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This article or section\'s coverage of a controversial issue may be inaccurate or unbalanced in favor of certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. |
| The GoDaddy Group, Inc. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Private company |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, USA |
| Key people | Bob Parsons |
| Industry | Domain Registrar |
| Products | Web services |
| Website | http://www.godaddy.com/ |
Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and web hosting company, which also sells e-business related software and services. GoDaddy is known for its sexually-suggestive SuperBowl commercials, but also for a number of controversies related to how it deals with complaints against customers\' websites.
Contents |
Founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who previously founded the software development company Parsons Technology, Inc., Go Daddy has become the largest ICANN-accredited registrar and the first registrar to surpass Network Solutions in total domain names registered. The Go Daddy Group currently has more than 27 million domains under management and registers, renews or transfers a domain every second. Go Daddy won the CNET Editor\'s Choice award in 2001 and the Name Intelligence Largest Net Gain Award in both 2002 and 2003, jumping from fifth largest registrar to third largest overall, trailing only Network Solutions RegisterGenius.com and Tucows[citation needed]. The Go Daddy Group, which includes Wild West Domains (its resale brand) as well as Blue Razor (its bulk domain brand), is currently the largest registrar in the world.RegistrarStats
Since Go Daddy\'s expanded growth into the information technology industry, it has participated in activities concerning the Internet in general. In the recent past, Go Daddy sued VeriSign, Inc., over the Site Finder controversy which put a wildcard in all domain names causing a web site from VeriSign, Inc. to appear if the domain name had not been registered. This event caused controversy over VeriSign\'s role as the sole maintainer of the .com and .net domain names. VeriSign pulled the wildcard service after a letter from ICANN. Go Daddy was also more recently sued by Web.com for patent infringement.Berr, Jonathan. "Go Daddy Gets Sued", TheStreet.com, 6/21/2006. Mills, Elinor. "Domain registrars in court", News.com, June 19, 2006.
Go Daddy gained market share against competitor Network Solutions, surpassing them to become the largest domain registrar on April 26, 2005. Small, Robert L.. "My Company Report on GoDaddy"", 2005-09-24. Retrieved on 2007-01-14. Speculation into the reasons for this include lower prices by Go Daddy for domain registrations, and the expansion of their product line.[citation needed]
In 2005, GoDaddy criticized the US Department of Commerce for disallowing private registrations of .us domains.http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=7FB7324E-DB94-492A-8261-6745067459FC
Go Daddy has won the Arizona Corporate Excellence Award for fastest growing privately held company in 2003 and Named Arizona Hot Growth Company in 2004.[citation needed] Nationally, Go Daddy has been ranked #102 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing privately held companies of 2005. The 2005 Inc. 500 Profiles. Inc.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-04. Of the privately held technology companies on the list, Go Daddy ranked #1. Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year, awarded to Bob Parsons at the Arizona Governor\'s 2005 Innovation Celebration. Go Daddy has also been ranked #20 on the 2005 Deloitte Technology Fast 500.[citation needed] Go Daddy, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, has also been listed among the "Best Places to Work in the Valley" for four consecutive years (2004-2007.) In 2007, it was named to Deloitte Technologies Fast 500, which cites the nation\'s fastest growing technology companies. Go Daddy was also names "Best Registrar" by Domain Name Wire in 2007. [1]
Go Daddy\'s advertising is produced in house, and typically emphasizes sexually suggestive material. Featured on their website, most of Go Daddy\'s commercials began with the 2005 Super Bowl advertisement, and from there went further to other television stations, with many being rejected for content. CEO Bob Parsons refers to the marketing as "GoDaddy-esque" which he describes as "fun, edgy and a bit inappropriate."Parsons, Bob (2007-03-30). Our GoDaddy-esque marketing. Why I keep it edgy. Our 2nd GoDaddy-esque video cast.. BobParsons.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
Most of Go Daddy\'s early TV ads starred current WWE Diva Candice Michelle, in some sort of sexual-related theme. Candice Michelle has been referred to as "Miss GoDaddy.com" or "The Go Daddy Girl" by fans and on WWE TV shows, where she also does the "Go Daddy Dance" (twirling her arms around her body while slowly turning) as part of her wrestling gimmick. In 2006, Go Daddy began sponsoring IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, who subsequently joined "The Go Daddy Girl" lineup, and began playing a prominent role in the registrar\'s commercials. In late 2007, Olympic swimmer and model Amanda Beard became the third Go Daddy Girl.
