godaddy

Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and web hosting company, which also sells e-business related software and services.

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 only registrar to ever surpass Network Solutions in total domain names registered. 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 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.^{citation needed]}

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.^{[1] [2]}

Go Daddy gained market share against competitor Network Solutions, surpassing them to become the largest domain registrar on April 26, 2005.^[3] Speculation into the reasons for this include lower prices by Go Daddy for domain registrations, and the expansion of their product line.^{citation needed]} As part of their corporate giving, in April 2006, the company donated $10,000 to the OpenSSH development program, which is managed by OpenBSD.^[4] They have also donated $10,000 in March 2006 to Perverted-Justice.com in which volunteers pose online as minors to catch child predators.^[5]

Awards

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.^[6] 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]}

Advertisements

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. Go Daddy's advertising is produced in house, and typically emphasizes sexually suggestive material. Its most recent Super Bowl ad has been criticized, in The New York Times as being "cheesy"^[7]; in The National Review as "raunchy, 'Girls-Gone-Wild' style"^[8]; and "just sad" by Barbara Lippert in Adweek, who gave the ad a "D". ^[9]

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.^[10] While IAG Research, which rated the effectiveness of likeability and memorability of the ads, ranked Go Daddy's spot as second for most-recalled.^[11]

The "Go Daddy Girl"

Most of the TV ads star 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.

2005 Super Bowl advertisement

In 2005, the company produced a commercial to parody the controversy over an incident that occurred during the previous year's Super Bowl halftime show. It was aired in its first scheduled time slot, but was pulled from its second spot by FOX following reported complaints from the NFL.

Although the ad did not go over well with some viewers,^[12] Go Daddy saw traffic to its website increase considerably more than to the sites of other Super Bowl advertisers.^{citation needed]}

2006 Super Bowl advertisement

Candice Michelle appeared in the 2006 Super Bowl advertisement for Go Daddy. Approval of the advertisement was tough to achieve, with 13 versions getting rejected. The 14th version submitted was finally deemed "acceptable" on February 2. ^{citation needed]} WWE announced that since the ad that aired at the Super Bowl was a highly edited version of the original ad, they will show the full, uncensored ad the day after on Monday Night RAW. ^[13]

2007 Super Bowl advertisement

Go Daddy purchased advertising for the 2007 Super Bowl. According to CEO Bob Parsons, two ads were rejected by CBS for content. It was announced on January 29th that the third ad was been approved to air, featuring Ms. Michelle being sprayed with champagne with the Orange County Choppers crew and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick in a "marketing department meeting".

Controversies

Suspension of Seclists.org

On January 24, 2007, Go Daddy deactivated the domain of computer security site, Seclists.org, taking 250,000 pages of security content offline. ^[14] 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 set up a Web site critical of Go Daddy's handling of the complaint against SecLists, at NoDaddy.com, which was donated to him by a former customer of the registrar.^[15]

Cancelled Initial Public Offering

On May 17, 2006 Go Daddy filed an S-1 registration statement prior to an initial public offering.^[16] 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.^[17]