Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#41

Post by bhartzer » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

The registrar of that domain is GoDaddy, but that doesn't mean that the owner of the domain is GoDaddy. If you look at who.godaddy.com you'll see that it's not GoDaddy that owns the domain.

In this case, I don't see any evidence of front-running. It's more likely that it's a coincidence that someone registered the domain name a day after you searched for it. In fact, I personally would consider that to be more of a 'premium' domain, so it's logical that someone simply also searched for it and bought it.

Personally, when I search for domains, and it's available, I usually just register it and don't wait. I only wait and not register it right then and there if I'm OK with not getting it.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#42

Post by jedberg » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

hsnewman wrote: post #4

ffpip wrote: post #2

Yes. If you search it 2-3 times, they buy it in most cases.

I wonder if they have any logarithms that would attack this vulnerability? Someone could write a script to simply search several times for 1000's of names and bankrupt godaddy...

It doesn't cost them anything to do this. As a registrar they can register a domain name for free for seven days.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#43

Post by mark-r » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #33

I had this happen as well in the past when researching domain names for a new product. Pro Tip: Stay the hell away from GoDaddy for everything. I've had the unfortunate task of managing a server hosted with them and it's been consistently awful (ex. I literally cannot upgrade PHP because the VPS doesn't support it and there is no upgrade path without spinning up an entirely new VPS on a different, and of course more…

I have no choice, they bought out my hosting provider a year ago.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#44

Post by boxed » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

symkat wrote: post #6

And it's free for GoDaddy to do this: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-...

Can't be totally free. If we all would run random garbage through their search, at some point this evil mudy collapse somehow?

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#45

Post by bhartzer » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

andylynch wrote: post #31

This is a scummy move. In the industry I work in, we call this front-running and it’s a criminal act. If the same laws applied here godaddy would be looking at a nine digit fine and jail time for whoever thought this is a good idea.

But I don't see any proof that GoDaddy is the registrant of that domain, they're just the registrar. I don't see any evidence of front-running in this case. I see it more as coincidence if anything else.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#46

Post by vegetablepotpie » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:39 PM UTC

This presents an interesting attack vector. If you know that a competitor is looking at purchasing a particular domain name, type it into godaddy. It costs nothing and the act can’t be traced back to you.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#47

Post by bhartzer » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:39 PM UTC

Supermancho wrote: post #38

GoDaddy has been doing this since they have existed, I assume. I first used them after the superbowl ad to search for a domain name and they registered it. Never again.

The registrar is GoDaddy, not the owner of the domain as far as I can tell. I don't see any evidence that GoDaddy did anything wrong in this case.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#48

Post by afrnz » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:40 PM UTC

I also got burned trying to buy a domain from GoDaddy a couple of days ago. Never again ...

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#49

Post by _nickwhite » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:40 PM UTC

I learned this _years_ ago that Godaddy will steal your name for fun and profit. As the HN comments confirm, there are several shady outfits that do the same thing.

For years, I've gone to ICANN directly to check domain name availability: https://lookup.icann.org/

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#50

Post by ausjke » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:40 PM UTC

That happened to me in the past, the short and concise name I tried was quickly taken and becomes unavailable, I since lost interests in using godaddy.

anyone has better options to try new domain names?