What happened to GoDaddy Auctions?

[Bannen]

Or should I say, 'What the HELL happened to Godaddy auctions?'

Looks like a totally new beta version to me today. I looked around this forum but could not find any threads about it, let me know if I've missed it somewhere please.

The whole layout of the auction page is new and different. I cannot find expired auctions anywhere, just public auctions. I'm looking at all menus and links, still cannot find anything that will take me to the expired names auction list.

Is it just me, or does this new beta version look insane? What happened to the nice old list, where you just scroll down, see all the expiring domains, click the 'eye' for those you want to watch, click another link to see info about that domain (like age, exact time auction ends, etc), see info about the bids... now, all that has disappeared. Or is it just in the Canadian version of GD? (I am in Canada.)

Anyone have the scoop on what is happening with this? I hope it's not the next gen of GD auctions... so far, it sucks... in my humble opinion... it seems to make no sense whatsoever, so if anyone can fill me in so I don't appear stupid, I'd appreciate it

 

[GoDaddy]

Hi @Bannen,
As we shared here, GoDaddy Auctions has rolled out its beta design as the default for 15 countries, including the US, UK, and Canada. This has been a beta option in the US since we started developing it a couple of years ago, and this week, we rolled it out wider as the default.

We'll share some best practices for you to help you get around.

There are two boxes t the top of the page that let you have quick visibility over auctions that have just begun and auctions that are ending soon. Clicking the call to action buttons on either of these (See More Ending Soon or See More Recently Added) will take you to pre-designed filters to show you more listings.
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For search parameters that you've previously saved (whether that's the legacy design or this design), you'll find them under the "Searches" button, by clicking the "Load Previous Search" drop down box.

The easiest way to navigate to expired domain auctions is to use the Advanced Search link. From here you can filter listings down by price, keywords, ending time, age, and traffic. For expired domains, the filter you want to click is "type."

Once you've set up a filter, you can head to the "Searches" button to save that search. After that, it will be available from the "Load Previous Search" drop-down box.

When you've found a domain name, you'd like to take a closer look at from the search results area, clicking it will bring up a quick side panel where you can find more details with a link to place a bid.

Thanks for sharing your experience so far, and we hope these videos help.

 

[Bannen]

Hello @GoDaddy

Perhaps I made a mistake in my assumption. I had assumed that, since expired domain auctions were the main focus of your landing page for 'auctions' for many years, I made the assumption that this was still your primary focus. As you know, to make the primary focus 'user friendly' is paramount to customer acquisition and visitor retention.

With the new layout, the 'user friendly' part of finding the expiring domain auction has been wiped out. Here are the new steps:
1 - arrive at the landing page... and do not see the simple layout of the expiring domain auction, like there used to be. In fact, it is nowhere to be seen.

2 - upon looking around, also do not see any words or links taking me to the expired domain auctions. Also no words mentioning that this is a new beta layout, and how to navigate it to find the expired auctions. - Note that 'putting it on X/Twitter' is not user friendly. That would assume that everyone who's a GD customer (like I am, for almost 2 decades) also follows you on X/Twitter (I don't) and would see your announcements and instructions there.

So, steps 1 and 2 mean there is no 'user friendly' to finding the expired auctions list on the main auctions lander.

3 - so we have to look around. Click some links. Explore, to find the expired auctions. Those of us who cannot seem to find it (like I couldn't) then have to go outside the site to ask somewhere else. I came to Namepros and asked, and received your instructions above. Having to leave your site and go elsewhere to find instructions how to get to your expired auctions = the exact opposite of user-friendly. Which is why I used the word 'insane'. Perhaps a bit harsh, but it made no sense to me to make your expiring auctions non-visible on the landing page, and very difficult to find by looking around and clicking links in hopes of getting there, and then some of us - or a lot of us - needing to go outside your site and ask elsewhere how to get to your expired auctions.

4 - thank you for the instructions you posted above. As I mentioned, it's kind of crazy that I had to post on Namepros, in order to find instructions on how to find Godaddy's new location for expired auctions. Your statement "The easiest way to navigate to expired domain auctions is to use the Advanced Search link" is kind of a strange one. Because it's not 'easy' at all. I couldn't even find it, until posting here on NP and then seeing your response.

So GD's decision to change the way we find the expired auctions list was, to me, insane. But that was when I was assuming the expired auctions were still your main focus. We don't take our main focus and hide it under a bushel, right?

But then I smartened up, and realized that someone within your company made this change for a reason. If expired domain auctions have now become hard to find, and a few clicks to get to, that means your focus has changed. The focus now appears to be making public auctions obvious on the main auctions page, with a sprinkle of expired auctions thrown in maybe as part of the 'auctions added today' or 'auctions ending soon' lists. Though, when we look at those boxes, there is nothing telling us whether a domain is in public auction or expiring auction, without clicking to see the main list, then clicking that domain in the main list to see the info box pop up on the right, and then having to scroll down that box to see whether a domain is in public or expired auction.

Wow. User-friendly just became user-fiddly and user-exhausting and user-time-consuming... all to do what used to be fast, easy to see, and easy to move through, on the old version.

Sorry, it just makes no sense to take something that was easy, and now make it so difficult to navigate. I cannot see any way in which the new layout is faster or better. Can we - with some exploring and tutoring and practice - find our way around and make it work? Yes. But is it easier and faster? No. It is harder and slower and clunkier.

My only question in all this is: in what way would this new layout be an improvement? - I'm not being facetious or rhetorical here; I just don't see any improvement, it seems to be a huge backslide and fail, to my eyes. So I must be missing something, and would really like to hear what spawned the changes, what GD thinks the improvement is here.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Shimmy]

There’s a thread already…

https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-auctions-beta-a-hot-mess.1315447/

The beta site is trash and destroys all saved searched. There’s a tip on how to get back to the classic version on it

 

[varyemez]

Horrible looks...