'Net Features : godaddy

Godaddy Auctions Single, Two Character .ORG Domains

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 23:15:00 GMT

Domain registrar Go Daddy and Public Interest Registry (PIR), the domain registry which manages the .ORG extension, are teaming up to auction 42 single- and two-character domain names including A.ORG, I.ORG, S.ORG and TS.ORG.

“Companies want a short, snappy domain name, and these dot-ORG names are what you could call the ‘cream of the crop,’” said Go Daddy Director of Domain Name Aftermarkets Paul Nicks. “Go Daddy’s auction platform is extremely user-friendly, making it easy to bid on and track listings both online and via mobile devices. As far as integrating these very valuable names into an organization’s culture, we are offering personalized support to Go Daddy Auction winners to help ensure they are successful.”

In the secondary marketplace, past sales of valuable .ORG domain names have included DIY.org for $60,000, AutoInsurance.org for $440,000 and Poker.org, which sold for $1 million. It is expected the historic auction of these single- and two-character .ORG domain names will not only generate high bids, but also help define the aftermarket prior to the introduction of new gTLDs.

Godaddy Growth in India Signals Market Maturity

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Domain name and hosting provider Godaddy announced significant growth in new Indian customers over the last year.

New customers acquisitions nearly doubled (91 percent) year over year and now totals more than 120,000 customers.

The growth can partly be attributed to GoDaddy officially announced its customer care facility in Hyderabad which has been in operation since June 2012.

"What we are doing is helping people leverage the Internet to grow their businesses ... providing simple products at competitive prices and supporting them with industry-best customer service based here in India. It's a pretty straightforward formula and it works," said Go Daddy India Managing Director Rajiv Sodhi.

"In this economy, everyone is looking for an edge. I think our timing has been exquisite and the results are playing out better than we expected at this point."

GoDaddy Adds "Request Price" Domain Inventory from Afternic

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:38:00 GMT

Domain name marketplace Afternic announced an enhanced partnership with Godaddy that will make available Afternic's "Request Price" domain names to Godaddy customers - presumably within the registrar's auction environment.

Godaddy, which is currently one of more than 90 other Afternic resellers, already displays Afternic's domains with set "Buy Now" prices. The new arrangement will add additional inventory and likely benefit both buyers and sellers. Afternic's DLS (Domain Listing Service) is considered by many to be one of the premier domain name aftermarkets.

“Go Daddy is always looking for more ways to provide the best possible experience for our customers and the addition of Afternic’s ‘Request Price’ domains will do just that,” said Paul Nicks, Director of Product Development for the Domain Aftermarket at Go Daddy. “By putting more quality domain names in customer search results, it gives them the option to pay a little more for the domain name they want and gives a domain name seller a quick and fair transaction … it’s a win-win for everyone.”

GoDaddy, Sedo Make Domain Buying Easier

Linc Wonham — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:00:00 GMT

The world’s largest domain name registrar and the Web’s largest domain name marketplace have announced a partnership that will give users access to more premium domains than ever. When visitors search for domains at GoDaddy.com, matching names from Sedo’s marketplace will now also be displayed for potential buyers to purchase.

Go Daddy is the latest partner to join Sedo’s Multi-Listing Service, SedoMLS. The world’s largest domain name provider can now offer its customers the option to purchase domain names that are already taken as easily as they would register a domain for the first time. Sedo currently has 15 million domains for sale in its marketplace.

SedoMLS allows any domains listed at a “Buy Now” price to be displayed within Go Daddy’s search results, reaching the largest potential audience of domain buyers.

“As one of the most popular places worldwide for small business owners, entrepreneurs or individuals looking for the right domain name, we are thrilled to be partnering with Go Daddy,” says Sedo CEO Tim Schumacher. “Through our SedoMLS partnership, we can offer millions of domain buyers the widest choice of domain names, which will help them make the right decisions for their businesses, and purchase the names they need to find success online.”

Go Daddy Registers 50 Million Domain Names

Michael Garrity — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Despite tough economic times around the world, the Internet continues to grow. As proof, Go Daddy, arguably the best-recognized domain registrar on the Web, hit a milestone last weekend when it registered their 50 millionth domain name.

