise "monetized." Often without the owners knowledge - they registered it, but never got around to using it, so instead of serving up a "not found", the registrar squats it.
Then add all the affiliate mar
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I've run into a lot of those forgotten domains being "montetized" by the registrar... nothing but damned irritating, they are... all of mine are at least pointed at *some* real site.
I had fun with one SEO outfit that tried to sell me some keywords... while the Nice Young Salesman was giving me his spiel, I looked up their company's own website's traffic, and it was only about 10% of what I already get on my main site. (A datum which rather flummoxed said NYS.) And here's the big question: if my site is so h
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... and nothing of value was lost.
Oh great... (Score:2)
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I've got about a half dozen domains registered with them. What the hell do I do now?
I dunno. What the hell have you been doing up till now?
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Transfer them to Domainsite.com
Good price points, and customer support there rocks. The company owner has actually called me a few times when I had database trouble with their backend.
Advertisements (Score:4, Interesting)
What practices? The most telling is the holding of domain names hostage. Any expired domain is held hostage for an amount of time until someone pays the release fee, above and beyond the registration fee. Some business will fall for this tric, but I suspect it is mostly the small user that gets hurt, losing a domain because in the pressures of family and work a domain was not renewed prior to expiration. What same person would work with such a company? Is it any wonder they are selling?
edgy advertising? no. (Score:2, Insightful)
Their ads are not edgy, they're moronic. Slutty girls have been done before, oh like a trillion quintillion times. GoDaddy is a terrible registrar; their service stinks and they are spammer-friendly. If they are acquired, the purchaser is going to inherit a lot of problems.
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The best part is that the ads aren't even titillating, and I can't think of a single person who would go watch their "UNRATED" stuff when there's probably nothing going on that can't be shown on TV (I don't know, I've never wasted my time checking). Whoever is in charge of the marketing is either a man who has a low opinion of other guys or a woman who doesn't really understand what we find erotic.
Worst Commercials ever..... (Score:4, Interesting)
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like scantily clad women as much as the next guy, but ...
I submit that you do not.
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I submit that you do not.
Hey, I am married... so........, maybe you are right.... :)
It is about how the commercials are done, there is no tact what so ever, they just throw them up there for the sake of throwing them up there. If I want to look at nearly naked or naked women, I can do a lot better than their commercials or web site.
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I was very disappointed in Danica Patrick for selling out to them. She completely lost all respect she had earned as the best or most prominent female Indy/Nascar driver (for the most part, I don't watch Car racing).
Turns out Danica was overrated. My daughters (who live in Indianapolis, and therefore are constantly exposed to motor sports) all seem to like Sarah Fisher more than Danica because Sarah just drives. And owns her own team.
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Except that Godaddy doesn't even talk about the product in their commercials.
In up to my pits.. (Score:4, Interesting)
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I'm of about the same opinion as yourself. Everyone here seems to be talking a lot of shit about GoDaddy but they've been cheap and they've worked for me for at least five years now. Their web interface isn't great, but it does the job. I've never needed to call them.
I find their SSL great, too. (Score:2)
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Alternatives? (Score:2)
I despise Godaddy's upsell hell interface and their advertising is crude. Anyone here have recommendations or share experiences on alternatives?
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If you don't mind a german registrar, I use Joker.com. I used to have some problems with them, but for the last several years, it's been smooth sailing.
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Joker.com isn't German, it's Swiss. (They do speak some German in Switzerland, though.)
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gandi.net is a much better registrar, and DreamHost is a much better host (and registrar as well).
Dump GoDaddy, make the switch, you'll be happier.
No surprise here (Score:3, Informative)
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Bob Parsons was at the right place at the right time and sold a 2nd rate Tax Software package to Inuit who was afloat in internet bubble money. He took the 250 million or so, gave half to his ex-wife and burned through almost $125 million dollars before making GoDaddy.com profitable. He's not a Davey Crockett or a Daniel Boone -- he's bad business man who got lucky once and is still living off the fats of others' labors.
