Google has taken aim at domain tasters even though the move could cost it millions of dollars. Google will stop monetising any domain names less than five days old by the end of February. Domain tasters take advantage of the five day grace period between registering a domain name and paying for the said domain name, and this period is used to test the potential advertising revenue.The seriousness of the practice was stated by VeriSign in 2007 when they “said that among the top 10 domain registrars, 95% of all deleted .com and .net domain names were the result of domain tasting.” Google announced as of February 11 they plan “to begin blocking AdSense for Domains ads from appearing on kited domains. The company did not provide further details about how its kiting detection system will work” according to a report in InformationWeek.The move is supported by Jay Westerdal who believes “This potential new policy change by Google could stop all Domain Tasting in its tracks” according to TechCrunch. Meanwhile Bret Fausett has come to the opposite conclusion. Bret believes this move will not change anything because it does not address the underlying reason for tasting as “You taste a domain name to see if it has traffic.” And others believe that this change by Google will slow but not stop domain tasting.It will also be interesting to see what Yahoo does and if they follow suit. As Jay Westerdal says, Yahoo will potentially have many tasters knocking on their door, and if they do follow suit, will be knocking back a lot of money. But Jay believes they “will because Yahoo was one of the groups that is suing Domain Tasters using the Forgery law tactic.”For more media coverage, see:
Google takes aim at domain tasting profiteers
Google has taken aim at domain tasters even though the move could cost it millions of dollars. Google will stop monetising any domain names less than five days old by the end of February. Domain tasters take advantage of the five day grace period between registering a domain name and paying for the said domain name, and this period is used to test the potential advertising revenue.