Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

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.

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 it free here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/whoi...]

I guess ICANN's lookup tool (https://lookup.icann.org/) is probably more trustworthy than commercially operated ones; it would be a terrible look for them to engage in this practice.

But I always feel much safer using whois in a terminal than any website that can see what I'm searching for.

I've been using iwantmyname.com both as a registrar and domain search engine. Never had a name sniped from me.

yes, whois:

whois godaddy.com

whois superuselessdomainforeveryone.com

look for "No match for domain" at the end

It doesn't even have to cost them very much. Nothing or a few cents at most.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting

https://icannwiki.org/Domain_Kiting