“If you combined Network Solutions Group’s portfolio with The eNom Group’s (eNom and newly acquired BulkRegister) portfolio, Go Daddy would still come out on top,” says Jay Westerdal.

And Westerdal’s in position to know whereof he speaks. He’s the brains behind Name Intelligence, which among, other things, tracks all ICANN domain names, and has the best online whois tool I’ve run across.

During the last six months of 2005, the Go Daddy Group’s three registrars (GoD) signed up nearly a third of all domain names registered in the top five generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info.

Then the brakes must have failed. GoD couldn’t stop. Today, GoD lays claim to 14.6 million domain names under management, with no end in sight. King of the World.

GoD chief Bob Parsons says he’s really proud of the way GoD did it. “Go Daddy’s success in the domain market has been achieved organically, not by merger or acquisition.”

That’s Parsons’ Iowa-side talking… You knew, of course, that he did time in Heaven, didn’t you?

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.

And that my friend, is what makes America great.