Go Daddy Usurps Network Solutions

miller60 writes "Go Daddy has passed Network Solutions as the top domain registrar, and now manages more than 6.8 million domains. This marks the first time that any registrar other than Network Solutions has held the top spot. The change is no surprise, given the growth trends and pricing for the two providers ($8.95 for Go Daddy, $34.99 for Network Solutions), but its controversial Super Bowl ads no doubt helped put Go Daddy over the top."

The uncut GoDaddy ad here

[winkydink]

but first, like any good Slashdotter, I must pick nits and point out that waaaaay back in the last century, SRI held the top spot too.

The ad is here [networkmirror.com]. Be gentle.

Yeah, but with GoDaddy

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to surf through 240 pages of adverts when all you really want to do is click "checkout".

Re:The uncut GoDaddy ad here

[nb caffeine]

Thanks Winky, I have been casually searching for that (probably not hard enough) since the bowl. I have been a godaddy customer for 3 years now, love their service. have their cheapest hosting plan, and it works well for me, and that ad made me sure that godaddy was the type of company I want to do buisness with :)

no address verification

[Anonymous Coward]

is what put GoDaddy over the top. If you want to be dishonest and register a name without giving up any information -- like name and address -- GoDaddy is for you.

Plus, the price difference isn't as much as advertised here: the domain registration price is if you host the URL with GoDaddy. Domain transfers cost you money with GoDaddy (and try getting them to give it up even with the proper documentation -- it's a huge pain), while they're free with Network Solutions.

Re:.bomb take II?

[Robert Hayden]

GoDaddy upsells all of their domains with options for SSL certs, privacy options, web hosting, email hosting, etc etc etc.

Their revenues are much more than just domain registrations.

Re:Porn Sites

[ChaosCube]

Are you kidding? Wasn't the internet made for academics, funded by the military, the hijacked by porn? It's been a while since college, but that's how I remember it.

Got on-board before the SuperBowl

[sremick]

I got on-board with GoDaddy before the SuperBowl ad. I had simply heard through the grapevine that they were cheap and offered good service. While I agree that all the hoops and stuff you have to dodge and click "NO" to to just checkout is a tad annoying, the price and service can't be beat. I've been very happy with them and have transferred all my domains there at this point.

Their other services such as webhosting don't offer anything special, but as a domain-name registrar I think they're great.

Re:.bomb take II?

[numark]

Have you ever bought a domain from GoDaddy? They try to upsell you on a lot of things like hosting, "search engine ranking increaser" programs, and privately-registered domains. A lot of them are marked "Yes" by default, so I'm sure some people buy things without realizing it. Their hosting business also seems to be quite lucrative, so I'm sure that contributes to their bottom line. They also have pretty cheap SSL certificates, as well as backordered domains at a premium price, so I could see them having a good amount of money made per year.

Surpassed, not usurped

[ap0]

If GoDaddy usurped NS, they'd control it. They merely surpassed the number of registered domains. Still an accomplishment, but not a usurpment.

Surpasses != Usurps

[Kesha]

My native tongue is Russian, but even I know that Usurps is not the correct verb to use in that sentence. According to m-w.com, to usurp is "to take possession of without legal claim" - not the same as to surpass a competitor in one away or another.

Learn your language!
Paul.

Doubts about GoDaddy.

[Futurepower(R)]

How does Powweb [powweb.com] compare for hosting?

GoDaddy [godaddy.com] is extremely aggressive about pushing things people don't need, in my opinion. The company seems to me to take advantage of people with less technical understanding by exploiting their doubt. For example, there are sometimes as many as 30 ads on a GoDaddy screen at one time, so many it is difficult to navigate.

Re:The uncut GoDaddy ad here

[good-n-nappy]

You can get the ad from GoDaddy themselves here [godaddy.com].

Re:Doubts about GoDaddy.

[Balthisar]

Yeah, I *do* know what I'm doing, but have to read all the damn ads anyway to make sure they're not trying to sneak something by me.

In any case, I'm a "small" user; they manage my 7 domains for me for a fair and reasonable price, and their controls are simple, and I have no complaints about the service per se.

Re:The uncut GoDaddy ad here

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, instead of waiting 45 minutes to download the file from this mirror, you can see it immediately from GoDaddy's site [godaddy.com]. Just select Full "Web Only" Censorship Hearing, enter in the numeric code (apparently to prevent automated retrieval), and it will play as a high-quality Flash movie.

