GoDaddy Spies???

[pixelbugnyc]

Ok, so here's something I've always wondered about and now that it's actually happened to me, I'm looking into it even further... hope others who have had similar experiences could come forward and contribute as well.

Here's the question, when we are online looking up the availability of domains, are others watching? Is there someone on the other side of the screen looking at everything we are researching? Waiting for something good to come about only to yank it from under our feet...

This past Saturday the 12th, I went online to Godaddy.com to see if a list of domains were available... the one domain i was really crossing my fingers for was a domain appropriate for an adult site (hornyDoll.com). I have had this domain written in my little book for sometime now. I have had other domains that took priority to this one so I have held back in registering this one for some time now. (Lesson learned: never wait!)

Anyways, On Saturday i entered the domain to check if it was available and it was. At the time of purchase my connection with Godaddy kept failing. i tried connecting a few times but had no luck in doing so. I gave up and went about my day, thinking i would do it later that evening. What with the holiday weekend, I ended up going away and not attending to this til today.

When i went to register it, it was taken. Now, lets look at the domain (hornydoll.com) last i checked, the two words in conjunction have not popped up in the news. there is no real thing as a product called a "hornydoll". No logical reason to believe why anyone would be in a race to have this domain registered. it came to me and i would be damned if the same thing popped into someones head on the same DAY!

i looked up WHOIS and i found out it was registered on the same day as i made the attempt to purchase. In the past when ive been with godaddy on the phone, i know they have access to "view our actions" as we do them on our account. did someone there see what i was registering and took it from me? why did my connection stall? is it possible that some "hack" has invaded "domainer's" computers only to spy on what they are trying to register? i cant help but to feel paranoid now. how can it possibly happen that two people were both looking for the same word at the same time?

Here's another bit of info that makes you think even more... the company that registered the domain does "predictive data analysis"

Is there anyone who works in legal who can chime in on this?

if anyone has any comments, please post it. id' like to hear what others think about what is going on. thanks!

 

[pixelbugnyc]

law against domain spies

Bluesman has said what I have been too busy to post unfortunately in response to the many excuses ive seen posted in reply to my original post of godaddy spies. i even went as far as to think that those same people who are involved in this illegal act are among us. ever wonder how many registrar employees are NP members???

As i was reading the replies (excuses) to my post, i was getting aggravated. the reason why i didnt finish registering the domain was because the site stalled on me (this has never happened to me). and like i mentioned, i came back and the domain was gone. The coincidences are that i queried it at 1pm and the person who hijacked it from me comes up as having it registered a couple of minutes past 1pm, same day. This is too much of a coincidence. Its funny how i immediately reacted by looking behind me (a window in my office) thinking someone was spying on me from across the street)

the way i see it, People who work for registrars should not be allowed to buy domains. I see them as stock brokers. They have inside info. this is the same type of business... think about it.

i think this is another sign of how young the internet is. we need stricter regulations. i do not believe the domain registrars wshould be allowed to buy domains or those affiliated with registrars (employees or those with direct access)

i hate writing this stuff cause it upsets me. it pisses me off. i hope everything we are writing leads to something worth while.

speak up people!

 

[mirrorcube]

Similar experience with Godaddy. Yes it does exist and the best you can do at this point in the game is search at a more secure place. Ask godaddy about the practice and the adamantly deny it but what else would they say?

 

[Ben42]

Best advice I can give is don't test the waters with the search.

If your interested in a name decide to buy it before you see if it's available. You don't need to jump into anything, but write the name down, and see if you still want it the next day. When you search for it at a registrar decide then once and for all if you want it and reg it right away if you do.

 

[Dave_Z]

we need stricter regulations.

What we probably "need" first is to try to fully learn and comprehend what all
this is about. It is pretty easy to say, "people who work for registrars should
not be allowed to buy domains" or "those affiliated with registrars (employees
or those with direct access) shouldn't buy domains".

I can easily rebut those with, "Well, I can register those at home instead from
work" or "I'll ask my friend from Timbuktu to register it for me." What group is
seriously willing to put some time gazillion checking this party isn't affiliated or
paid by someone to register this domain name?

For those who are curious, I worked with a registrar myself for more than four
years before finally moving on. Having worked with one gave me a better and
more realistic understanding of what's involved, what's at stake, and what it
could mean.

Unfortunately one reality I've since accepted is that people tend to care only
about results without considering the devil in the details, more so when other
interests are involved that they don't care to know. When you don't consider
those other interests, you're not going to go unchallenged.

If some of you get pissed at my post, then I suggest you stop reading this. I
am not here to please everyone, just giving another way to look at it.

 

[Ronald Regging]

I think you sound a bit paranoid. Looking behind you thinking that someone is spying on you through your window? That's just a bit ridiculous. As has been mentioned, theres nothing illegal about this. Registrars are free to do what they want with data they have collected, especially so if it's not personally identifying. Even personally identifying information is sold to third parties every day, but the fact that it's just arbitrary domain searches makes it even less of an issue.

