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Google to kill Domain Tasting
January 24th, 2008 by 
Jay Westerdal
A confidential informant says Google will stop monetizing all domains if they are less then five days old. This potential new policy change by Google could stop all Domain Tasting in its tracks. The Add Grace Period (AGP) is a time period when registrars can delete a domain at no cost, but in this time frame a registrant could register millions of these temporary domains and place Google Adsense for Domains on them. The result is the ability to produce millions of temporary websites that literally generate millions of dollars in income per week for Google. It was disclosed in court that one of Google’s partners was generating as much as 3 million dollars a month from the practice, and that was after Google’s revenue share. Oversee.net
and other companies have been using this practice for years and it will have a direct impact on them. The gravy train of free money might be coming to a halt very fast. This policy change at Google should be announced to the channel partners soon and it will have a huge echoing impact on the Industry.
The good news is the quantity of advertising will now be spread among fewer domains. If bid prices start to rise as a result of this change, domain owners who actually own real, full domains should receive more money. However, some advocates of Domain Tasting say that perhaps no one will be able to serve the niche for some ads and no one will make money on the un-served ads.
I think this is a return of the “Be Good” motto Google had a few years ago. Google has been quietly enabling this practice for years. This is a smart policy move on Google’s part to ward off impending litigation that might have hit them in the coming months. Trademark lawyers have been getting craftier at taking down Kiting by suing under other laws. The new weapon of choice is to use forgery laws instead of trademark laws. The penalty for forgery is much worse and caries a much higher fine per forged article. Dell, Yahoo, and BMW have all filed lawsuits in the last two months asking for millions of dollars of damage from Google partners and I think Google sees the writing on the wall: they might be named next.
The question remains, “Will Yahoo follow suit and also block all advertising on domains less than 5 day old?” I have a feeling Yahoo will do precisely that because they are one of the groups suing Domain Tasters using the forgery law tactic. Most of the big Domain Tasters are now using Google ad syndication feeds to monetize the traffic – those dollars will come knocking on Yahoo’s door soon.
UPDATE BY JAY: The new Google policy will go into effect before the end of February.
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Posted in Domain Tasting, Google |
165 Comments »
January 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I don’t know if this will bring more money for us publishers, but at least there will be less incentive to taste domains…
Nuno Oliveira
CentralDomain.com
January 24th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I don’t think this will stop them from tasting. They don’t need Google to tell them if a domain gets traffic. They could just point the domain to their own server and count how many hits it gets. They wouldn’t make any money but if it gets enough hits they can go ahead and register it.
UPDATE BY JAY: If tasting was purely for finding domains with traffic we would not have so many domains being tasted. Domain Tasting has gotten to the point that people do it not so they can find a domain with Traffic but to hold temporary websites that gather clicks. It is like spreading a huge net and catching everything in the sea.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I call for a one US dollar penalty for all domains dropped within the grace period. Even a few cents would make a huge difference, but the higher the fee the less tasting.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Like Tyler, I am confused as to why this would kill domain tasting? Tasters taste for the same reason domainers domain: traffic. If there is traffic to be found by tasting, the tasters will continue to chow down…
Of course, the irony of Google taking this position, while they continue to pump out the adsense juice to spam blogs is rich. The Google adsense ecosystem is like oil in the “real world”: it pollutes the web and is controlled by fat cat monopolists who brand themselves as eco-friendly (or web friendly) to a gullible consumers.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Till now so many Domain owners wont know a grace period of five days is available @ no cost. “I registered my domains through a Reseller, he told i will cancel a particular domain if you dont wish to have that with in five days, But you will have to pay $1.25 per domain “. Now only i know it is free, and companies like oversee.net
have used it as a chance to grab money in millions, then why dont he buy moniker / snapnames if it goes like this. It is a best decision made by Google to provide adsense ads for domains with age more than five days. Original domain owners get their clicks for higher bidded ads. I think it will affect the revenue stream of Google itself from ads. yahoo is quite strict & stick to his rules. I personally feel he will also accept this and make a favour for domain owners
B.K.Saravanan
For http://www.collisiondomains.com
January 24th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
They call all of them tricks. However, these are black hats- taking advantage of loopholes in the system. I did not know until now that split days generate ’split money’.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:32 am
this is great news. About time to take that free money away from tasters… Good for all honest hardworking domainers.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:15 am
hi greeting ,
kung hey fat choi
gong xi fa chai ;;–^),
could any 1 please tell me
where to locate out ‘the
automated scripts
and sneaky tactics
?
cheers ThANKye
January 25th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Hello Jay,
What you claim here is important:
Are you saying that one of the funder members of the ICA association is a domain tasting champion?
What a shame, and they prentend to give lessons of good conduct…
January 25th, 2008 at 4:42 am
It will be interesting to see whather/how any arbitrage arrangement might develop out of this (for example: I would think typos are mostly type-in traffic).
A good step in the right direction (if it’s truly carried out) — but I still wonder why the RGP exists at all.
