GoDaddy, the domain name registrar, not only is a place where you can register domain names, but they also sell domain names on the aftermarket. So, that means that when someone doesn’t renew their domain name, GoDaddy will frequently sell it at auction and add an additional year on the renewal for the top bidder. GoDaddy’s domain name auctions are pretty popular, and apparently the site is down.
On the notice above that you get when you go today to auctions.godaddy.com, you’ll notice that they ask you to follow them on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Well, apparently there are no updates, as GoDaddy’s Twitter account hasn’t been updated in 21 hours:
You’d think that GoDaddy could at least post on their Twitter account that they’re aware of the situation and that they’re working on it. Wouldn’t that be the courteous thing to do, especially if you’re directing people to your Twitter account for updates?
More about the GoDaddy Domain Auctions being down over on Elliot’s Domain Investing blog.
Update: April 3, 2014 1:50pm CST
I received an updated from Paul Nicks, Senior Director, Aftermarket, at GoDaddy:
“We noticed an issue with our Auctions.GoDaddy.com Web page today. We suspended the auction process temporarily, and are working to restore service as soon as possible. Once we’re back up, we will be extending any auctions set to end today by an extra day. We will update you when service is restored.”
I’ll keep updating this post as warranted.
Update: April 4, 2014 8:00am CST
I heard from GoDaddy and Paul Nicks, Senior Director, Aftermarket, at GoDaddy issued the following statement:
We took our GoDaddy auction website offline earlier today after our monitoring systems alerted us to a potential issue. Once we confirmed the health of our system, we took additional time to reset our auction end dates. Auctions.GoDaddy.com is now up and running. As a reminder, we will be extending any auctions set to end today by an extra day. We are sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.
As of this last update, GoDaddy Auctions are now back up and running today.