advice Auction missing in GoDaddy search results

[GBA]

Hello fellows

I'm having an issue with a live 7-day auction on GD. Just realized I cannot find it through Auction search results.

Yes, it is live, and present in my panel, also searchable through main domain availaiblity search. Am I missing anything, or just having bad luck with GD? Tested it on some other names, looks fine.

Please advise, thanks.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

what is name?

 

[GBA]

what is name?

PM'ed

 

[GBA]

Any input by GD representatives here would be highly appreciated, the problem persists. Thanks

 

[D Haynes]

@JoeStyler

 

[D Haynes]

Think thats the GD rep here.

 

[dordomai]

How do you search for it?

 

[usernamex]

@Joe Styler There's a space in his username else he won't get tagged

 

[barefooted]

It happens for some of my domains too. I found it long time ago.
I found out that if you want to view search results must copy paste the name instead of typing it.

 

[golan]

I found out that if you want to view search results must copy paste the name instead of typing it.

But if so, how anyone can find it, if he searches by keywords included?

I'd like to hear the answer as well.

 

[GBA]

Think thats the GD rep here.

PMed him, thanks

How do you search for it?

Right where a perspective buyer would search: https://auctions.godaddy.com

It happens for some of my domains too. I found it long time ago.
I found out that if you want to view search results must copy paste the name instead of typing it.

Didn't work.

The online GD reps confirmed it wasn't visible in search results on their side either. Too bad I checked it late, that was last hours, the auction has ended now. Will relist it, if it shows up, then the topic is closed.

 

[Michael]

The most common reason I've seen for this happening is the domain incorrectly getting flagged as adult and you having your account settings set to not show adult domains (I believe this is default). Without knowing the domain, and now that the auction has ended, it is hard to say. Hopefully the problem resolves itself when you relist though.

 

[GBA]

Relisted, looking good now. Still have no clue what was the reason. Another 7 days of waiting, hope to get more bids this time.

Thanks everyone and check your names on search results from time to time

 

[GBA]

Just received a detailed explanation, from @Joe Styler , Michael you were right. The name contains 69, and was flagged as adult, automatically, after listing submission. My settings were preventing showing adult names in search results, I knew that, but had no clue about background flagging. The name isn't adult, pure numerical.

Things are sorted out, thanks again.

 

[Michael]

Thanks for updating the thread. It's really unfortunate that they'll automatically flag a domain as adult, with either no manual review or someone who isn't careful, and there's no notification for you as the seller. If I'm right and the default is to exclude adult domains, that will significantly hurt bidding activity.

 

[Joe Styler]

Thanks for updating the thread. It's really unfortunate that they'll automatically flag a domain as adult, with either no manual review or someone who isn't careful, and there's no notification for you as the seller. If I'm right and the default is to exclude adult domains, that will significantly hurt bidding activity.

Good suggestions but its not something we can do practically. We load millions of names a month into the auctions. We did manually check a portion of the names years ago but it was unbelievably time consuming. Most of the names we auto flag are adult. Some may slip through either way but not that many % wise.
Any name that is flagged as an adult name will still show up on GoDaddy.com's main domain search. So if you go to look up a domain and it's available on the auction we will show it as available in the main search box that is returned. We get a tremendous amount of traffic on our main page and millions of searches. Most "regular" customers will use that search over an auctions.godaddy.com search. Most serious auctions.godaddy.com buyers login when they are on the auctions.godaddy site searching because you need to be logged in to get advanced settings like saved searches and the ability to export search results to excel etc. The adult names show up in the API results as well. So, yes adult names are somewhat limited, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not that much.
Also anyone using the direct link to the auction would see the name for sale regardless of if they are logged in or not, so if you are promoting the auction and tell people to go to it directly, they would see the auction as well. So any promotion you do on your own or any buyers you send to the listing would still see it. Here is an example of the link you can use to do that: https://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults.aspx?checkAvail=1&domainToCheck=YOURDOMAINNAME

 

[Michael]

But @Joe Styler , logging in to an auctions account doesn't mean the name will suddenly show up. If excluding adult names is the default, and people don't know to turn it off or don't want to turn it off (myself included), then the name will still not be visible. So saying serious buyers are logged in doesn't mean much, if anything, as far as the auction getting visibility is concerned.

I also doubt any remotely serious bidders are doing their GoDaddy auctions buying through the home page search box. They're probably browsing the most active list or a saved search, which both would exclude these falsely flagged "adult" domains. If the only way a falsely flagged domain can be seen is by paying for promotion elsewhere, you're not earning your commission. This guy got lucky in that nobody placed a bid, but if one person found it he may have seriously undersold the domain.

