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Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

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

#51

Post by andylynch »

tomhoward wrote: post #24

This sucks and I feel for you. But the sad fact is that domain registrars have been doing this ever since domain names became big business in the 90s. As a PSA to everyone, you should only ever use whois in a terminal window to see if a domain is available. It's included with macOS, Windows (?), Linux or any other OS anyone's likely to use. [Edit: a reply says it's not included in Windows. It seems you can download i…

I’ve started using rdap first for this kind of thing partly because it works in browser and also because corporate firewalls like to block whois. Having a standardised response format is also really nice.

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

#54

Post by scrollaway »

bhartzer wrote: post #45
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.

They've been doing it for years, it's a pretty well known thing at this point which is long past the point of needing new evidence.

PS: Use gandi.net, both for search and registration.

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

#55

Post by innocenat »

tomhoward wrote: post #24

This sucks and I feel for you. But the sad fact is that domain registrars have been doing this ever since domain names became big business in the 90s. As a PSA to everyone, you should only ever use whois in a terminal window to see if a domain is available. It's included with macOS, Windows (?), Linux or any other OS anyone's likely to use. [Edit: a reply says it's not included in Windows. It seems you can download i…

> It's included with macOS, Windows, Linux or any other OS anyone's likely to use.

Is it? I don't think it is included on Windows --- it is available on sysinternal, sure, but not included. (Unless something has changed from when I stopped using Windows)

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

#56

Post by roosgit »

I never experienced this, but I did wait too long to buy a domain. After I checked if the domain was available(it was), I started building the website. A month later the domain was bought by someone who eventually made the same thing I wanted to make.

My current process for checking if a domain is available is pretty basic. I first check it in the browser. If Firefox can't find it, then I use the `whois` command. If there is no match for "example.com" then I decide if I want to buy it, before starting to build anything. If I do decide to get it, I go to Hover.com do a final check and press "Add to cart".

These days, for me it's better to spend $15 on a domain that might not get used, than to regret not buying it.

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

#57

Post by kaikai »

digi59404 wrote: post #22

So .... how can we use this to our nefarious purposes.... anyone want to build an API Tool and random name generator and get GoDaddy to register tons of bogus names.

It's almost free for them, so there's very little downside for them to register thousands of domains. I'd love to see how long it took them to block malicious searches, though.

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

#59

Post by bhartzer »

scrollaway wrote: post #54
bhartzer wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They've been doing it for years, it's a pretty well known thing at this point which is long past the point of needing new evidence. PS: Use gandi.net, both for search and registration.

In this case, felons.io, there is no registrant listed, even on who.godaddy.com. So how can you definitively say that GoDaddy saw that search from the OP and registered the domain?

I'm not saying they didn't do it, but I base my opinions on facts, not speculation or "they've been doing it for years".

I'm just not seeing any evidence in the WHOIS record that GoDaddy registered that domain--it could have been one of their customers.

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

#60

Post by owlninja »

scrollaway wrote: post #54
bhartzer wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They've been doing it for years, it's a pretty well known thing at this point which is long past the point of needing new evidence. PS: Use gandi.net, both for search and registration.

Can you link some prior evidence? I can believe it but is there proof? Could some other data have led another party to registering OP's domain idea?
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