Is Godaddy API returning bad results?

Question

I'm trying to figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or if GoDaddy is just returning bad results.

When I check the domain availability on their API sandbox, domains show up as "true" or available.

But then, when I check on the front end of GoDaddy, they show as "taken"

For example, if I use the following get request, GoDaddy API returns as "available"

https://api.ote-godaddy.com/v1/domains/available?domain=facebookchat.com&checkType=FAST&forTransfer=false

Returned JSON

{
  "available": true,
  "currency": "USD",
  "definitive": true,
  "domain": "facebookchat.com",
  "period": 1,
  "price": 7490000
}

But if I check on the front end here, it comes back as "taken"

https://www.godaddy.com/domainsearch/find?checkAvail=1&tmskey=&domainToCheck=facebookchat.com

Photo from official API showing domain available:

Photo from official API showing domain *available*

Front end results showing domain NOT available:

Front end results showing domain NOT *available*

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 12 '20 at 14:06

I would guess that you're using the test environment and that's why you get different results than their website. The OTE is probably a snapshot of the real database at some point and they just kept it that way thus the resulting difference. Try to switch to the production environment and compare results again.

Another side of this is the definitive variable returned by the availability check API call. The documentation vaguely states "Whether or not the available answer has been definitively verified with the registry" as clarification for the said variable.

Edit: you're definitely using the test environment, just saw the URI on your screenshot.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

I'd say their API is unreliable. I just tested it for domain=getpostman.com and it reports "available": true even though it most certainly is not.

{
    "available": true,
    "currency": "USD",
    "definitive": true,
    "domain": "getpostman.com",
    "period": 1,
    "price": 10690000
}

According to the docs, the "available" and "definitive" values are supposed to indicate that they are absolutely sure about whether or not the domain name is available.

DomainAvailableResponse

available* boolean Whether or not the domain name is available

definitive* boolean Whether or not the available answer has been definitively verified with the registry

"The registry could still provide false positives in their results." - this is a quote from an email from GoDaddy support. Also, the poster is using the test environment which nobody expects to return real data. — Bojidar Stanchev, May 15 '20 at 10:28

Is Godaddy API returning bad results?

2 Answers2