I realize you run a lot of auctions, but those millions a month are including Afternic listings that are put in as auctions but aren't really auctions. Many more are expired inventory, and that's your business whether or not a certain percentage getting falsely flagged are acceptable as it only impacts your bottom line. But how many are auctions actually started by a user on your platform, I'm talking about the 7-day ones? And of those how many are actually flagged as adult at all? I would guess less than a hundred a day get flagged. Certainly that is a volume that could be manually reviewed for accuracy.

I don't see the other types of auctions as worth reviewing because the scale is too big, but improving the algorithm could help for those as well. A purely numeric domain shouldn't get flagged for having 69 in it, unless that is the entirety of the SLD.

At the very minimum you should send the seller an email warning him that his domain was flagged as adult so if it isn't an adult domain, he knows to reach out and get it corrected before it is too late. Or at least show it somewhere prominent in the interface.

In the meantime, I'm going to start trolling the adult listings trying to find ones that are incorrectly flagged, as I'll probably get them dirt cheap due to a significant reduction in visibility

I'm not trying to make a big deal about something that probably affects very few, but if I listed something like 1069*com (not mine) at no reserve, and only a tiny percent of people saw it because it was flagged as adult, I would be really upset.

 

[alcy]

when in doubt.. try running search in incognito window/mode. just to be sure; it's solved many issues for me!

gl

 

[Joe Styler]

If you are logged in you should see adult listings by default. You have to go into your settings to turn that off manually. I just checked an account to confirm that but if you are seeing something else let me know and I will look into it further.

 

[barefooted]

I just found that it is not copy paste related.
It is when you submit your search using Enter key.
This happens for me only in Firefox and not in Chrome.
If I use Search button on page, correct results are show but if I submit with Enter there are no results.

 

[GBA]

But @Joe Styler , logging in to an auctions account doesn't mean the name will suddenly show up. If excluding adult names is the default, and people don't know to turn it off or don't want to turn it off (myself included), then the name will still not be visible. So saying serious buyers are logged in doesn't mean much, if anything, as far as the auction getting visibility is concerned.

I also doubt any remotely serious bidders are doing their GoDaddy auctions buying through the home page search box. They're probably browsing the most active list or a saved search, which both would exclude these falsely flagged "adult" domains. If the only way a falsely flagged domain can be seen is by paying for promotion elsewhere, you're not earning your commission. This guy got lucky in that nobody placed a bid, but if one person found it he may have seriously undersold the domain.

I realize you run a lot of auctions, but those millions a month are including Afternic listings that are put in as auctions but aren't really auctions. Many more are expired inventory, and that's your business whether or not a certain percentage getting falsely flagged are acceptable as it only impacts your bottom line. But how many are auctions actually started by a user on your platform, I'm talking about the 7-day ones? And of those how many are actually flagged as adult at all? I would guess less than a hundred a day get flagged. Certainly that is a volume that could be manually reviewed for accuracy.

I don't see the other types of auctions as worth reviewing because the scale is too big, but improving the algorithm could help for those as well. A purely numeric domain shouldn't get flagged for having 69 in it, unless that is the entirety of the SLD.

At the very minimum you should send the seller an email warning him that his domain was flagged as adult so if it isn't an adult domain, he knows to reach out and get it corrected before it is too late. Or at least show it somewhere prominent in the interface.

In the meantime, I'm going to start trolling the adult listings trying to find ones that are incorrectly flagged, as I'll probably get them dirt cheap due to a significant reduction in visibility

I'm not trying to make a big deal about something that probably affects very few, but if I listed something like 1069*com (not mine) at no reserve, and only a tiny percent of people saw it because it was flagged as adult, I would be really upset.

Good point, I think - a mere automatic warning would prevent the problem, too.

Btw, in advanced searching it wasn't showing up either. And I think for liquid names (like numerical, LLLL etc) the advanced searching is main gate for the bidders looking rather for a pattern and not for anything specific, to be found through main search.

 

[Michael]

If you are logged in you should see adult listings by default. You have to go into your settings to turn that off manually. I just checked an account to confirm that but if you are seeing something else let me know and I will look into it further.

I tried several accounts that I had never used to log into the auctions section with, so I couldn't have changed the setting. All had "Filter out domain names listed as adult" selected already. Maybe it is a new change to have the other option selected as default, as these accounts are all several months to a few years old, but I'm not seeing what you're seeing. Even so, if filtering out adult was the default for many years I bet a very high percentage of people have it selected. Your tech guys could run a query and tell you how many I'm sure.