It shouldn't be too surprising that Go Daddy was the first registrar to reach this mark, as the company's statistics show that it has either registered, renewed or transferred over one domain name every second of every day for the last few years. Currently, it is registering 2.5 times more domains per month now than five years ago.

Some experts in the industry are predicting that by the year 2015, there will be over two network connections for every person on the planet, and that almost 3 billion people around the world will be considered "Internet users."

Initially, Go Daddy was created to help business owners and individuals create and secure an online presence, quickly garnering a lot of attention because of its famous Super Bowl commercials. However, the company's 24/7 customer support services and feature-heavy cloud-based products helped secure its position even after the Super Bowl advertising hangover wore off. Now, it is also the world's largest provider of Web hosting and new SSL Certificates, as well as operating the largest domain name aftermarket, where names are auctioned, sold or purchased, on the Internet.

"For all the marketing we do, it's the word-of-mouth; a customer's personal endorsement that works as Go Daddy's most effective advertisement," says Bob Parsons, Go Daddy Founder and CEO.

The historic 50 millionth domain name was registered to Kranthi Kumar Kukkala of India for the domain DBAkit.com

"I am really happy to go with the Go Daddy and congratulate the company on its 50 millionth domain name registration," says Kukkala. "I like Go Daddy for domain and Web hosting providers because of its customer service, reliability and user-friendly set-up that work for any kind of computer user."

GoDaddy Goes .XXX

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:20:00 GMT

Godaddy announced that it will be selling the new .XXX extension, joining approximately fifty other registrars approved by the ICM Registry and accredited by ICANN to sell the extension.

GoDaddy said it has met the requirements to provide the extension as soon as they were published and “intends to offer trademark holders and existing adult domain owners the option to register the newly approved extension during what is known as a Sunrise period beginning in early September.” During that period, trademark owners will be able to opt-out of .XXX for a one-time fee.

According to an XBIZ Research poll, 13 percent of adult business operators said that they will acquire .XXX domain names to develop and market new websites, while 22 percent said they planned .XXX purchases to protect existing brands and trademarks.

“A large number of our customers have spoken ... and there is a demand for the controversial new domain name extension — for both brand protection purposes and for new names. So what are we going to do? GoDaddy is going to give our customers what they want.”

Battle for SSL Dominance Heats Up

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:35:00 GMT

The December 2010 Alexa-Netcraft SSL Index was released recently and it seems the battle for dominance in the SSL (secure socket layers) market is heating up and getting pretty nasty.

According to the report (compiled monthly by CatapultWorks) which provides an indication of SSL certification usage across the most trafficked websites by cross-referencing the Netcraft SSL Survey with the Alexa Top Sites list), GeoTrust maintained its leadership position and trumped low-cost competitors such as Go Daddy for the seventh straight month, securing 35,540 unique domains among the Internet's 1 million most visited websites. Go Daddy registered 27,578 unique domains for the same period.

"GeoTrust is consistently leading the low-cost, high-volume segment of the SSL market over competitors such as Go Daddy," said Jeff Barto, senior product marketing manager for GeoTrust. "We expect to continue our lead into 2011 on the strength of our global service reach, convenience, attractive prices and product reputation."

GeoTrust is not pulling any punches with Go Daddy either – calling out Go Daddy customers interested in switching from “the third place provider to market leading GeoTrust® SSL” with a rather nasty “Who’s Your Daddy Now” campaign.

eNom Resellers - GoDaddy Reseller Killer?

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:11:00 GMT

Wholesale domain registrar eNom launched a new online storefront solution, dubbed Instant Reseller, which enables users to create their own private-label reseller business.

Resellers receive a hosted website and storefront (shopping cart feature, order fulfillment and credit card processing abilities) and have the ability to reseller 70-plus domain extensions and other services like email, hosting, SSL certificates, and marketing tools.

It it those eNom reseller marketing tools (RichContent and Business Listing) that might differentiate this program from competing offerings from Godaddy (see more below). RichContent provides eNom resellers with the ability to package contextually relevant content in their offerings which will expand their customers' websites and engage their audiences. Business Listing is a service eNom resellers can offer to their customers that allows them to customize and advertise their individual sites through WHOIS information.

