Why you should never use Go Daddy again

I happened to be on Go Daddy’s site recently for something work-related, and while I was there, I quickly checked if a domain name that had just occurred to me was available for my side project. It was. Cool, I thought.

Then, three days later, I remembered the domain name and went into my Web host’s (not Go Daddy) control panel to register it. I got this message:

Error: xxxxxxxxx.com is already registered and is not available.

Oh, really, you assholes? A quick Whois search turned up this:

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)

When I searched again for the domain name on Go Daddy, the site suggested I buy it through their “Domain buying service” and pay the associated charges. But I refuse to purchase the domain on principle. Go Daddy can go die.

I suppose there’s nothing “wrong” with this business practice of analyzing users’ interests and then buying up domain names before they can. It’s also partially my fault because I suspected something like this might happen. But regardless, I will never use Go Daddy’s services again. I’m going back to Domainr for future domain-hunting quests.