Since most of you know I suffer from Compulsive Domainer Syndrome (rarely see a domain name I can't pass up) it will come as no surprise that I had to renew some domains via Godaddy recently. When I logged into my account and clicked on the domains I wanted to renew I was greeted with a popup message encouraging me to go to Twitter and register each of the domain names I already owned as user names on Twitter before someone else beats me to it.
When I saw the Twitter Username Popup I Immediately Thought...

• My first reaction was, "I can't believe GoDaddy is actually recommending that I go to any site besides theirs since they are infamous for their horrible UI and love of making simple domain & website related tasks more complicated than necessary".
• After the shock wore off I was impressed that Godaddy actually offered some advice, in their checkout process mind you, that was quite helpful for the masses. You know, those that have a domain name or two but that probably don't know anything about HTML or software but want to build a web site for their hobby or business.

I've been a Godaddy customer for several years now and I honestly can't think of a single time, even when they were a tiny little company, where they willingly sent their customers to another site and didn't get some form of compensation. Now I certaily could be misreading this seemingly altruistic move on Bob Parsons' part for something its not but then again, I haven't seen their name in the hacked Twitter docs as partners so I'm pretty sure Bob is looking out for his customers. Honestly I think this is pretty cool and something that will definitely get them more street cred with small businesses because its a move in the right direction. It is a sign that they're going to keep you in the loop on the important marketing technology advancements and make sure you're not left in the dark. I think the greatest marketing fear of the average small business owner today is that they're missing out on something online but they don't have time to figure out what that might be. With a marketing partner like Godaddy, they may not have to worry any more.