Google to Cut Off "Domain Tasters," May Nick AdSense Revenue

There are dozens of quiet but profitable businesses in the Internet ecosystem and “domain tasting” is one of them. According to DomainTools, Google is about to put this business out of business.  In so doing, it also may slightly reduce its own AdSense revenue.

The domain registrars allow you to rescind any domain purchase within a short grace period. This has led to a cottage industry of “domain tasters” who buy millions of domains, stick Google AdSense on them, and then collect revenue until they have to give the domains back. (A real-world analogy might be buying a house, renting it for a weekend, and then rescinding the sale.)

One purpose of domain tasting is to see which domains get a lot of natural or accidental traffic–and then to keep those and give the others back. With Google AdSense, domain tasters have also been able to collect revenue, too. Until now.




If true, this is a smart long-term decision for Google (higher quality inventory, fewer accidental clicks, etc.). Depending on how large the domain tasting industry is, it might also have a minor impact on the company’s AdSense revenue.

If Google cuts off the domain tasters, the tasters will obviously rush right over to Yahoo. But DomainTools predicts that Yahoo will soon follow suit.

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