UPDATE BY JAY: Don’t get me started, there are plenty of good reasons for the RGP. However the evil reasons seem to get all the press.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:22 am
“I think this is a return of the “Be Good” motto Google had a few years ago.” ……
I doubt that.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Not only does Google have to stop, but so does Yahoo, Microsoft and the X-number of other advertising agencies out there. Google might be the largest but I have a feeling some of the others, maybe even a small time joe, will see an opportunity to gain some ad revenue for their business.
Once again, like so many other things in life, this is a band-aid over a wound that is so bad that it calls for amputation instead of repair. Its a start but its not going to work as well as they think. At least I dont think so.
Bottom line: they need to STOP the practice altogether. You want it, you buy it, its yours for the reg fee for the year (unless you sell it of course). Thats the only way to level the playing field AND remedy the problem.
UPDATE BY JAY: If Google and Yahoo stop I think everyone else will. The liability is getting too great at this point to participate or conspire with people about to be convicted of forgery. Any smart lawyer at an advertising company sees the writing on the wall on this one.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:02 am
This is a great example of the industry acting, rather than hoping ICANN will do something. Most of the credibility issues which hurt everyone looking to legitimately commercialize some aspect of the internet (domain tasting, bad faith cybersquatting, typosquatting, blog enabled link spam) must be resolved at a search engine or registrar level, if at all. Unfortunately, for every do-good Google policy, there are 10 other companies willing to exploit the problems at hand.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am
If it happens, it will have proven how utterly useless ICANN has been in addressing the problem of domain tasting. It might not be Google returning to a “Be Good” motto so much as one of Google adopting a “Be Careful” one. It also has the capability to fragment the low end of the monetisation market and it certainly will make it more risky to handle the monetisation of trademark problem domains within the US. This could lead to some of the monetisation operations off-shoring outside US jurisdiction. The Dell suit may have triggered some serious changes in the PPC market and 2008 could see a complete change of emphasis from parking to development (or pseudo-development). Interesting times indeed.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I like this, but it could be a slippery slope. A lot of people out there think domain parking is evil. I know if brings in a lot of cash to Google, but…
January 25th, 2008 at 11:04 am
This is one of the web’s most interesting stories on Fri 25th Jan 2008…
These are the web’s most talked about URLs on Fri 25th Jan 2008. The current winner is …..
January 25th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Companies that do this are not doing it for anything remotely legitimate. It’s the equivalent of what Network Solutions tried with their ‘default 404′ page redirection a while back. The companies involved can claim all they want that they are simply providing a ’service’ for people, but in reality they are scammers, frauds and should be wiped from the face of the internet for once and for all.
Luckily they seem to be almost exclusively monetarily motivated, so removing as many incentives as possible, as google has done, can only help speed this up.
Any kind of domain ‘parking’ should be made illegal – companies that simply buy domains for the sake of setting up their bs generic ’search’ pages are the scourge of the internet.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Jay,
If the Forgery Laws can be successfully applied then it will be a lot easier to also apply the RICO Act ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act ) to Domain Squatting. According to Wikipedia one of RICO offenses is Counterfeiting (AKA Forgery). Follow the Wikipedia link to “Counterfeiting” which addresses issues such as software.
If the Forgery Laws are successfully applied and then linked to the RICO Act the implications to Domain Squatters are very serious. If Google or the other paymasters to Domain Squatters are named as co-conspirators under a RICO action the consequences could be devastating to Google because they have the deepest pockets.
Yes, 2008 should be an interesting year!
Mike
January 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Google to kill Domain Tasting | Deliggit.com
…
blog.domaintools.com
Will Google move to stop domain tasting?
A confidential informant says Go…
January 25th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I’m all for it. Frankly, I don’t want their registrations if they are doing this.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Slow, not stop. Tasters will still see the amount of traffic and have a good idea if they should keep the domain. Besides, what about all the other souces of revenue from parked domains…?
Also, I kind of doubt the tasters are able to optimize the domains very well on a large scale, are they? So if they are not optimize then they are not going to realize the full potential of the traffic. Then the amount of traffic becomes the main issue, after the domain name itself…
Love me, love my http://www.bestdebtconsolidationcompanies.info domain.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Will they be doing this to legitimate web-masters also?
That would make the time to launch a new blog or site from 1 to 2 days to 6 days.
They really should not do this unless the account has a history of doing domain tasting or something bad.
Why should everyone have to pay because some are bad??
January 25th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
steveooo Said:
“Will they be doing this to legitimate web-masters also?”
This doesn’t affect the site setup and DNS delay. A new domain will still be available as soon as it’s registered. Then the addressing data is placed in DNS as the site is setup. As always. Two days is the time frame for the DNS data to percolate through most of the “cloud”.
Google just won’t let a account use ADSense on a new domain until it’s passed the 5 day grace period. This only affects what Google does.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
# E-Z Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 4:42 am
It will be interesting to see whether/how any arbitrage arrangement might develop out of this (for example: I would think typos are mostly type-in traffic).
