GoDaddy Proposes New DNS Configuration Standard (programmableweb.com)

GoDaddy has announced "an open set of APIs for DNS providers and web service providers," called Domain Connect. An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: "Once enabled, customers can quickly configure their domain to point to the web service of their choice with push button simplicity," according to the announcement, "streamlining and simplifying the process of connecting websites and domain names registered on different platforms." GoDaddy's submitted it for consideration as an IETF standard, where they have the support of Microsoft and Squarespace, as well as the other two largest registries, eNome and Name.com. But in the meantime, they told ProgrammableWeb, the specificaion is "out there in the public, open for feedback and adjustment."

"GoDaddy is seeking to take all the friction out of the process," the site reports, "by offering service providers like Squarepace, Wix, Google, Microsoft, Wordpress and others a registrar-agnostic API that they can use to programmatically configure all the necessary DNS entries... in lieu of making end users laboriously crawl through a bunch of forms and then praying that they've done it all correctly." Different access levels will be available based on the service being provided, and for GoDaddy's implementation of the API their senior VP of Domains Engineering "said that the program will not be open to public developers and that any service providers wanting access will have to be approved by his team at GoDaddy."

Comments

Given the history of godaddy...

[Ecuador]

Given the history of Godaddy, I'd be suspicious of any proposal they have about "streamlining" the process...

Re:Given the history of godaddy...

[msauve]

Given the history of godaddy, this is just an API for "show us your tits."

Re:Given the history of godaddy...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Mod me that insightful please."

They seized domains of their customers on the slightest of claims, e.g. unverified "this domain spammed me" claims, GoDaddy cancels domain under their usage policy.... sells on to mysterious customers who hide behind "DomainsByProxy" (i.e. GoDaddy subsidiary), when they've been investigated.... they find the domain is held by mysterious companies such as "Standard Tactics LLC" (i.e. other GoDaddy companies)....

But hey the mysterious new owner is prepared to sell you it back for $$$$ (3 or 4 figure numbers) if you act now!

Perhaps they're clean now, but go try their website with a test domain before using them on a real domain. Even searching on a domain name can get it speculatively registered by a 'mysterious' customer hidden behind DomainsByProxy who happen to register it through GoDaddy.... so use a test domain name, register it for $0.99 as promised in their ads and see how much you end up paying in the long run for dealing with those .

Or take the advice of people who've dealt with them. It is not worth the risk, go use a proper registrar like Tucows, or a proper DNS+Registrar package like EasyDns.com NEVER GoDaddy. NEVER EVER GoDaddy.

TXT record??

[BringsApples]

"When a customer wishes to connect a domain, the service provider needs to know who the DNS provider is. To do this, Domain Connect specifies a TXT record be added to the DNS for a domain that specifies a URL that can be called for discovery. The service provider queries the domain for this TXT record (called “DOMAIN_CONNECT”) which, if present, indicates that the domain is served by a DNS provider that supports the Domain Connect protocol. Given the URL, a service provider can call a API endpoint for protocol discovery:

GET v2/{domain}/settings"

I don't like the idea of a TXT record letting everyone know that my domain allows an API to edit it's configuration.

clearly they havent heard

[nimbius]

customers can quickly configure their domain to point to the web service of their choice with push button simplicity

which is already available in plesk, openstack, and godaddys own panel. why do we need to reinvent this shit every year?

"GoDaddy is seeking to take all the friction out of the process,"

what friction? the DNS RFC has been around since 1987, its not some arcane rune stone of indecipherable glyphs. hell, you managed to get it to work in your panel.

GoDaddy's implementation of the API their senior VP of Domains Engineering "said that the program will not be open to public developers and that any service providers wanting access will have to be approved by his team at GoDaddy."

aaaaaand go fuck yourself for trying to make the internet proprietary. you might have swinging dicks backing this idea, but you can expect a shit-storm of legitimate registrars like Dreamhost and register4less to completely ignore this DNS fever-dream you have. Im sure youll support it for 4 years as an option, then quietly shuffle it under the rug of shit that didnt work out like that cloud storage you based entirely off net-app called Nebula.

Re:clearly they havent heard

[mwvdlee]

GoDaddy's implementation of the API their senior VP of Domains Engineering "said that the program will not be open to public developers and that any service providers wanting access will have to be approved by his team at GoDaddy."

aaaaaand go fuck yourself for trying to make the internet proprietary. you might have swinging dicks backing this idea, but you can expect a shit-storm of legitimate registrars like Dreamhost and register4less to completely ignore this DNS fever-dream you have. Im sure youll support it for 4 years as an option, then quietly shuffle it under the rug of shit that didnt work out like that cloud storage you based entirely off net-app called Nebula.

Don't worry. If everybody follows GoDaddy's example, then nobody can interoperate and this protocol is dead in the water. They're basically hoping that competitors will let them take "their" domainnames while paying lipservice to supporting the protocol themselves.