The adage “the only bad news is no news” maybe news to the new pension fund owners of GoDaddy  but historically controversy has often fueled the vehicle that has driven the most growth to the domain registrar and web hosting company. The crowd-sourced backlash against GoDaddy kicked off after the company appeared on an official list of companies supporting SOPA.

The idea of a domain registrar supporting DNS blocking legislation to serve the interests of overzealous copyright owners and media companies prompted Internet users to stage a widespread boycott, declaring December 29 "move your domain day." Then again, the idea of a domain registrar and web hosting company owner Bob Parsons standing next to an elephant he just shot may not be ideal for most businesses either but after the story went viral, Parsons registered the domain bobparsonskillselephants.com which still redirects to bobparsons.me!

Interestingly enough, GoDaddy initially dismissed the move as having little impact on their business, then later was said to be “scrambling” to let everyone know it no longer supports SOPA legislation. Fittingly, CEO for a week Warren Adelman, (took over from mentor Bob Parsons as GoDaddy CEO just over a week ago), has been making the rounds claiming that like the Grinch with a heart that grew:

“We were seeing and hearing customers and tech leaders — many of which are our customers — talking and writing about this so we did something that was easy to do: made changes to address their needs”

Many in the blogsphere claim that GoDaddy reps are cold calling “fleeing” domain holders with enticements to stay, while others have stated that there have been delays in transfer of domains. Verified GoDaddy employees have been defending or minimizing GoDaddy's involvement in SOPA on sites like Reddit.... Then there is Twitter. GoDaddy should be trending as it is being mentioned so often! One tweet says it all...

The domain was Registered at GoDaddy.com

The Numbers DailyChanges.com

- Over 15,000 domain names were transferred from Godaddy.com on Thursday and over 21,000 were transferred away from Godaddy on Friday.
-  Note that on Thursday more domains were transferred into Godaddy.com (17,000) than left the registrar.
- On Friday Godaddy.com lost 21,054 domain through transfers out to other registrars, yet they received 20,034 transfers into Godaddy.com from other registrars.
- Last week prior to the call for the boycott on Thursday, Godaddy stats for transfers out:
Monday (8,800), Tuesday (13,000) and Wednesday (14,500).
- December 27th...
New Domains Registered: 18,401
Transferred in: 14,853
Transferred out: 8,862

It’s unlikely the Internet will ever be controversy-free. And would we really want it to be? Many Internet users enjoy (at least in part) the controversy that is so prevalent on the web. We all have a chance to be heard, whether it’s in matters of global importance, the latest celebrity gossip about Justin Bieber, or GoDaddy's next ploy!

SOPA

The proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to block access to sites accused of infringing copyright, and stop payment processors and online advertising networks from doing business with them -- all without due process.