So this happened

[Pratt]

I went to buy a domain and checked it on Godaddy, it was available(Not Premium). Added to the cart and while I was proceeding with the checkout got the message It's already taken. I checked WHOIS and found out it was registered in 2009. How is that possible. Not once but the same thing happened twice this time. A glitch?? or this is just a common issue?

 

[bmugford]

It just happens sometimes for any number of reasons, like issues with communication between databases or servers.

Brad

 

[MapleDots]

It just happens sometimes for any number of reasons, like issues with communication between databases or servers.

Brad

I actually use webnames.ca to lookup if a domain is available, I have had the godaddy glitch happen a couple of times but with webnames I have never run into that situation. So pick another registrar to look it up first, then go to godaddy to order. You will have two assurances the domain is available and will never run into that again.

 

[4better]

You're not alone. It happened to me too a few times in the past. Using whois helps a lot.

 

[Pratt]

I actually use webnames.ca to lookup if a domain is available, I have had the godaddy glitch happen a couple of times but with webnames I have never run into that situation. So pick another registrar to look it up first, then go to godaddy to order. You will have two assurances the domain is available and will never run into that again.

great will do that. Godaddy is a BIG name in Domain & hosting. Such glitches not good for them.

 

[Pratt]

You're not alone. It happened to me too a few times in the past. Using whois helps a lot.

yea, whois to the rescue but you know when you get "So Excited" that particular domain is available at regular price...and then BAM, it's taken. That's pathetic.

 

[nononsense123]

This issue only happens with GoDaddy in my observation.. not with any of the 10-15 other registrars I've used.

 

[Pairadice]

why would you try to register a domain without doing a whois search first

 

[Future Sensors]

For my first investigation, I'm using a shell script that only queries if there are nameservers defined for a certain keyword.TLD. The output is keyword.TLD for a predefined list of some 75 TLDs I'm especially interested in. I'm not querying whois during this phase. This way, I'm (almost) not leaking information to registrars. During the next phase, I'm pasting all interesting domains in bulk into my registrar's interface for registration. Some domains may then indeed be unavailable, or priced too high, and I skip those.

 

[Pairadice]

I'm not querying whois during this phase. This way, I'm (almost) not leaking information to registrars.

I used to worry about this, but in the past couple of years, I haven't seen any evidence that the domain will become taken if you do a whois search. I use dynadot for whois search and I figure that they have too many people doing too many queries for too many reasons to automatically zero in on what I'm doing... otherwise I will enter a bunch of garbage domains that are unregistered, and do I expect them to register all of those too? I'll feed them junk domains all day to register if that's all I have to do to make them waste $8...

 

[NickB]

Funny enough this happened to me about an hour ago.......with Dynadot

So not just Godaddy by the look of it

It happens, no big deal......

 

[Future Sensors]

I used to worry about this, but in the past couple of years, I haven't seen any evidence that the domain will become taken if you do a whois search. I use dynadot for whois search and I figure that they have too many people doing too many queries for too many reasons to automatically zero in on what I'm doing... otherwise I will enter a bunch of garbage domains that are unregistered, and do I expect them to register all of those too? I'll feed them junk domains all day to register if that's all I have to do to make them waste $8...

Hi Pairadice. Of course you're generally right -- it does not happen often. I have a background in Security and handle things with caution. Information can be leaked in many ways, also to third parties and Google. One advantage of my script is that it's command line, text-only, and only shows specific TLDs I'm interested in. Always in the same order. So, in one simple overview I can see how keyword is populated across a list of TLDs I'm generally interested in.

 

[Pairadice]

I agree it can be leaked. When I first started, I think hackers were seeing what people were typing into registration fields and then beating them to it. Now that they have SSL and cloudflare on most sites, it appears to have gone away, from what I can tell.

Your script does sound cool. I think you can do the same thing of looking up all the non-registered extensions for a certain keyword on expireddomains.. that is how I mine this type of info

 

[Pratt]

Funny enough this happened to me about an hour ago.......with Dynadot

So not just Godaddy by the look of it

It happens, no big deal......

no big deal, it happens but shouldn't be. It's like you're going to book a flight, the windows you want are available and when you are ready to pay, bam it's taken.

 

[DuDD]

This situation is clearly a registrar data error, as buyers, this will undoubtedly let us down