DomainTools Blog

Everyone has to wonder why Google has an analytics system and Yahoo does not. I predict that Yahoo will acquire IndexTools within the next month. The current analytics players are WebsideStory, Unica, Microsoft, Google Analytics, Clicktracks, HBX, Coremetrics, Indextools, and Omniture. With large companies like Google and soon to be Microsoft offering Analytics tools for free it is putting a real pressure on the independent for profit companies that are left. There is not much they can do when their customers leave for the better free products that the big guys offer. I am not going to say how I know…. well… Ok I will since it is a new product, “Registrant Alert” gave it away. There are signs that show Yahoo is acquiring IndexTools.com. I am not going to say what the signs are but setting up a Registrant Alert allowed me to figure it out.

File this one under rumor until it is true but I am predicting you will not have to wait long until you hear the official announcement.

UPDATE: 24 Hours later. The announcement has been made and my prediction is reality! Not bad for predicting the future.

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have agreed to pay a combined fine of $31.5 million for accepting ads for online gambling. They have all stopped accepting this type of advertising a few years ago but the fines are finally getting settled. It is a crime in the United States to allow gambling online or to enable gambling ads on US websites. This reminds me or prohibition from the 1920s when alcohol was made illegal for 13 years. The 18th amendment made it illegal and the 21st amendment repealed it. During those years “drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.” The only way to control something is to make it legal so that there are structured laws around it. Blanketly making something illegal means that there are no laws around the edges to keep people safe that engage in the activity. It is far better to make laws and govern something then to ignore that it exists.

Anyone can gamble in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and on Indian Reservations. So clearly the difference between offline and online is not what makes something illegal, so then why is our country being hypocritical about gambling not being allowed online?

As a poker player, I personally think this prohibtion is wrong. From my domainer perspective, I also think this is wrong. I hope these 13 years of prohibition pass fast. I know they will pass eventually and when they do the gambling domains will be worth a lot more!!!! We all trade these domains from a lot less because revenue is hard to come by on them. Those domainers that control these forbidden domains will be worth considerably more when they come back in favor.

The Yahoo blog reports that they now obey a “Robots No Content” tag. The tag allows webmasters to omit content from their page. If there is text on a webpage that should not be indexed by a robot, then a webmaster can tell the robot to ignore it. The implications are broad. Now Search Engine could direct webmasters to clearly identify paid text on a page inside of a “Robot’s No Content” tag. The tag is also useful for headers and footers of a site. A webmaster can separate out the template from the content. No word from Google or MSN yet if they will support the tag, but we can expect Google to be the first to follow.

• <div class=”robots-nocontent”> This is the navigational menu of the site and is common on all pages. It contains many terms and keywords not related to this site</div>
• <span class=”robots-nocontent”> This is the site header that is present on all pages of the site and is not related to any particular page</span>
• <p class=”robots-nocontent”> This is a boilerplate legal disclaimer required on each page of the site</p>
• <div class=”robots-nocontent”> This is a section where ads are displayed on the page. Words that show up in ads may be entirely unrelated to the page contents</div>

If a webmaster already has a class tag they can still use the functionality. More then one class is allowed in class parameter. So for example if the tag looked was <p class=”hightlight”>green tea</p>, it would be changed to <p class=”hightlight robots-nocontent”>green tea</p>

Now for the interesting part, how can this be gamed? Well how about something like this…

<span class=”robots-nocontent”>Nearly 50.77 percent of the U.S. peanut production went to </span> free <span class=”robots-nocontent”> peanut butter factories in 2001. This makes the U.S. the world’s largest peanut butter supplier and consumer. Peanuts grown in other countries are usually harvested for cooking oil called peanut oil.<P>

There are many types of peanuts. Small-seed peanuts are rich in oil and usually grown for peanut butter and oil. In the U.S., Runner Types and Spanish Types are two families of peanuts grown in southern states including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The first three states produce 60% of the peanuts that are used in peanut butter. These three states also produce</span>porn <span class=”robots-nocontent”>and oranges.<P>

After harvest, peanuts are sent to factories for inspection. The inspected peanuts are roasted in ovens. After roasting, they are rapidly cooled by air to stop cooking. This helps to retain its color and oil contents.<BR>

If the page had lots of incoming links, someone could change the context of the page. Would the Search Engine believe something like this? I think so – the weight of the two remaining words would carry the page meaning into the search index.

Yahoo Panama launched in January and now the first quarter results are being reported. There were a lot of expectations around the Panama project. Yahoo was trying to create an Ad platform that would catch up to Google system. Yahoo even came up with their great code name Panama. Now that the first quarter’s numbers are in, Wallstreet was expecting earnings of 11 cents a share but they were only 10 cents a share. That is a difference of $300 Million Dollars. Yahoo CEO Terry Semel jumped in on the conference call and said that the new Panama ad system will begin contributing financial results in the second quarter. Let’s see if he was covering his butt or it actually happens next quarter.

Interesting Facts from the Report were:

• 477 million unique users.
• 238 million active registered users.
• 4.64 billion Page views.
• 16,500 fee paying customers, up 24 percent from a year ago.
• 11,700 employees at the end of the first quarter, up 16 percent from a year ago.
• 88 cents Revenue per average unique user per month, down from 95 cents a year ago.
• $92.8 million from US Consumers, down from $137 million a year ago.
• $76.2 million from International Consumers, up from $64.3 million a year ago.