I've always speculated by GD has not actively promoted .us domains. My guess is that .us is not as profitable for them as other extensions. Maybe it isn't GD's fault of not wanting to play ball, but Neustar's fault for not offering GD a bulk/reduced rate.
GD being the largest registrar in the field, not having obtained the .US contract, is obviously playing the business game by making it deliberately more difficult/unreasonable for individuals to register .US domains. In all essence, rightfully so, there's no reason for GD to help Neustar with their flawed, no - non existent, strategy for our TLD.
Maybe when the contract comes up for renewal, GD will get it. I fully expect some killer deals, promotions and the full GD marketing machinery standing behind our extension then.
This sliver of hope, that's glistening on the far horizon, is one of the reason why i keep buying keyword and LLL.us domains. Americas national pride is always coming through at some point.
Let's hope it pays off in the long run.
IMHO you really shouldn't want Godaddy to be the .us registry. At least now .us stands a chance to become very important in the future. However, let's take a lesson from Afilias, the .info registry. Here's my reasoning:
1) Branding in an extension by major corporations is very important. That's what's happening in .mobi. .MOBI might have other shortcomings, but the fact that major corporations are actually branding in it is huge. Why are major corporations branding in it? Because they can trust the .mobi registry. Neustar, the current .us registry, is corporate and slow, but can be trusted to run a stable registry because Melbourne IT, which owns or is involved with Neustar and Neulevel, is a huge company with a clean record. They have a good reputation, not a bad reputation. They can be trusted to keep it clean, or at least give the appearance of keeping it clean.
2) Like Neustar, the backers of .mobi are huge corporations with good reputations, who can't afford to have rogue employees cutting a slice of the profit pie at the expense of real customers. Right now, Godaddy has a reputation of allowing at least one employee, Adam Dicker, of participating and successfully winning TDNAM auctions for really nice .us domain(s). It's documented in other thread(s) here at Namepros. If I was GM, Bank Of America, Purina, etc., I wouldn't go near a TLD whose registry was run by pirates. IMHO that's what happened to .info. In 2001, Afilias, the .info registry, had Directors on their Board who were fraudulently obtaining prime .info names, like maui.info, during the Sunrise Period for trademark holders. Nice, huh. The insiders were picking the corn from the stalk fraudulently. Pirates. That's what corporate America sees when looking at Afilias and .info, pirates. Come to think of it, I don't think a dim view of Afilias is held by only American corporations. Over the years, I haven't noted much progress getting blueblood corporations branding in .info. Now Godaddy also has a similar tarnish. It's a sign that they're not ready to run a registry. If you want to see an extension flushed down the toilet, just hand the registry to a company whose employees are gaining advantage over customers by participating in auctions while working for the auctioneer!
Look, I'm a Godaddy customer, and like what they offer their customers as as a registrar. But I really don't want them running a registry. A registry needs stability, more so than a registrar.
