The Google Effect And Domain Name Speculation

A reader writes "Google brought us the age of high quality searches, and with that may come the end of domain-name speculation. Good thing we paid for all those laws to punish cyber-squatters. Read the article and learn more."

One Quick Point

[iGawyn]

On several recent occasions, Web sites critical of big companies -- using domains called, generically, companynamesucks.com -- have had their names revoked and given to the companies that claimed trademark violations. It's still outrageous that the companies can win these cases, but maybe the victories are transitory if the critics' sites, by other names, can still be found easily.

The point that he either neglected to mention or totally missed was the freedom of speech. Some people [2600.com] just prefer to use it as free speech, which is perfectly acceptable.

Either way, it's a good article, and judging by the increasing prominence of "Register yourname.com!" advertisements everywhere I go, he's right. People are registering less, and the companies are getting worried that they won't get as much money.

Gawyn

Re:The only sites unaffected by this...

[RazzleFrog]

As long as you can get to the search engine, you just pull up raw IP links.

I would like to introduce you to the idea of virtual domains. It's this nifty idea where one IP address can host thousands of different websites - all with their own domain name.

Now unless you are suggesting that they come up with a different way of putting distinguishing information in the header then I think your idea is fairly moot.

Feeling Lucky

[Schnapple]

I have the Google Toolbar [google.com] and one of the features is the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. This is just like the same button on Google.com. The basic effect is - you type in the name of something you want, hit "I'm Feeling Lucky" and you're instantly taken to the right page (most of the time). As a result, you don't even need to "search", you just "go". The Google Effect is pretty damn effective.

ICANNWatch

[swimfastom]

"Meanwhile, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international governance body put together several years ago at the behest of the U.S. government, was set up in part to bring competition into a system that sorely needed it."

If you are at all interested in current ICANN news I highly recommend http://www.icannwatch.org/ [icannwatch.org].

Personal websites for the common user do not need their own domain. They can benefit from Google [google.com] greatly. However, it is very important for companies to have their own domain so they can both host a website and use email addresses with their own domain.

real names?

[dlc]

Wasn't this the point of the Real Names [realnames.com] system? From their about page [realnames.com]:

Keywords replace complicated URLs with simple names and brands, and work in the consumer's native language, making the Internet easier to use.

Wait just a dad-burn minute

[Uttles]

The most interesting from a domain-name point of view is this: With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name -- one that a casual Web user would be able to guess -- has practically disappeared.

I agree with this article for the most part; Google is a great search engine and it eliminates the need to memorize a bunch of URL's. There's a few assumptions the author is making that aren't exactly correct.

1 - Google doesn't "unerringly bring you the page you want" because no matter what you type into the search field, it can't tell exactly what you're looking for. It gives great results most of the time, but it still stumbles once you move into more vague searches. This isn't Google's fault, it's just the fact of life that neither people or computers are psychic, we can't read each other's minds.

2 - Having a domain name that someone could guess, or that someone might not even know relates to your company, is still pretty desirable. People are familiar with having a .com after most websites, so if you put up toys.com, you'll probably get a lot of hits, no matter what your actual company is. I agree, typing in www.lucenttechnologies.com is a much worse method than going to Google and looking up "Lucent Technologies," but I think people have always preferred search engines for looking up specific companies.

3 - This is probably the most important point: domain names are about advertising in today's internet economy. The companies would like for people to be able to guess their website address, but what's more important to them is that customers can easily remember the address when they see it in advertisements. So, when you see a commercial for Nike Shoes, and they show you www.nikeshoes.com, you will easily remember that for the next time you're browsing the web. Now, it really wouldn't make a difference if it was www.nike.com, www.shoesbynike.com, www.gonike.com, or www.swoosh.com, because the point is they're giving you an easy to remember location. Now, if they gave you www.commercialwebsites.com/shoecompanies/nike/shoe s.html, it probably wouldn't stick in your mind very long, and you wouldn't just causally browse the site. Now, don't get me wrong, if that was the URL and you REALLY wanted to check out Nike, then you'd go look it up on Google, and you'd get there anyway. The point I'm trying to make is that it's not about the companies trying to guess what domain you'll type in, they're trying to make it easy for you to associate a website to their company, and that's why I think there's still a big demand for specific domain names.

Re:A Subject (not Content) Directory?

[RJM]

I think Vivismo [vivisimo.com] does exactly what you are suggesting.

How Google works.

[afinn]

"In general, the more links there are to a particular page from other pages, the higher it ranks in Google's hierarchy on that search term."
Most people have a vague idea of how google works. This paper [nec.com] goes into some detail.

Re:Microsoft and Domain Speculation

[Pontiac]

Personaly I have this little "Feature" MS stuck us with.. Wanna turn it off?? Here's how..
Go to Internet Options, Advanved Tab.. Scroll down to Search and check "Do not Search from Address Bar". THen It will try and go where you tell it.. No matter how mangled the URL.

Re:Where this comes up short...

[sde1000]

On the other hand, Google listings appear to be quite stable for some subjects. Consider PuTTY [google.com], a Win32 ssh client and terminal emulator: the Google URL for it is actually shorter than its official URL (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty / [greenend.org.uk]).

Junk addresses being dropped

[SilentReproach]

It may be true that names are currently being dropped at a greater rate than they are being registered. However, has anyone here looked at the names being dropped? I have looked at them in both a) painstaking detail and b) written programs to narrow down tens of thousands of really useless names to a few dozen possibly useful names. For example of the junk being dropped, here is a tiny number of recently deleted names:

0-0-TEEN-SEX.COM
0-CALLSANTA.COM
0-DOMAIN-REGISTRATION.COM
0-POINT.COM
0-SHIPPINGPERFUMEBASKETS.COM
00-FREE-WEB-PAGES.COM
000000000.COM

Lot's of long names, names with hyphens and numbers in them, and typos. Also, people who previously saved .net and .org names are now ditching them, keeping only the .com version of the name. This tells me that dot-com names are holding value better than the others.

I feel that a good name is still quite valuable, even if not as valuable as a year or two ago. There are few, if any names available today that could be called "jewels". So, if you have a good name, keep it, but if you're sitting on some junky names for speculative purposes, ditch them.

Don't expect people to purposely begin throwing valuable names away.

Re:It's not all web, you know

[psych031337]

Steer clear of asymmetrical shaped "CD-Cards". They will kill your cdrom (namely the motor/rotor) because they are unbalanced and vibrate the hell out of the mechanics. Rectangular shaped ones are OK, as long as they are symmetrical.