A good step in the right direction (if it’s truly carried out) — but I still wonder why the RGP exists at all.
UPDATE BY JAY: Don’t get me started, there are plenty of good reasons for the RGP. However the evil reasons seem to get all the press.
[corrected typo above
]
Well, OK — why not require people to fill out paper documents — for each domain, in triplicate and handwritten (and require them to add a SASE for the check)?
;D
January 26th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I would suggest that a fee be imposed to someone who cancels a registration, and make it enough to kill any profit.
Also, while registrars are off the hook for bad registrations, it is, in the long run, in their best interests to help clean up this biz.
For all you anti-parkers: there is nothing inherently wrong with parking, especially if parking companies start to develop good software that makes adding info and content that is easy to do. Right now, it’s cumbersome.
On the other hand, I do agree that developed domains best serve the internet and users.
However, developed scam sites ARE the scourge of the internet–they are the REAL evil of the net.
Best,
Ms Domainer
January 26th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Google to kill Domain Tasting…
…
January 27th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Call me stupid, but this is the first I have heard of domain ‘tasting’. The practice should be outlawed altogether. Buy for a year or no domain at all, I say.
need to be caned too
I hope those that have used Adsense to the detriment of ‘real’ domain/website owners get their come uppance.
What goes around comes around
oversee.net
January 28th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Jay,
there’s a site called “searchengineland.com
” that severely has misquoted you and also states that searchengineland has been informed by Google that nothing will be done about domain tasting — but rather (apparently) Google will attempt to “do something” about domain kiting (however, it is also unclear what it is that Google is purporting to do about it, besides to get rich from such criminal practices).
If my company were being taken advantage of in such an illicit manner (they way Dell, Yahoo, and BMW apparently are), then I would KEEP PRESSING CHARGES, because it seems that Google’s SHIFTINESS reeks more like a smoke screen than anything else.
This will be an interesting story to follow, because it seems that your optimism that Google might have stopped being evil after all cannot be supported by the shady reports coming from the Google web master central headquarters office (perhaps Mr. Sullivan will clarify exactly what is was that the Google official representative is purported to have said).
I find this whole “affair” actually raises more questions than it resolves….
UPDATE BY JAY:
Here is a quote from the Associated Press report on it:
Over the next few weeks, Google will start looking for names that are repeatedly registered and dropped within a five-day grace period for full refunds.
Google’s AdSense program would exclude those names so no one can generate advertising revenue from claiming them temporarily, a practice known as domain name tasting – the online equivalent of buying expensive clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a party.
“We believe that this policy will have a positive impact for users and domain purchasers across the Web,” Google spokesman Brandon McCormick said.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:41 am
here’s the misquote:
QUOTE
Domain Tools says “Google had was generating as much as $3 million dollars a month from the practice.” Google is rumored to do away with that $3 million to uphold their motto of don’t be evil. Domain Park ads have been one of Google’s most controversial programs.
ENDQUOTE
URL: http://searchengineland.com/080125-081815.php
January 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
“Over the next few weeks, Google will start looking for names that are repeatedly registered and dropped within a five-day grace period for full refunds.”
Sounds more like kiting, not merely tasting.
Google doesn’t want to turn a deaf ear to the domain community (or to advertisers seeking click quality) but isn’t this like the cat guarding the canary cage? Google has a ve$ted interest in getting ¢li¢k$. As long as they make a token effort to exhibit due diligence they’ll be golden in the public eye.
And think about it. Those domains which are repeatedly registered and dropped are low-quality names anyway…otherwise why would they keep getting tossed back into the pool?
January 28th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I understand that ‘kiting’ is repeated registration and dropping by the SAME registrant. In that case, a high quality name would generate serious revenue but would never be paid for. This must be stopped!
= TiKi =
January 28th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I don’t think it will stop it, it will only take the icing off the cake for the bulk tasters. Tasters may not be able to make money as easily the first 5 days, but will still taste to find domains with traffic to keep and park or sell from day 6 on. They can still monitor non-monetized traffic the first 5 days on any DNS with or without adsense.
For the huge money involved, it may just create a new short term monetizer in a country not so friendly to the laws Google and Yahoo must comply with.
Bulk tasting at no cost needs to be eliminated altogether. it’s likely that traffic to the registries is partially what raised domain prices. The registries have to pay for all that data traffic somehow, and the tasters sure aren’t paying their way.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am
The tasters themselves should pay a fee, not the average domainer who actually regs and keeps his/her domains.
A system where domainers could toss back, say, five domains a month (for bonafide spelling mistakes) without paying a fee might work.
Tasters, TM squatters, and scammers are the scourge of this industry and give the rest of us a bad name.
Best,
Ms Domainer
February 18th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
How about Google taking credit card payments for domain and then not paying go daddy. The day go daddy cancels the account an ad site buys the domain name. No notice from google of a problem, up until the date the domain disappeared it showed paid in full for a year. Now I get an email that I can buy back my website name for $600.
Google is not a reputable company, call them and ask….oh yeah you cant unless you pay $50 for a premier membership.