Reglikedomain industry desk

Domain Name Auction Firestorm: Recap

Here’s a look back at the firestorm that hit domain auctions over the past two weeks.

It’s been a busy week at Reglike. And perhaps a busier week for GoDaddy. Here’s a run down of what took place and what it means for the industry.

It all started when a reader tipped me off to a thread at NamePros. The thread started out benign and was simply regarding the number of .us domain names going through auction at GoDaddy’s TDNAM and the high prices they were fetching. But then someone noticed that one of the winning bidders was Adam Dicker, who happens to head TDNAM. This ruffled a few feathers.

I got in touch with GoDaddy to see what they thought of Dicker’s bidding, and was surprised to find out the firm didn’t have a policy forbidding this. This was the foundation for an article published last Friday. I connected with NameJet and Oversee.net (which owns SnapNames) to find out their policies on employee bidding, and followed up with an article regarding Sedo’s and Pool’s policies.

This got some juices running in the domain industry. The original article received nearly 100 comments. Michael Berkens blogged regarding another expired domain auction controversy.

But the issue was still confined to the domain industry for regarding a week. Then last weekend Slashdot covered the issue. It exploded from there as social news sites Fark, Digg, Reddit, Ycombinator News and others picked up on the story. On Monday I battled to keep the Reglike server up.

With public pressure mounting and an internal review complete, on Monday GoDaddy disclosed it had changed its policy. I think this was a smart move.

But the internet news outlets were just getting started. Here’s some other coverage:

GoDaddy Bans Employees From Bidding on Some Domains – Wired

Dicker Caught Dickering – CNET

GoDaddy VP Outbidding Their Clients – PC Magazine

GoDaddy Auction VP Gets Slashdot Treatment – WebProNews

From my perspective, this story was never regarding Dicker, but regarding the policies of domain name auction firms to avoid any conflicts of interest with their clients.

What’s next? This story isn’t over. Other domain registrars have controversial practices that are bubbling up to the surface.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

Comparing expired domain name platformsExpired DomainsComparing expired domain name platformsEExpired DomainsExpired Domain Note: Carol.com, Pranksters.com and moreLoses UDRP in expired domain confusion — Penn StateExpired DomainsLoses UDRP in expired domain confusion — Penn StateI’d bid more if…Expired DomainsI’d bid more if…Employee for bidding in domain name auctions — GoDaddy firesExpired DomainsEmployee for bidding in domain name auctions — GoDaddy firesGExpired DomainsGoDaddy’s 4 letter, $42,500 domain name auction: EDRAExpired DomainsAnd other expired domain name sales — CHIPs, NumbersNameJet/SnapNames sales from May — $550k ofExpired DomainsNameJet/SnapNames sales from May — $550k ofTExpired DomainsTesting lower .com prices on deleted domain names — Verisign is