A domain investor demonstrated results produced by the GoDaddy domain search tool and two things stand out: GoDaddy-owned domains and trademark violations.
In a Twitter thread, the search performed is that of “Crystal” with the GoDaddy results containing a prompt to perform a brokered “acquisition” of Crystal.co.uk priced at $69.99 dollars. It also displays a “great alternative” domain: SwarovskiCrystal.co.
The latter can be added to your cart for a penny, presumably as an ongoing .co promo. Swarovski is a famous trademark. GoDaddy supports the managing company of .co domains, providing back-end registry services to .CO Internet SAS.
This isn’t where it all ends, however.
The following segment of the results page is topped by Cyrstal.com, a typo, offered for $5,999.18 dollars. Two additional gTLD domains are listed, followed by another typo: Crytals.com, which can be acquired for $3,499.18 dollars.
The addition of the 18 cent ICANN fee makes the number look hilarious, however both promoted typo-domains are registered by NameFind, the portfolio managers of GoDaddy-owned domains. Both domains were acquired by GoDaddy when Frank Schilling sold Uniregistry three years ago.
Similar searches performed on Namecheap exclude such typos. It’s not clear if that’s by design, or if GoDaddy decided to exclude its lucrative NameFind portfolio from third party registrars.
GoDaddy representatives have promised to take a look into this “glitch.”
