Slashdot Mirror
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."
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. Be gentle.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I think that advertisement agencies should not use controversy to promote their sales. The commercials do make me remember GoDaddy, but not in a positive way. And if this worked in general, you would think that SCO's sales would go up among the geek community. But, we know what's really happened, don't we?
Any registrar that would sells names to the tons of porn sites is destined to be number 1. (Warning: This post is probably incorrect.)
Help a poor college student. Send a couple cents via paypal to chucks86@gmail.com
You have to surf through 240 pages of adverts when all you really want to do is click "checkout".
In this service economy, consumers have chosen to vote with their wallet. No surprise there. Way back when in internet years, Joker.com was only ten euro's per year, which was about $6 US and they were the best. Joker didn't have the marketing clout that Godaddy had. Now GoDaddy has usurped the top spot.
Personally I'd much rather see GoDaddy surpass NetSol in profit than number of domains. It's not difficult to sell products cheaper than anyone else - remember all the free stuff during the
6.8 million domains times $8.95 - do the math - this is hardly a lot of annual revenue. GoDaddy is a privately held company, so no details on their financial standing are available. Their infrastructure and staff expenses have to be pretty significant (just the DNS infrastructure and not to mention the SB ads), and it's very difficult for me to see how you can do this for $8.95/year, even if it's multiplied by 7 mil. Either they have an alternative source of revenue, or (most likely) you'll see them being bough out by the likes of NetSol (which will promptly jack the prices up on all the customers) and that's their whole "business plan".
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.
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.
It's good to see Godaddy doing so well, I just hope they don't forget where they came from. One issue being the ease of which they take domains if you get spam complaints, I've known people who have lost hundreds from suspended domains when a business rival reported them to godaddy
If they got a bulletproof way of dealing with issues like this, I would definetley consider transferring a lot more of my domains to be managed with them. Congratulations Godaddy.
Business Voyeur
If GoDaddy usurped NS, they'd control it. They merely surpassed the number of registered domains. Still an accomplishment, but not a usurpment.
they provide DNS, although IMHO it is a bit lacking. I own two domains through GoDaddy and they are just simple MX records, an A record and a few CNAMES. if you are fairly simple with your DNS needs you're ok, get too complex and they might not be the best choice for you... although if you get too complex chances are it means you can afford better than $8 a year.
they do however allow you to do the DNS yourself if thats your thing, which i've considered doing but with the number of Bind vulnerabilities out there it just seems easier to let them do it (and yes I know what djbdns is... i hate it)
The Answer
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.
I gave GoDaddy a try after reading some slashdot posters sing the praises. Since my own domain name was going to expire in a month anyway, I thought I'd look into them.
For $9, I'm pretty damn impressed. Network Solutions gave me eternal run around when there was problems. When I moved and tried to change my DNS information a few years back, it was this horrific experience that gave me a bad taste in my mouth. Dealing with them on other issues such as when a former employer of mine bought a domain name from another party was just a nightmare.
Godaddy doesn't have the prettiest interface, but damn if it doesn't work. I signed in, it told me what I needed to give them, kept me updated on the progress transferring from Network Solutions, and when it was over someone gave me a phone call. The last time I tried to call Network Solutions for anything I felt like taking a bath afterwards. Sure, the guy wanted to ask me about hosting, but he basically said "Mr. Hummel, everything's done, need anything else? Great, call if you need something." Not pushy at all.
I have another domain name, and I know I'm going to use Godaddy. The price is nice, and I may even give their hosting services a try based on how well this experience has gone so far.
Now - one note on the ads. Stop it. I hate them, and almost didn't sign up just because the ad made me feel dumber after seeing them. Hell, change the name - Godaddy sounds more like a porn service than a domain name system.
Service: good. Support: Excellent. Name and marketing: Butt ugly awful.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Who's your daddy??
How does Powweb compare for hosting?
GoDaddy 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.
I would guess you must of been bottle fed 8-) !
You can watch Godaddy's Super Bowl Spot 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.
When it comes down to it, all humor is codified ridicule. The reason the commercial is funny is not because they had a proto-Hooters girl gyrating around (though it was fun to laugh at the apparent airhead too), but you got to laugh at the reactions of the old men on the "committee," not one of whom looked to be under 100, and one of whom was so shocked -- Shocked! -- that he needed an oxygen mask.
The commercial was not simply a jab at the "wardrobe malfunction as art," but also a not-so-subtle poke at the people who made it such a big deal of them.
For that reason alone, I'm thinking GoDaddy should get more of my business. The commercial stood well on its own, not necessarily for the product but as an attention-getter. The viral marketing campaign around it was just gilding.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
Power to the Peaceful
> 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.
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.
-- build a man a fire and he'll be warm all day. set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Much like all the great ads, they take a commonly held belief and associate it with their product, ad is as follows:
Boobies = Good
Boobies, boobies, boobies, Go Daddy, boobies, old guy, boobies
Go Daddy = Boobies = Good
Possibly old guy = good too, not sure about that?
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
I used to be a go daddy customer but quit for some good reasons. The problems I had were the following:
it fails to forward it!!!!!
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
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.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.