"We are launching Instant Reseller to get new resellers up and running successfully without the frustrating wait between starting a business and reaping the rewards," said Chris Sheridan, vice president of platform for Demand Media, the parent company of eNom. "We want to remove the burden of web site development and e-commerce systems management so that resellers can focus on what they enjoy most - developing their own brand, their own customers and their own revenue stream. In short, we want to enable our resellers to focus their energy on sales and marketing, while eNom handles the heavy lifting of supporting the technical aspects of their storefront."

In related news, GoDaddy launched its own affiliate program last week (Editors Note: GoDaddy has had a reseller program for about as long as I can remember). Most affiliates have been using CJ (Commission Junction) to promote GoDaddy offerings but there are some benefits to GoDaddy offering the program directly to affiliate marketers - namely that they won't have to share any of the profits with CJ. GoDaddy will track affiliate link referrals for 45 days after the initial click and commissions will be paid monthly.

GoDaddy iPhone App Gets Major Upgrade

Mike Phillips — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:30:00 GMT

In its first release, the GoDaddy iPhone app amounted to little more than a way to search for available domains (which doesn't necessitate an app at all) and buy them. But GoDaddy has turned out an upgrade, with much-needed account management capabilities.

The new app lets you log in and manage DNS, domain forwarding and nameservers, and includes other features like controling autorenewal, locks and edit contact information.

One function that I would like to see included is the ability to change registrants. On GoDaddy's website, it's very easy to register a domain with another account, should you decide to sell your domain to another person. As far as I can tell, the app does not currently offer that ease of functionality. This would be a nice addition for domainers (or anyone else who wants to sell a domain) to be able to complete a transaction on the fly.

At any rate, the upgrade was much needed and a welcome addition to any GoDaddy user's app catalog. The GoDaddy iPhone app is free.

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GoDaddy versus Verisign [SSL Certificates]

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:00 GMT

With the online holiday shopping season fast approaching, SSL certificates (which provide server to browser encryption, the padlock icon and the familiar https prefix to secure a website) are the focus of many merchants. So where are merchants turning for their SSL certificate needs these days? By the looks of it, they are going to GoDaddy.

In its Netcraft LTD Secure Server Survey for November 2009, the analyst firm announced that GoDaddy's overall SSL market share has grown four times faster than VeriSign's during the past year. NetCraft projected that GoDaddy would pass long-time market leader VeriSign in less than 18 months. GoDaddy apparently does not want to wait that long and is now offering its EV SSL Certificate for $99. Obtaining a relatively identical security level at VeriSign would cost more than $1400.

“The reason for our growth is simple - our customers are smart enough to know they can get a world-class SSL Cert without having to pay through the roof,” said GoDaddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “You could purchase 14 GoDaddy Certificates for the same price as a single VeriSign Cert, not to mention the great support our customers enjoy.”

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Incorporate Your Business at Go Daddy

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:00:00 GMT

In addition to domain registration and hosting services, Go Daddy is now offering Incorporation Services, enabling users its services to transition a business into a corporation or LLC.

Users log in to the service and answer a series of questions, then Go Daddy files the necessary papers on their behalf. After several weeks, incorporation documents are sent back to the user. Each application is reviewed by experienced professionals to make sure it is submitted completely and accurately. Incorporation Services comes in two levels offering everything required to incorporate a business. The Deluxe plan delivers a Federal Employer Identification Number, as well as expedited shipping.

"If you haven't incorporated your businesses, you're leaving yourself and your family open to unnecessary risk," said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. "Go Daddy wanted to help make the whole incorporation process affordable and painless, which is why we’re offering Incorporation Services."

While I would not expect a rush of GoDaddy customers to use the service, it is much less expensive that retaining an attorney to do virtually the same work. There are alternative however including some well respected services such as LegalZoom and BizFilings.

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Trends in Domaining: Street Addresses

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Those in the real estate market and those interested in buying and selling domains might find this noteworthy. Domain registrar and hosting provider Godaddy released some statistics that indicate a surge in the registration of domains named after street addresses.

