Yesterday was a day of broken dreams for a lot of people thanks to Godaddy and the .me domain name landrush fiasco.
Yesterday Godaddy opened up registration for .me domain names, which led to a virtual stampede for the most sought after domains (hug.me, resu.me, add.me, f*ck.me, etc.)
The twittersphere was abuzz with “I just registered 10 awesome domains” as everyone placed their orders. Almost everyone was sorely disappointed, however, when they started receiving “failed to register” emails from GoDaddy. Essentially Godaddy took a lot of people’s money but failed to register most domains.
I think there’s a good possibility Godaddy will get slapped with a lawsuit since most people were probably not made aware of how this “actually” works. Domain Name wire answers some questions about how this .me registration really works (be sure to check out the comments).
Essentially, the registry reserves the most valuable and obvious domains for themselves, then let others fight it out for the rest of anything that’s worth registering – via auction to be held later this month – but this information is not presented up front. Perhaps someone like Sarah Bird can chime in whether this would be grounds for a fraud suit against Godaddy.
I went through a similar experience mysself about a month ago after I saw that .me domain name registrations were available for pre-order (via stuntdubl’s tweet). They were $100 ($50/yr. min of 2 years) to register, so I ordered 3 of them, not knowing that if anyone else registered them, we’d have to go into auction for ownership later.
It willbe interesting to see how this all shakes out: Will Godaddy automatically refund everyone’s money? How high will the auctions go? Will there be any foul play or insider bidding? Will Godaddy get slapped with a class action suit?
In my next post we’lll step back for a second to get some perspective on “what are these .me domains actually worth?” stay tuned…
P.S. The only domain name I know was succesfully registered (ironically) is sodomize.me :)
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Just to be clear, it’s the “registry” that holds back the good domains, not the “registrar”. But in this case GoDaddy (a registrar) has a partnership in the registry.
Thanks for the correction, Andrew – fixed it in the post.
Everybody want “cash”. Good names are one kine of cash. Godaddy want more cash for good names!!!
Actually, I was able to register quite a few .me domains.
I knew that the “top 50″ most obvious names would be contested (or forbidden), so I went for the next tier… where there were some great domains. Completely uncontested.
I got fascinate.me, retain.me (I’ve already had a lawyer contact me about purchasing it), chug.me, and about 10 others.
I was actually SURPRISED at how many DID come through. Sure, a couple are going to auction, but the .me domains were definitely given out…
me too. godaddy is a cheater. submited 20 failed 20.
suddenly, today, the coupon code is invalid for .me domain. i faint.
We are organizing a class action lawsuit against Godaddy for this .me disaster and are seeking everyone’s help who is interested in sharing your story. Email it to godaddylawsuit@gmail.com
Niet slecht, toch?
* amuseer.me
* feliciteer.me
* geloof.me
* kleed.me
* uit.nodig.me
* omarm.me
* onderzoek.me
* ontdek.me
* publiceer.me
* repareer.me
* reserveer.me
* schilder.me
* vertaal.me
* vervang.me
* verzend.me
All bought via GoDaddy. It was tough, but possible.
Good lets sue godaddy this was 100% a scam!!
I’ve “lost” some domains too. But this is because there were thousands of eager domainers eager to buy at go live in the same very minute. If you really wished to buy it, you were supposed to go through the land rush.
I bought those I needed for business at the latter.
Some, just for fun, were available on 17th of July, like this one:
gugl.me [Google me]
I don’t think the lawsuit will bring you anywhere. Better save some money and buy more of .me, there value will go up, really up.
is someone selling his auction seat ?
if someone wishes to contact me,
aergis if my account name, at google’s mail, gmail com, as i may not be checking this thread here
tnx :)
Hello,
I am the pro se litigant in a Federal Law Suit against Defendants that include The Go Daddy Group, Inc. d/b/a GoDaddy.com, Inc. and Blue Razor Domains, Inc.. I am writing you all to see if you have others who want to file suit against GODADDY and become a class action. If so please feel free to contact me anytime.
Email: chai_phive@yahoo.com
Thank you!
Sincerely,
CHAIM LOWENSTEIN
me too. godaddy is a cheater. submited 20 failed 20.
suddenly, today, the coupon code is invalid for islam.me domain. i faint.
me too. godaddy is a cheater. submited 20 failed 20.
suddenly, today, the coupon code is invalid for .me domain. i faint.
Good lets sue godaddy this was 100% a scam!!
is someone selling his auction seat ?
if someone wishes to contact me,
aergis if my account name, at google’s mail, gmail com, as i may not be checking this thread here
tnx :)
Yes they are cheater, they wanna pay my money back for engin.me domain. I wanna use it. I just asked them to send me my password because they said that my account was locked ! The didn’t send it even tough I send my driving licence scanned!
Probably they wanna take it from me ans sell it to some one else for a higher price thaN I paid.