[ijafri]

Godaddy has been doing it for at least decade now, i just searched a domain i think 10 years ago that I in fact needed, however didn't want to use Godaddy for registration, anyway the only mistake I made was, i searched for its availability on their site, and it was available, then i went to namecheap to register it. (im from Pakistan no way affiliated with Namecheap anyhow) .. and to my surprise it got registered within i think 10 min, I was quite shocked, and then I tried to look for its whois and found Godadday had registered it, and I can swear, this was the last time i visited their website.

this godadday practice story keeps showing up every now and then everywhere reddit or HN etc.

Some people say it's great, they 'secure' your domain than hijacking.. blah blah. nonetheless it's a creepy behavior.. in the past such discussion i guess it only cost them few cents to register it for a month period etc.. not sure exactly, some peeps had suggested to make a bot to search tons of them.. but I think it doesn't cost them much... somehow....