On August 13, 2007 Bob Parsons announced that Go Daddy may be sitting out Super Bowl XLII. "There\'s always the possibility that we might not be able to get an appropriately edgy ad approved," he said. "All things considered, there\'s a strong argument for staying on the sidelines this year and taking that Super Bowl advertising money and using it for other opportunities," he added. [2] However, on January 28, 2008, during a telecast of World Wrestling Entertainment\'s RAW program on USA Network in a reverse of field, it was disclosed by Go Daddy spokesperson (and WWE diva) Candice Michelle that there will be an ad during the game, which featured a "behind the scenes" look into that ad.
Once again, Go Daddy went through more than a dozen submissions before it was able to get a commercial approved by Fox, the same network that had pulled its 2005 ad before its second scheduled airing. Go Daddy had hoped to broadcast a spot called "Exposure" featuring Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick and animatronics beavers. But Fox deemed the spot to racy for prime time television and told Parsons it would not air it unless he removed the word "beaver." [3]
Parsons refused, and Go Daddy instead aired a completely different commercial, called "Spot On." The spot was essentially an "Ad to an Ad," and told viewers to go to the company\'s website to see "Exposure."
"Spot On" aired in the first quarter of Super Bowl XLII, and the company quickly deemed it an enormous success. Go Daddy logged more than one million views of the "Exposure" ad before the game ended and reported 1.5 million visits to the GoDaddy.com Website. [4]
The 2008 Go Daddy ad has been both maligned and praised. Ad Week\'s Barbara Lippert described it a "poorly produced scene in a living room where people are gathered to watch the Super Bowl. As we watch them watch, a guy at his computer in the corner of the room drags the crowd over to GoDaddy.com to view the banned ad instead."
But Lippert, like others, also acknowledges the shrewdness of the PR strategy, saying "it will probably produce a Pavlovian response in getting actual viewers in their own living rooms to do the same." [5]
Go Daddy\'s 2007 Super Bowl ad was criticized, in The New York Times as being "cheesy";Elliot, Stuart. "Super Bowl Ads of Cartoonish Violence, Perhaps Reflecting Toll of War", The New York Times, February 5, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-07. "Another Super Bowl, another cheesy commercial for GoDaddy, the Web site registrar operated by the GoDaddy Group. This time, there was a wild party in the office of the GoDaddy marketing department. “Everybody wants to work in marketing,” a character says with a smirk. Hey, GoDaddy, go get Mommy — maybe she knows how to make a halfway decent Super Bowl spot. Agency: created internally." in National Review as "raunchy, \'Girls-Gone-Wild\' style"; Nimouse (pseudonym), Anna. "Not-So-Super Ads", The National Review, February 6, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-07. "The Go Daddy commercial that garnered enormous reaction (much negative) last year, with the buxom babe wearing a skimpy T-shirt with the logo across her chest, was tame in comparison to the raunchy, “Girls-Gone-Wild” style of this year’s advertisement. The fact that the ad caused such a stir last year probably helped determine the content of this one." and "just sad" by Barbara Lippert in Adweek, who gave the ad a "D".Lippert, Barbara. "Barbara Lippert\'s Critique: The Morning After", Adweek, February 05, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
However, Reprise Media, reviewing the success of Super Bowl advertising in getting potential customers online, listed the 2007 commercial as one of only eight "Touchdown"-worthy ads among the day\'s high-priced advertisers.Search Marketing Scorecard (PDF). Reprise Media. Retrieved on 2007-02-07. IAG Research, which rated the effectiveness of likeability and memorability of the ads, ranked Go Daddy\'s spot as second for most-recalled.IAG Research (February 7, 2007). "IAG Research Announces Top Super Bowl Ad". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
In April 2006, the company donated $10,000 to the OpenSSH development program, which is managed by OpenBSD. "GoDaddy.com Donates $10K to Open Source Development Project". Press release. They have also donated $10,000 in March 2006 to Perverted-Justice.com in which volunteers pose online as minors to find child predators and report them to law enforcement. "Radio GoDaddy Rebranded to Life Online(TM) With Bob Parsons". Press release.
GoDaddy has a history of closing sites belonging to its customershttp://www.alternet.org/story/47669/ when controversial material is posted on web sites operated by those customers without notifying them of the take-downs or requesting that they remove material themselves before acting on their customer\'s behalf.