Godaddy's ad here

[imuffin]

You can watch Godaddy's Super Bowl Spot [tubespot.com] here along with all the other superbowl spots on my site which strives to shamelessly rip-off what AdCritic was before they started charging.

Go ahead and slashdot it. I've got like 100 gigs of bandwidth to use before the end of the month.

Re:Go Daddy vs Register.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Other people are saything that you have to host your domain with them or user their parked domain feature (what ever that is).

It's a little tough to understand with their interface. Their DNS servers are called "PARK3.SECURESERVER.NET" and "PARK4.SECURESERVER.NET". In the interface, you have to configure your domain to be "parked" with them in order to use their DNS servers. Once you do that, an option will appear labeled "Total DNS Control" that allows you to change A, MX, and CNAME records. It's very confusing at first (thanks to their retarded interface), but it's all in there for the price of the domain. You DO NOT have to be hosted with them in order to use their DNS.

PS, namecheap.com offers all the same features PLUS dynamic DNS support (which can automatically update your IP if it changes) included in the price of the domain.

NSol is also LOSING domains the fastest

[Saeger]

A few more interesting points of interest:

• Fastest Gaining Registrars [webhosting.info]: GoDaddy (+278,692 domains in the last 4 weeks), with eNom in a distant 2nd place (at +73,744/month)
• Fastest Losing Registrars: [webhosting.info] Network Solutions (-14,382), followed closely by that other ripoff registrar, Register.com (-10,293)
• Does anyone really think the "NetSol" brand counts for that much of premium? Register.com certainly never did, but they didn't count on the people they were marketing to getting a cluestick.

Re:Go Daddy vs Register.com

[hendridm]

> GoDaddy only provides DNS service if you host with them or you want to use their "parked domain" page.

Incorrect. You do not need to host with them, but you do need to point to their "parked" servers. However, once you do, you can change A, CNAME, MX records to point wherever you like.

Horrible experience transferring out.

[Anonymous Coward]

I used GoDaddy to host a domain name a while back before they got too big, from word of mouth.

However, I realized that I liked the features and price of someone else better. So, I tried to transfer my name from GD.

Worst transfer experience ever - and I've done many.
Took multiple phone calls, reattempts, emails, etc just to get the name released. One time, the rep didn't even realize one could transfer out or why one would want to.

Re:The uncut GoDaddy ad here

[Anonymous Coward]

A well-endowed woman is standing before a committee of old fogeys trying to convince them to let her advertize for Go Daddy. She has the company name on her tank top. When she points to it, one of the straps breaks and the top almost falls off, but she catches the strap and the top stays on. Then they ask her what the ad would look like, and she does a slinky dance. That's about it.

Re:.bomb take II?

[GabboFlabbo]

Actually, I've registered about 5 domains recently at Go-Daddy (3 of which were transfers) and All options were defaulted off. All I had to do was find the "Continue" button and that was it.

It's true they try to upsell a lot of stuff but I'm not sure where you're getting the "marked 'Yes' by default"

Price Match --

[naught]

NetSol will price match on request. It's not something they advertise, but they'll do it. I found this out when transferring my domains away.

FYI.

GO daddy has faulty forwarding

[goombah99]

I used to be a go daddy customer but quit for some good reasons. The problems I had were the following:
1) incorrect forwarding of subdirectory links:

example: if you set up a name forwarding of say

mydomainname.com --> myhostname.com

then if you try to access any sub_directory
mydomainname.com/CGI/somthing.jsp
it fails to forward it!!!!!

That's right! you CANNOT access any subdirectory whatsoever. the only file you can access is index.html in the top level.

Here's what those dumbshits did. when you set up name forwarding they register your name with a go-daddy IP

mydomainname.com --> go-daddy_server.com/mydomainname

then when you try to access the your URL with a subdirectory rather than parsing the request it tries to go to the subdirectory on the go_daddy_server which of course does not exist and the user gets a 404 from go-daddy_server.
What idiots. I now use Name_zero.com as my registrar which correctly forwards.

2) to manipulate your account you have to use a web browser and their admin portal. Yet their portal does not render correctly in all browsers making it impossible to use most browasers on a macintosh.

3) their tech support is unresponsive. they take days to respond, they respond with boiler plate answers that make no sense and cant deal with real issues like #1 because they are just an answering machine not actual adminsitrators or deisgners.

BAsically go daddy sucks unless all you want is your name registers to your own host and not say name forwarding.