Comparing 2005 (the year the housing bubble burst) to last year, Go Daddy recorded a more than 320 percent increase in “home address” domain name registrations. States and cities with the most registrations include California, Florida, New York, Phoenix, Ariz., Atlanta, Ga., and Chicago, Ill. – all struggling real estate markets. “We noticed an uptick on domain names containing words like ‘street,’ ‘avenue’ and ‘road,’” said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “When we ran the numbers, the trend line was undeniable. More people are registering domain names matching their physical addresses.”

According to the Cromford Report, which tracks Arizona estate trends, the average time to sell a home in June ranged from 120 to 180 days (depending on the city). Greg Swann, owner of Bloodhound Realty, an Arizona realtor leveraging domain names and Web sites to sell properties averaged a remarkable 43 days during that period. The strategy involves registering the domain name that is the physical address of the home. From there, a single Web site/domain is built for that home including photos, floor plans and relevant neighborhood information.

“Buyers typically want all the answers to their questions before they talk to me,” said Swann, owner of Bloodhound Realty. “By making the exact address clients are considering available online, all they have to do is type the street address online and presto, the individual Web site pops up and buyers get all the relevant info.” There's clearly a little more to it but it is easy to see how a domain name and Web site can give agents and the properties they represent an edge. “The longer potential buyers spend on the site, the more they know about the home, the more they fall in love with it and the more apt they are to make an offer,” Swann said.

“We’ve always believed domain names are 21st century real estate,” said Parsons. “It makes absolute sense real estate agents are successfully selling homes through domains named for street addresses.” As an editorial aside, I bought a domain name for our home back in 2006 and by some sheer mystical stroke of luck we sold our house in nine days. I offered the domain name to the buyer and he looked at me quizzically - I wonder if he's changed his mind.

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Top Domain Registrars

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:10:00 GMT

RegistrarStats (via Domain Name Wire) released the leading domain name registrars for the first half of 2009. While the data only covers .com, .net, .info, .org, .biz, .us and .mobi, it does provide excellent guidance on who's leading in the very competitive industry of domain registration and who's falling behind.

Who were the three leading domain registrars so far this year?
- GoDaddy – up 8.42% to 34,453,064 domains (includes Wild West Domains, GD’s reseller unit)
- eNom – up 2.6% to 9,039,185.
- Tucows – up 3.3% to 7,432,309
- 1&1 - up 3.9

While those registrars mentioned above are increasing the number of domains they manage, others are losing some control. Network Solutions is down 1.1%, Melbourne IT is down 3.5%, Moniker is down 2.4% and Dotster is down 2.8%.

GoDaddy Adds MX Domains to the Mix

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:20:00 GMT

GoDaddy Adds MX Domains to TLD Offerings

Web hosting and domain registrar GoDaddy announced yesterday it is adding Mexico's MX domains to its portfolio.

You don't see too many .MX domains (the country code top-level domain of Mexico) as it was only offered to a few select institutions in the last two decades. Now, Mexico is offering the extension for worldwide use. There is a lot of potential for growth in that specific geographic and cultural market. According to Internet World Stats, the number of Spanish-speaking Internet users has grown 619 percent in the last eight years. More than 130 million Spanish speakers use the Internet, including 27 million users in Mexico, making it one of the top three languages on the Web.

Go Daddy opened registration for sub-extension .COM.MX in May. Now, anyone who owned a sub-extension prior to March 1, 2009 can participate in pre-registration for a .MX domain at GoDaddy.com.

Major Deal for LinkShare & Go Daddy Merchants

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:40:00 GMT

Performance marketing company LinkShare announced they have successfully integrated with domain name registrar Go Daddy.

Retailers that subscribe to Go Daddy's Quick Shopping Cart service are now able to access LinkShare's affiliate marketing technology and network of publishers. This is pretty big news for small and mid-size Internet retailers as it eases the burden and cost associated with affiliate marketing and online promotions.

"GoDaddy.com is absolutely focused on helping our customers be successful...quickly and easily," said Go Daddy CEO and founder Bob Parsons. "Quick Shopping Cart allows you to set up a complete e-commerce site in no time. Now, LinkShare gets our customers products into a wide network of websites in a way that makes it easy for everyone."