My domain name, amanita.net, was originally bought through Network Solutions back in January 1999. It was something like $35 at the time! Prices have dropped substantially, and I’ve been with Dotster for the past several years, paying $15/yr for each of the multiple domains I have registered. I was helping my brother-in-law register a domain over the weekend, and he picked GoDaddy because he could get five years for about $35. I looked into it for myself and found that I could get a transfer plus four years for the same price, so I initiated the transfer.

Now Dotster has written to me offering a permanent price cut for their rates. They want to charge me the same as GoDaddy, which is $9/yr, and they’ll throw in some free stuff I won’t need like domain forwarding. I have never liked Dotster’s website, I’ve always found it clunky - but I don’t need to administer my domain directly very often, so it’s been fine. When I looked at GoDaddy’s site, though, their user interface is much friendlier. I sent a note to Dotster about this and the guy responded saying they were going to have a new interface launching today at 12 noon Pacific. It’s a half-hour past that and I haven’t seen a new interface yet. How long is enough? Are they really launching a new interface or was that just a ploy to keep my business? (I want to see it now!) Does it really matter who I use as a registrar? Given that I have multiple domains at Dotster and I was only transferring one, should I stay put so I get the discounted rate for all of them? Should I switch everything to GoDaddy? Things to think about.