You can say people are making excuses all you want, but whats the solution? To restrict businesses from selling information? The economy would crash And we don't even know that is what's taking place. As others have mentioned, it may just be a "feature" for the domain suggestion tool.

You seem to think theres a huge conspiracy going on here involving registrars. If anything, at the most they're doing is selling information on searches. Theres nothing conspiratorial about that. It's a common business practice. If Google didn't collect search results and sell advertising based on keywords, they'd be out of business

But regardless of personal feelings (I don't like it much either), this isn't illegal, and this is the legal forum. So you got the answer you came for, even if it wasn't the one you wanted.

 

[fogfever]

Registrars might be selling info about domains that were searched, but I don't think that hornydoll.com is a good case study.
It may not have been in the news lately, but hornydoll.com was a developed site in the past and is an excellent term with lots of google results.
It is no surprise that hornydoll.com would be registered as quickly as it became available.

I would be interested to hear about a truly random domain name that was registered the same day that someone searched godaddy for it.

 

[bluesman]

Many responses by pro-grab posters here totally miss the point. Nobody's talking about general Google search result reports here. And nobody's talking about Godaddy's right to report the most-wanted names to interested businesses. We're not talking about banning that practice at all, and therefore no "financial collapse" in that area will take place.

Rather the point is about a specific name that you are looking for one day and is gone the next, BECAUSE you searched for it. This is not an example of a "popular" name being reported - it's a unique name that only you made up, and nobody else did. That's why such searches must all be made secure and private, which is not too much to ask.

Then AFTER you've registered the name, the registrar can be perfectly free to report it in their "popular name" rankings, if merely doing that was their true intent. Otherwise, if they refuse to keep your search private, you know that they (or someone they're affiliated with) is trying to STEAL your name instead.

The weak excuse of "thousands of people are trying to register thousands of names every day" in fact only makes more clear the LIE of mere coincidence regarding these companies grabbing your one oddball name. Likewise, in a movie taking place in a very small town, it might make sense that the main character would run into the same person more than once. But in New York city? No way!

 

[Dave_Z]

Otherwise, if they refuse to keep your search private, you know that they (or someone they're affiliated with) is trying to STEAL your name instead.

Sorry, but one can't steal what one never owned to begin with.

Maybe I'm dense, but I've yet to understand why some people insist believing
the word/s they're looking up is "theirs" when using a search service provided,
paid for and owned by someone else. I understand people's desire for a degree
of online privacy, but to demand providers what they're looking up is "theirs"?

You might as well tell Google the terms you're looking up in their search engine
is yours and not to do anything with them as they see fit. I mean, this should
not really be any different, should it?

Besides, no registrar on earth can guarantee what you're looking up today will
still be available the next day. They're forced to input those disclaimers since
some people make unrealistically unreasonable demands.

 

[Ronald Regging]

It simply comes down to this... If you search for a domain and it's available, either register it or write it off entirely. There are no guarantees that it will be available later, even 5 minutes later. One time I went to Blockbuster and there was the new Crocodile Dundee movie on the shelf, only one left. I picked it up and was telling my wife, "lets get the crocodile dundee movie, this is the last one left!" I was being sarcastic, but as soon as I put it down and stepped 3 feet away, someone who had overheard me swooped in and grabbed it Other people want what you want.

As for GoDaddy making recent searches available (like I said, I don't know if this is part of their domain suggestion tool or not), it makes perfect sense. Someone sees a name that someone else recently searched for, and they go all crocodile dundee on the domain and snatch it up, just because they know someone else wanted it as well, so it must be a good domain, right?? It allows GD to convert lost sales into sales. It makes perfect business sense.

 

[kubativity]

If its NOT stolen at GD, than it probably wasnt a good name to begin with.

 

[bluesman]

Again, nobody's talking about some well known, generic search term here, whether it's searched for on Go Daddy, Goggle, or Gosh Allmighty.

Instead what is being STOLEN is the intellectual property that you and you alone invented. A very unique term that may have taken you many hours to come up with.

Why all the reluctance to demand as part of the registrar membership package the simple feature of private searching? As I said earlier, if the registrar's goal was only the "good business" of reporting popular names, then surely they'd have no problem giving you a chance to register it first. Maybe the obvious compromise of a grace period could also be worked out.

Point being that creative people thinking up many different domain names often cannot afford to automatically register every domain they search for. They weed out the best ones, and measure those against what's available at the time.

But then if ROBBERS like the Enom Nuts and the Kenyatech Krooks are allowed to run free and STEAL every name ever searched for in the history of mankind, then the whole process is being thrown totally out of whack!

 

[Dave_Z]

Instead what is being STOLEN is the intellectual property that you and you alone invented. A very unique term that may have taken you many hours to come up with.

You know, I've seen at least 2 other persons maintain that position. However,
I've yet to see and/or figure out how one can demonstrate exactly that, more
so when the registrar doesn't have to do anything for you unless served with
a court order or something similar.

While I perfectly understand the desire for "private searching", what more can
the registrar do if they give all the guarantees in the world they don't sell any
of their searches, the domain name you looked up but didn't register is taken
by someone else, and you won't accept any of their explanations?