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.
