Hi everybody.

A week ago I spotted a great available domain name by searching at GoDaddy. It was a 5-letter, .org domain. It was the abbreviation of my major in college (an engineering). I didn't buy it at that moment because I didn't want to rush in, that's my typical shopping attitude, to try to think things through before spending.
Anyways, two days later I made up my mind and got back to GoDaddy (where I already have 5 domains registered) and... oh, the domain is taken! Really suspicious, the domain was never registered before; the .com and .net variations are taken but none of them is developed and they are both "parked for sale". I went to the webpage of the newly registered domain, and I found a parked page from CapitolDomains...

Ok, so i google "godaddy capitoldomains"; first match that appears, a forum where some people already noticed this before and they say that GoDaddy is trying to boost sales of their "backorder" feature by accessing the database of searches performed in their site...

I'm really mad about it. I just wanted to let everyone know about this experience. The moral is not necessarily to buy as soon as you spot a good domain, but rather take care of where you register / look for your domains.

What do you think about this? Anyone had a similar experience?

Thanks for the heads up!

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I use NameCheap, so I haven't had this type of experience (or any trouble at all).

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Never heard of it, but its good to know. If you have your domain registered at Godaddy, don't let your domain name lapse.

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It's been speculated for a long time that domain searches are recorded and then lists either sold or the domains being bought by that particular registrar. Basically if you see a name you like the point is register it immediately or within a few hours, it doesn't matter which registrar it is. Just remember you are using their search on their servers, they have a right to record and document everything (even though I don't agree with them taking anyone's domains). I guess that was a lesson learned for you. Nowadays if I see any domains I really like I register them, even if they're not in the budget for the day.

I don't fully believe it. Ever since I started registering domains, there have always been someone who beat me out of a domain a day before I went to get it. It was available all this time, but there are other people out their looking for domains, too. In fact, that's hard I got started in buying and seling domains. I registered a domain a just hours before someone went to get it. They offered me $500 for it. I registered it for $8 and 3 hours later I had $500.

This recently happened again. I registered my new forum and got an email from someone who did a search about me thinking I was some whois reader. All I did was take the domain I really wanted, and started substituting synonyms until I found one available. I had no idea anyone else wanted it, but I know enough that if I find one available, I have to get it then.

Domibot says "no humans are involved in the process" of registering domains. I had several scripts, and still use a few, that find domains and register them without me knowing about them. I just log in to my account and see what new domains I got. I base the domains off of popular trends that are happening and other ways that I KNOW will make the domain valuable. If one guy looks it up on some whois, I don't care. There's no way of knowing whether or not you have money, and even if you are really interested in the domain. A 5 letter domain, depending on the letters, might have been reason enough that someone would get it. Plus, initials are easy to sell because you aren't limited to the number of people who could be end users. In was probably all a coincidence...that's how it goes in the domain game.

I had a feeling that this type of stuff was happening. I had this happen once in the past as well but it wasn't with GoDaddy. I can't remember exactly where I did the search but I found a really good .com domain that I wanted and a few days later it was gone. I had to get the .org of the same name. Thanks for posting this info iqguy!

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Unless you had some secret formula that kept everyone else from coming up with the idea, someone could have easily checked to see if it was available because it was a "really good .com domain". Since it was, they registered it. If I found car.com available, someone else is going to be checking it out to, not because I did a whois on it, but because it is a domain they could use. Look at SnapNames, I wanted RobinZone.net and was beat by 27 other bidders. Everyone has their own ways of find domains and those ways will cross paths. Getting a domain because someone did a whois on it is a ridiculous reason to get a domain. Quantities are limited (to 1) and there are hundreds of thousands of people looking to get domains. It's not a big conspiracy because you are the greatest domain name finder of all time.

I never said I did a whois search on the domain. I did a search at a registrar. And I don't think that teamwow.com is the same as car.com. Sure, some people may be looking at the same domain name, but I doubt that was high on everyone's list. Within a matter of days it was gone (if not sooner) and I doubt it was due to any other reason than because I ran that search.

It's the same as when you let a domain expire. Companies have access to that data and they grab those names right away. I fully believe this happens with searches as well.

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So what exactly is the difference between a whois and a search at a registrar? Both check the registery to see if the domain is taken. My mechanical engineering forum was going to be taken by an animator. It didn't apply at all. He just liked it. TeamWow.com is generic enough that anyone could have wanted it, even if they didn't know WOW was the popular game, World of Warcraft. It's highly likely that someone else could have gotten it since days passed after the search and it wasn't registered instantly. If a register was going to steal searches, they would just tell you the domain wasn't available and register it right then.

When a domain expires, registrars will release the info to drop catchers to get the domains back instead of having someone register them at another registrar. It forces the new owner to get the domain at the place it was initially registered. This is completely different that stealing domains that people searched.