Good time to sell... (Score:2)
How long is America going to want to pay the ever bigger bucks required for 'net access for the privilege of being legally spied upon and the ever increasing probabil
Move your domains now! (Score:4, Interesting)
If they still have the same policy in place (and I will leave it up to others to check on that, as I am certainly not going to try hassling with them ever again) then this could be a disaster for anyone with a valuable domain name that is registered with GoDaddy. This "Sale" could amount to a cashing in on all those domain names they have collected. Domain names that they claim to own while only "licensing" them to the person who registered them. The new owner could easily claim they had bought all those domains and begin auctioning them off to the highest bidder. I'm not saying that they would, but it seems entirely possible and not worth the risk for anyone with a valuable domain name.
Therefore, if anyone has any domain names registered with GoDaddy, then I highly suggest you get them moved to a different registrar ASAP.
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I manage dozens of domain names all with GoDaddy as the registrar. I have never seen this once. The only exception is if you choose their privacy service, in which case it uses a GoDaddy contact so as to hide your information... but that's not required and every registrar that offers whois privacy services does exactly the same thing.
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Actually, the parent post is correct; that was why I chose NOT to use their privacy service even after it became free -- because when I read the fine print, I learned that GoDaddy became the OWNER of the domain, and held it for me as a sort of proxy. But I would no longer OWN it.
Conversely, when I asked 1&1 (my current registrar) about "private" domains, I was flatly informed that I would still own it, they just hide my contact info (it still goes to me, but via an email proxy).
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But I would certainly not want my domains to be registered with them now, regardless of what they say now. Anyone who would EVER even consider such a policy is not a place I would ever want to do business with.
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No, domains weren't automatically private, but they pushed the feature hard in their upsell crap. Originally because it was an extra charge, later I'd guess as a convenient form of "customer loyalty, like it or not". I don't know if it was ever the default for new registrations, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was for a while, and many people would simply not notice yet another tickbox among the clutter.
At any rate, what with their accumulation of bad policies, they've lost me for good; I spirited all my
But they're better than netsol, and cheap (Score:2)
After all the comments against GoDaddy, and I am sure a lot of them are based on fact, there is one thing I've got to say.
I moved my domains from Network Solutions to GoDaddy and have been extremely happy with GoDaddy, and very unhappy with netsol.
Network Solutions actually would lock you out from transferring "for your protection" and then force you to call on the phone, so that they could repeatedly try to sell you on staying with them. And they made it very hard. Twice I had to demand their superior just
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If all their customers renew their domain for just one more year, that's already almost $500,000,000 in revenue right there, just on repeat business, and that's nothing to say about SSL certificates, hosting, or any of their other products. $1,000,000,000 is a pretty good deal for a company that almost certainly makes at least that per year.
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Nope this isn't how it works. GoDaddy pays ICANN a fee and the primary registrar for each domain. They used to sell NET/COM/ORG domains for $1.99 and pay $7.25, making up the difference on upsells. I don't know the fee now, but if they renew a domain for $10 they don't keep $10.
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Yes, but a reasonable first approximation for the market value of a company is their annual revenue. After that other considerations may increase or reduce that value.
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With brand name 'buzz'? So in theory someone who is registered will on average renew their web product with the company they have been with.
What could change? Any massive drop in the core service price? Strange new site ID laws in the US?
So it seems safe but does it have any growth area?
A steady milking of users over years on a known product.
Re:Network Solutions redux (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone that uses gross revenue as the sole basis for valuating a company is an idiot. GoDaddy's profit margins on domains are next to insignificant as they are paying Versign $7.34 for every .COM registration. GoDaddy often sells domain registration at a loss to sell their extra services.
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Read the fine posting. It said 'first approximation' denoting that it isn't unusual for a company to sell around its annual revenues. Some go for more, others less. Clearly other factors will be considered as people develop their specific bids.
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I don't think I'd even use it for a rough approximation as it really does not describe the profitability of the company. It would be like looking for jobs and they each say: $1000, $100000, $1000000 without providing the period of time you earn it in. It could be a month, a year, or 100 years which changes things drastically and the numbers alone don't even hint at what is the better option.
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Lets make a better one then.
