Domain Tasting to Be Disallowed by Google

When somebody wants to register a new domain, he/she normally wants to see whether it would be a seller or a bust. That's where domain tasting gets involved, it is a practice of registrants using the five-day "grace period" at the beginning of a domain registration for ICANN-regulated generic top-level domains to test the marketability of a domain name. During this period, when a registration must be fully refunded by the domain registry, a cost-benefit analysis is conducted by the registrant on the viability of deriving income from advertisements being placed on the domain's web site, according to Wikipedia.

Google has recently thought about banning the newly registered domain names from participating in its Google for Domain Names program. Being the king and queen of the Internet, Google's decision, if it goes through, will have domain tasting as a process on its knees, waiting to be beheaded.

Jay Westerdal of Domain Tools told Duncan Riley of TechCrunch that: "It was disclosed in court that one partner that Google had 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….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 now. This is a smart policy move on Google's part to ward off impending litigation that might have hit them in the coming months."

Taking into account that he is involved as heavily as can be in the process of domain tasting, his words come bearing an even heavier sentence. Let's hope that it doesn't come to that. And even if it does, this will just open the door to a competitor, but the scale of the business from now on… not looking good.