Afternic by Name only! (1.Viewing)

I don't know why they keep the Afternic charade going.

At this point Afternic is no different from dan.com, both are just extensions of GoDaddy that are systematically being folded into godaddy.

Other than the api Afternic remains in name only and it might be time to actually remove the branding from the customer (retail) facing side of things.

I also don't think there is any question that GoDaddy only buys competitors in order to shut them down.

When Dan was bought out that sentiment came up a lot, but the GD wags shot back by stating that they wanted to "grow the brand" and "there is no intention to shut them down"... just like they said concerning Uniregistry and Afternic et al.

Now GD can't say that anymore.

Afternic was closed when they removed the search and sent the users to GoDaddy. They're in the process of hiding all the data about domains. ED don't show domain price, Appraisal don't show comps, and so on. Only way to search is through Domain Academy now.

Are you experiencing this after a sale? Domain is sold and buyer gets the domain and they hold the funds for verification. I asked them what the verification is about and no answer.

It really makes you wonder what everyone at Afternic is doing right now...

Uniregistry is now nothing but a single word mention on Godaddy, both Afternic and Dan.com are destined for the same.

Is it necessarily bad?

I don't think so, I like that godaddy robs from one service to make its main offering better. Being able to do everything from one interface makes it a smoother process.

However, the lack of competition is worrisome but there is light at the end of the tunnel. With Statrship, DynaDot, SAV, Efty etc I think solid competition is on the horizon.

All that said I cannot help shake the feeling that Efty only exists to be acquired, I think it's probably next on the list to be absorbed by another entity.