My brother works as a plumber and makes around $55k gross pay annually. I work as a technician consultant and make around 50k gross pay annually. Looking at these numbers alone would lead to the assumption that my brother's job is better than mine.
This is only true if do do not consider the expenses involved. I generally end up spending around $5k on technician toys, odd parts, lab supplies, office supplies, transportation, and other random expenses. My brother on the other hand
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Maybe that 5 year deal with Microsoft for parking new websites on Windows IIS servers is ending so they don't know where to make profits this time. I would not leave out the option of Microsoft buying them just to keep Windows IIS marketshare numbers up and to possibly grow them.
If you don't know, Microsoft was paying GoDaddy to place parked web domains on Microsoft IIS based servers so that netcraft and other web server counting systems looked more favorable for Microsoft's web server(
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Got any evidence that Microsoft was paying for it? Solid evidence?
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Of course they have costs, but that's not the point. Revenue is all the money they bring in, then profits are revenue - costs. If a company bringing in about a billion dollars a year in gross revenue isn't making any profit, then they're doing it wrong.
But the valuation of the company also has to include assets and liabilities. GoDadddy probably won't go for a $1bn, but I still think its not an unreasonable amount. That of course is given my complete lack of insider knowledge.
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To be fair, you should've said "gross revenue." The way you wrote it has two interpretations, one of which makes you look stupid, therefore the AC chose to believe that's the one you meant.
Re:Oh... (Score:5, Insightful)
the company is 13 years old. this isn't exactly flipping a house after a few months and minor work. Not sure 'pump and dump' is really accurate.
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also it's privately held so there isn't anything to pump.
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godaddy also has probably half of all the spam domains that exist - due to their lovely "auto-register a domain you searched for" shit.
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I haven't used GoDaddy in almost 8 years. The stuff being talked about at nodaddy was enough to split my registrar and hosting up (I now use PairNIC, while more expensive has a better policy IMO, for my registrar). My web host is a free host (000webhost.com) so not much to brag on there (aside from a few neat features).
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I keep my hosting separate from my registrar, but it's nice to hear confirmation of what I've already discovered. (: That just reinforces my decision to stick with them.
GoDaddy stories on Slashdot (Score:4, Interesting)
Go Daddy Usurps Network Solutions [slashdot.org] (2005-05-04)
GoDaddy Serves Blank Pages to Safari & Opera [slashdot.org] (2005-12-08)
GoDaddy.com Dumps Linux for Microsoft [slashdot.org] (2006-03-23)
GoDaddy Holds Domains Hostage [slashdot.org] (2006-06-17)
GoDaddy Caves To Irish Legal Threat [slashdot.org] (2006-09-16)
MySpace and GoDaddy Shut Down Security Site [slashdot.org] (2007-01-26) That incident prompted this web site:
Exposing the Many Reasons Not to Trust GoDaddy with Your Domain Names [nodaddy.com].
Alternative Registrars to GoDaddy? [slashdot.org] (2007-02-03)
GoDaddy Bobbles DST Changeover? [slashdot.org] (2007-03-11)
850K RegisterFly Domains Moved To GoDaddy [slashdot.org] (2007-05-29)
According to this March 11, 2008 story in Wired, GoDaddy shut down an entire web site of 250,000 pages because of one archived mailing list comment: GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com [wired.com]. See below for Slashdot's story about RateMyCop.com.
GoDaddy Silences RateMyCop.com [slashdot.org] (2008-03-12)
ICANN Moves Against GoDaddy Domain Lockdowns [slashdot.org] (2008-04-08)
GoDaddy VP Caught Bidding Against Customers [slashdot.org] (2008-06-29)
Those are just the stories until July of 2008.
GoDaddy on Slashdot since July of 2008: (Score:2)
KnujOn Updates Top 10 Spam-Friendly Registrars List [slashdot.org] (2009-02-06, 80 comments) GoDaddy is on the list.
