This time it appears to be permanent.
Earlier today I recorded a podcast with Frank Schilling that will air Monday morning. During the recording, Schilling informed me that GoDaddy will stop offering Uniregistry top level domain names. This isn’t the first time GoDaddy has dropped Uniregistry names, but it seems they now have put a permanent transition in place.
GoDaddy stopped offering new registrations of Uniregistry TLDs in March due to Uniregistry’s planned price hikes, but then added them back in with high prices. While new registrations are available as of today, this will soon be switched off.
I reached out to GoDaddy to ask about the decision. Mike McLaughlin, EVP & GM, Domains, replied:
GoDaddy strives to provide its customers with great product experiences wherever possible. After careful consideration, we decided to stop offering new Uniregistry domain names for sale because their pricing changes caused frustration and uncertainty with our customers.
For existing customers who have Uniregistry names, GoDaddy has partnered with Hexonet’s 1API GMBH to take over the backend management of the domain names. Customers will continue to manage their existing Uniregistry domains through the GoDaddy platform.
The deal with Hexonet is interesting. Customers who already have Uniregistry domains registered in their GoDaddy accounts will manage them as usual in their account interface. This will link to Hexonet’s backend.
The only difference customers might see is that they can no longer have Whois privacy on their Uniregistry domains. I came across this tweet from someone who received a notice about losing privacy:
here is why godaddy is dropping privacy on .link domains pic.twitter.com/iEBKUurCpH
— CWN (@Cyber_War_News) August 18, 2017
For his part, Schilling is taking the decision in stride. He said GoDaddy was never a huge registrar for its domains because GoDaddy didn’t offer Uniregistry domains at launch. He also noted that the large registrar 1&1 is getting ready to offer Uniregistry domains again. Listen to the podcast on Monday to learn more.
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Author: Andrew Allemann