On January 24, 2007, Go Daddy deactivated the domain of computer security site, Seclists.Org, taking 250,000 pages of security content offline.McCullagh, Declan. "GoDaddy pulls security site after MySpace complaints", CNET\'s News.com, January 25, 2007. The shutdown resulted from a complaint from MySpace to Go Daddy regarding usernames and passwords posted a week earlier to the full-disclosure mailing list and archived on the Seclists.org site as well as many other websites. Seclists.org administrator Gordon Lyon, who goes by the handle "Fyodor", provided logs to CNET News.com showing Go Daddy de-activated the domain 52 seconds after leaving him a voicemail, and he had to go to great lengths to get the site reactivated. Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones stated that Go Daddy\'s terms of service "reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever." Lyon has since launched the web site NoDaddy.Com to Criticize GoDaddy policies. Singel, Ryan; Kevin Poulsen (29 January 2007). GoDaddy, Meet NoDaddy. Wired.com Blog 27B Stroke 6. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
On December 19, 2006 GoDaddy received a third party complaint of invalid domain contact information in the Whois database for the domain FamilyAlbum.com.Domain Name Wire. "GoDaddy Deletes Domain Name for Inaccurate Email Address." February 27, 2007. GoDaddy wrote a letter to the owner of FamilyAlbum.com saying "Whenever we receive a complaint, we are required by ICANN regulations to initiate an investigation as to whether the contact data displaying in the Whois database is valid data or not." "On 12/19/2006 we sent a notice to you at the admin/tech contact email address and the account email address informing you of invalid data in breach of the domain registration agreement and advising you to update the information or risk cancellation of the domain. The contact information was not updated within the specified period of time and we canceled the domain," GoDaddy added. The editor of "Domain Name Wire" said that since domain names are valuable, it was reasonable to expect that the registrar would try to contact the domain owner by phone or postal mail. On February 28, 2007 GoDaddy offered to get the domain name back for the previous owner if he would indemnify GoDaddy from legal action by the new registrant.Domain Name Wire. "GoDaddy Responds to Deletion Over Invalid Email Address." February 28, 2007. GoDaddy stated that the new owner paid $18.99 for the domain, the price of a backorder, not a regular registration.
On November 2, 2007, Domain Name Wire reported that it appears that GoDaddy no longer cancels domains for invalid whois. The editor on Domain Name Wire received a message from a reader who is trying to acquire a domain with obviously false whois information. The message from GoDaddy said "The domain has been suspended due to invalid Whois. The domain will remain in suspension through expiration, including the registry’s redemption period, unless the owner updates the contact information before that time."Domain Name Wire. "Has GoDaddy Done a 180 on Invalid Whois?" November 2, 2007.
In 2007, several websites critical of the human rights abuses in People\'s Republic of China were shut down by Go Daddy, possibly under the pressure of the PRC government. Go Daddy denied any political involvement in the shutdown.Reporters sans frontières - United-States - China美国网路公司关闭中国异议网站 引发不满
On March 11th, 2008, GoDaddy shut down RateMyCop.com — a Rate my professor type site where people would comment on their interactions with law enforcement officers — after complaints from police officershttp://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/godaddy-silence.htmlhttp://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/12/1739228&from=rss. After being contacted about the shutdown, GoDaddy responded that it was due to "suspicious activity". However, the owner of the site was later told by GoDaddy that the site was shut down for reaching its 3 terabyte bandwidth limit, although doubt has been expressed about the second explanation as the site had only 80,000 connected users that day and 400,000 the previous day. In a similar incident, GoDaddy also cowered to a demand that the Irish website RateYourSolicitor.com be censored.http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/16/1741242
GoDaddy frequently "fines" customers accused of spamming or other policy violations — without giving customers any recourse to dispute the allegations against them. When accused of a policy violation customers are given the option of paying a US$199 fine and staying with GoDaddy, paying a US$50 fine and immediately transferring to another web host & registrar, or having their domain names suspended and made nontransferable until they expire if they do not pay.http://www.slyck.com/story1053.htmlhttp://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/17/1319233
On April 12, 2006, Marketwatch reported that Go Daddy Group Inc., had hired Lehman Brothers to manage an initial stock offering that could raise more than $100 million and value the company at several times that amount.[6] On May 12, 2006 Go Daddy filed an S-1 registration statement prior to an initial public offering.Go Daddy makes name for itself growing in Gilbert, going public On August 8, 2006 Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy, announced that after some serious consideration, Go Daddy was not going to go public and that he had withdrawn the company\'s IPO filing.Hot Points – A blog by Go Daddy CEO and founder Bob Parsons
| Website management | |
|---|---|
| Concepts | Drop registrar · Overselling · Viewable With Any Browser · Web document · Web content · Web content management system · Web hosting service · Web server · Webmaster |
| Website and hosting tools | List of content management systems · CPanel · DirectAdmin · Domain Technologie Control · H-Sphere · ISPConfig · ISPmanager · Lxadmin · Plesk · Usermin · Webmin |
| Domain managers and registrars | AusRegistry · CZ.NIC · CIRA · CNNIC · DENIC · DNS Belgium · Domainz · DreamHost · ENom · Go Daddy · Melbourne IT · Museum Domain Management Association · Network Solutions · NeuStar · OLM.net · Register.com · Tucows · Web.com |
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