Is it me or is everyone else stupid?

As I reported in July, it now seems that Google have gotten around to cleaning up the domain channel at the domain level by opening up their Adsense For Domains program, “domainpark”. Confused? Read on.

“Google apparently have gotten fed up of policing their AFD program and are about to become proactive with a new domain parking algorithm. This new algo will assess all domains calling their parking feed and immediately give domains either a “pass” or a “fail” score. Meaning that if Google decide your domain has little chance of type-in traffic or if it scores low on conversions, it wont serve you a parking feed. Simple as that.”

I guess my only mistake back then was to use the word “algorithm” when I should have said “program”. Regardless of this, I have to say that as much as the information above was nearly accurate, I still didnt see the opening up of Google’s domainpark program to domainers as being part of the clean up campaign.

Reading about the blogging fraternity today, I was pleased to see that some of the euphoria that (no doubt) your average domainer will be feeling right now (being able to deal direct with Google) is nicely balanced with some caveat by certain learned bloggers.. And caveat it should be!

The first real signs of a change in the domain channel came back in October when domainsponsor (one of Google’s largest parking syndicators) sent out an email which informed users of some imminent changes to their program; led it seems by Google.

“As many of you know, the top search ad providers have increased their focus on the quality of traffic sent to them over the last six months. While every parking company is working through these changes, DomainSponsor wants to be direct with you, our clients, about our position on these changes and how they may impact you moving forward.

This new focus not only includes checks for invalid clicks but now includes measuring the conversion of traffic with advertisers. For many of us, this change has come with its own set of challenges that require restructuring systems, processes and business guidelines.

Working with our primary search ad provider, DomainSponsor will continue to use a multipart quality analysis of traffic on our network. This process will allow us to take the time necessary to identify traffic that does not or has not met quality standards. Clients whose quality is consistently below an acceptable level may see their payment terms extended and/or access to feeds removed”

So, Google want to clean up the domain channel, they were well reported to be fed up with the lack of policing at certain syndication partners, have proactively coerced their top partners like domainsponsor to be prepared to drop certain non-converting domains and have opened up domainpark to offer parking themselves. All good so far?

So, why open DomainPark when Google already enjoy the revenue from domain parking anyway? The extra percentage points they lose to domain parking companies is offset by the fact that they have no involvement in the business process and the subsequent costs that dealing with thousands of domainers entails. This surely would be no reason then to take on the process themselves together with the associated risks that doing so brings? And, when I talk in terms of risk, I am of course not talking of the business element, for clearly they do the mass payment processing thing and data analysis already with their adsense for content program. However, by adding the domainpark string to their bow, on the face of it they risk upsetting advertisers further and have no “it wasnt me guv, it was the parking company” buffer for any class action fraud or TM infringement suit. (incidentally, I love the way they advise disgruntled TM owners on the domainpark homepage to take up complaints directly with the domainer or the registrar..)

So, again, why have they done it and why take on this risk, there has to be more to it right? Right!

Getting back to the Google domainpark program (now open to all), Im confident this program isnt designed for and/or has little chance of attracting the large scale portfolio owners. Heavy hitting domainers already have the relationships and the negotiated deals with the likes of domainsponsor, who themselves have the optimising capabilities and template choices (both of which are way better than Google’s). Furthermore, large scale domain owners also enjoy a revenue share that far exceeds the 42.5% (less smartpricing discount) now available at Google’s domainpark. Google will obviously know this and so this again begs the question, why offer it, if just to attract the common or garden domainer?

Domainpark in its new format has a strict domain approval process. No TM’s, no offensive domains and seemingly no domains which Google simply doesnt like the look of. By applying to be a member of Google domainpark, for the first time, Google get information about domainers and the domains they own. Roll the clock forward six months and I guarantee you that any domains excluded or banned by domainpark in that period will be auto-refused a feed at all of the Google parking syndicators.

When i subsequently blogged about Google’s domain parking changes part 2 i did reflect then that i couldn’t see them killing ALL the domain tail because of the revenue numbers involved.

And when you talk about tail domains, Google has always had a certain frustration in that they could never really tag those domains which they believe constitute “the tail”. Of course, certain cruddy domains showing a sudden spike in revenue from mickey mouse referrers were easily picked up by the parking company and quickly excluded. However, combatting click fraud was always the responsibility of the parking company and Google involvement was always at arms length. You get a ban from one parking company you move on to another.

Parking companies are also the ones who see the domain traffic analysis, the referring traffic, the IP addresses and the visitor header information. All of which they pass onto Google when making the feed call. However, no-one is better at combating click fraud and analysing raw visitor data than Google themselves. And its this salient point that says to me why domainpark has suddenly sprung into life and its not to remove the parking company intermediaries and certainly not to boost revenue.

Domainpark is there simply as a vessel (if you like a magnet, a honey trap, the child catcher from chitty chitty bang bang) designed to seek out the tail end domains, analyse the visitor traffic (Google styleee), separate the wheat from the chaf and then set about cleaning up the channel from the root up. As I originally reported,

This new algo will assess all domains calling their parking feed and immediately give domains either a “pass” or a “fail” score. Meaning that if Google decide your domain has little chance of type-in traffic or if it scores low on conversions, it wont serve you a parking feed. Simple as that. The details on what percentage of parked domains this will negatively affect is sketchy at best, but you can bet your bottom dollar the numbers will be significant.

Obviously the pass/fail measuring stick is an interesting development in the domaining industry; it shows that the balance of measuring income vs value for money for advertisers has shifted, it also reveals that Google has all the knowledge it now needs about every domain name to make this call and it will overnight either devalue your domain or allow domain owners to add an extra zero to the value. It also means that Google isnt policing domain parking at the domainer level anymore (for heaven knows it must be a nightmare chasing all those Chinese folk pretending to be Americans), instead managing domain parking at the domain level.

Sound like something domainpark could get its teeth stuck into?