And why it should be in every domainer’s interest to prevent Google doing this…
Few weeks ago Sedo started circulating an email to its publishers recommending them to switch their domains to DNS parking saying that its upstream feed provider (i.e Google) may soon stop accepting traffic via redirects. This would obviously make traffic splitting/optimalization services such as Above or ParkLogic obsolete since they rely on the ability to split traffic. I see Above for example as the most revolutionary thing to come up in domain monetization in the last two years. Because it makes it possible to simply and automatically send traffic to the parking company that pays best and takes all the hassle with testing away.
So why does Google hate/fear the redirect so much? Well, Google has often said that redirect traffic is more often fraudulent than traffic where the domain’s DNS sits on the DNS of a parking company, which is in itself very questionable. I believe that the main reason though is that services such as Above take away part of the control Google has of the domain channel ands screws up it’s TQ/shaving algorithms. Also it would make life for new alternative monetization solutions much more difficult – since they rely on Google/Yahoo as a potential backfill for traffic they cannot sell for a higher price. Google is aware that its two main strengths against its competition are a) its superior monetization of the long tail and b) its international coverage. Any new monetization service cannot match it in this, but it can compete in various traffic niches. Hence I believe Google wants to raise the barriers to entry – this is obviously another example of potential antimonopolistic behaviour.
What is also potentially funny about this is that, as the owners of Above have told me, Google parking companies have actually won more traffic at the expense of Yahoo one’s – in essence due to the very existence of redirect parking. Secondly, do you think it is a coincidence that Sedo was the first company to actually send its publishers this email and why haven’t other G-based companies done the same? My belief is that Sedo has lost a lot of marketshare due to Above to its arch competitor Namedrive, which has outmonetized Sedo often in its core international markets. So in a way it is in Sedo’s interest to lobby Google to ban the redirect. Because if more domainers migrate to Above that is potentially more lost marketshare.
My hope is that Google will not implement this change. It should be your hope as well as a domainer.
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