Leo Mirani is on a roll he wrote an excellent piece yesterday on the new gtlds with co author David Yanofsky
He is out today with a piece entitled, “Why Google wants to give you 101 alternatives to .com” Mike has spoken in the past that Google is a big wildcard with regards to what extensions they end up with and how they distribute them. Google giving away domains for free could be something that impacts existing extensions and new gtlds alike.
Mirani delves into why Google wants to do this and what he believes are the main themes. He quotes Google, “Our main focus is to make the introduction of new TLDs a good experience for web users. We’re just beginning to explore a new source of innovation on the web, and we are both excited and curious about the potential for these new TLDs. By opening up more choices for Internet domain names, we believe users will have options for more diverse—and perhaps shorter—signposts in cyberspace.”
He sums it up with the following:
The new domain names are part of that mission. They help Google convince more business to finally get their own website—like bobs.car. These websites give Google valuable new data. And, of course, if the owners of the new websites want to be found, they’re best off advertising—with Google.
Makes sense…with all the confusion in domain name extensions, users will be forced to search Google for a website and end up seeing ads in the process.
It’s all about branding and creating unique user experience. Google is TLD-agnostic and has demonstrated it by ranking web sites based on content relevancy, even if they are hosted on ‘exotic’ ccTLDs. Also, keep in mind that the localization of search occurs in every country outside of the US; Google redirects to local portals.
Theo it will be interesting to see how “agnostic” they remain if they start running 50 strings.
The same way they agnostic to google translation and their other products.
So “Bob’s C.A.R.” will leave bobscar.com for bobs.car? There is no way this will ever happen.
Well maybe it will judging by Bob’s company name! 🙂
I never would have thought that such a company name would exist and yet it does.
I wonder what is the business plan of the .car registry compared to the .cars registry.
Maybe it is to get many defensive registrations?
“Google redirects to local portals” True but, Google search priority results forces me to move across to Yahoo as even when switching from the com to google.co.uk priority past results list up and hack me off. Logic – algorithms are not social arts. Give me what “I” choose to type in / search for from the local portals I chose to use.
It makes all the sense in the world for Google to give away domains. it completes the circle: email, website, tube upload and social link all in one place, hosted by one entity. Of course the user is at the mercy of Google, but I think people are used to that anyway (FB, Twitter, +, etc..). I really think its the only way for quick-mass adaptation for a lot of these gtlds….at least the more generic and social ones. How much “mass” is the question tho.