R.I.P. FTP [slashdot.org] (2009-07-13, 359 comments) The GoDaddy web site is extremely complicated. Quote: "In that case, why don't more people switch to administering their sites via SFTP instead of FTP? Here are the steps it took me to enable SFTP on my GoDaddy hosting account. Feel free to use this as a reference, but the obvious point is that as
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Re:Oh... (Score:5, Informative)
No, it's more like buying a shiny new house, smashing down walls for 13 years, and trying to foist it off onto a naive buyer.
GoDaddy is infamous. When someone posted MySpace passwords to a mailing list archived by seclists, MySpace complained and GoDaddy immediately shut down seclists.org with less than 1 minute's notice. They weren't even hosting the material, just the DNS record. GoDaddy's counsel said [alternet.org] "I think the fact that we gave him notice at all was pretty generous."
As covered on slashdot [slashdot.org] they also have a habit of coming up with reasons to suspend customers' accounts and not just terminating service but refusing to release the domain to a different registrar unless you pay exorbitant fees.
Also GoDaddy shut down [domainnamewire.com] some guy's personal website because they sent him an email to update his invalid email address in the whois information and he didn't reply to it. They didn't just shut down the domain, they sold it.
What kind of joke of a service provider complies with random complaints from non-customers against customers without court order?
Re:Oh... (Score:5, Informative)
I briefly hosted a subdomain on GoDaddy.com. I dumped them because:
If someone had told me how much of a disaster GoDaddy was beforehand, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have thought, "There's no way anybody could be THAT incompetent." Einstein put it best when he said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."
Maybe I should start the bidding at a dollar.
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Did your SSL cert come from StartCom?
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Yes.
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Pretty much anywhere, GoDaddy doesn't have particularly great pricing. I use NearlyFreeSpeech.NET but that's a pre-paid service recommended for when you want to leave a little bit of content up for years at a time without much load. No reason to pay $20/mo if you're only hosting 20MB with a GB or so of transfer monthly.
What domain registrar do you recommend? (Score:2)
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I use 1&1 (see my other posts above) for both domains and hosting, and am totally happy with them. I know folks using Dreamhost and Lunarpages, likewise happy. And yes, I am a *former* GoDaddy customer (over 10 years), mainly because I got sick of being assaulted by their upselling shit, but partly increasing unease over some of their business practices.
I suspect one reason I had no trouble when I transferred my domains away from GoDaddy was that the first thing I said to their phone guy was something l
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Right, but I'm wondering if there's some exit strategy here beyond the obvious. Thoughts?
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Re:This Is Why Privately-Owned Registrars Are Bad (Score:4, Insightful)
If they do a big rate hike there will be a mass exodus.
It isn't like they have a massive customer goodwill or anything like that.
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Good to hold long term but no instant bump of growth.
This Is Why Privately-Owned Companies Are Bad (Score:5, Funny)
Whoever buys it is able to do a rate hike and truly screw over pre-existing consumers, and that's just if they're feeling generous. There's far worse they could potentially do.
Everything should be owned by the Government! That way no-one would ever be screwed over.
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I didn't even notice the title.
Privately-owned registrars are GOOD. Shareholders care nothing for the customer, only their own pocket-books (though GoDaddy isn't known for their customer's goodwill).
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Manual mod +1 insightful. GoDaddy's advertising isn't necessarily direct like soap and gatorade, but it does breed familiarity so when people go to make a website, "Godaddy" is the only name they've heard of.
Re:I think they overvalue themselves... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you're saying that pretty much any big brand might as well stop advertising?
Everyone knows Coca Cola by now... They might as well stop advertising, because anyone feels like cola, they just buy Coca Cola!
And most commercials don't work directly: It's just for those moments when the consumer actually wants to buy a domain, the name will ring a bell. At such time, GoDaddy is more likely to be chosen by someone with not enough knowledge of what is important in a webhost; but they'll be remembered by those 'funny' commercials at the Superbowl.
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It's actually a brilliant ad campaign. An offensive, brilliant campaign.
Domain registrars have the same problem re, advertising that the oil industry has: they're all selling almost the exact same stuff. There's little to distinguish one registrar from another, especially for your average person who doesn't know that much about DNS. There are vast numbers of registrars out there, all of who want you to buy the same thing from them. But if you make a really offensive ad campaign, everyone starts talking