I have to take the time to confirm the same suspicions. About 6 months ago I visited GoDaddy for some domain name searching. I found that some I might want were available. The next day when I returned, and entered the same searches, lo and behold, they were now "unavailable". I knew from that result that a sham was being perpetuated, in which search entries were actually or fraudulently-reported-as not being available because that way they could try to sell the desired domain names for a lot more money. I'll never trust those morons for any services. How stupid do they think people are? ...like even an idiot couldn't see through such a tactic.
This is a Public Service Announcement...
BadDaddy!
I just did a search for 3 URL's in a row at GoDaddy.com. None of them related to the other, and none of them common names. One of them, for testing purposes, was a search for the availability of 'qwerqwerqwer.com'. Within the hour, 'qwerqwerqwer.com' was suddenly unavailable - the same fate for the other 2 URL's attempted. I understand that "tasting" is common, where these places hijack a URL for a couple days, test the popularity of it, then release it, or try to sell it for much more than they pay for it - but the fact that GoDaddy's searches resulted in purchased URL's so quickly, leads me to believe something more shady is afoot here.
Some believe that GoDaddy sells their search results. Others (more defenseive of GoDaddy), claims that these people can somehow access the search logs. Either way, this doesn't strike confidence in me for their level of security.
Test for yourself. I dare you to make up some random URL (the more jibberish the better), and see how long it stays Available. Then tell your friends, so they don't get scammed by GoDaddy's shady practices.
Here's my problem with it. You do a search. You hesitate for a bit for Any reason, then decide to purchase it. Now, instead of paying the $8 you could have paid right there, you now have to pay $18 to backorder it (wait a year, potentially), and still never be guaranteed you'll get it. Or... you pay them over $60 for someone to try to buy it from them, pay commission on top of that, and Still never be guaranteed you'll get it. And there are several suckers desparate enough to pay it too.
My opinion? This shouldn't be legal. The internet is too new still for good laws to govern it, and its pretty much anarchy when it comes to the web. But still - this is absurd.
The one thing I've found everyone to be in agreement on though - if you're going to search a URL - don't go to GoDaddy. Only go there if you have credit card in-hand and ready to buy right then. Everyone also seems to agree that GoDaddy is the worst offender.
I used to like them a lot. But this isn't good business. Maybe they should be called HoDaddy? hmm.

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