Google Adsense Cracking Down on 'Tasters' 187
ZerothOfTheLaw writes "It appears that Google is going to eliminate Adsense for Domains for all domains younger than five days old.
From the post 'The Good news is that the Quantity of advertising will be spread among fewer domains now and so those domain owners that actually own real full domains should receive more money if bid prices start to rise as a result of this. However some advocates of Domain Tasting say that perhaps no one will be able to serve the niche for some ads and no one will make money on the unserved ads.'"
That's a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Good. Advertising revenue is not something that anyone is entitled to receive. Show me a site with useful content supported with unobtrusive advertising and maybe you'll get my eyeballs for a while. What we don't need are more linkfarms.
Tasting parasites (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is Domain Tasting "Evil" (Score:5, Insightful)
This should also help understand the "evil" behind the practice...
"In January 2007, VeriSign said that among the top 10 domain registrars, 95% of all deleted
Google's doing this to protect users who get to these sites on accident. I guess it's good for everyone.
They should close it down alltogether (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That's a problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
(minor note is that I haven't, partly because I don't think anyone will visit randomly, and even if they do, why the hell should the follow links)
What do you want to do about it? (Score:3, Insightful)
It'd be kind of neat if accidentally typoing britenyspears.com brought up feeds with news on Britney Spears along with ads and other monetization schemes rather than just some boring Ad Directory that most are currently like. Anyway, my point is: If you hate this so much, why aren't you doing something about it? What can we do to stop it, or help to solve it? I don't imagine we can completely rule it out but there's bound to be plenty of ways we can weaken its hold. The world can't change unless you try to change it.
Re:Tasting parasites (Score:3, Insightful)
Come off it - we're not talking people buying something retail here - we're talking domain names. Buy it because you want it or need it. Don't like it after a week -sell it. This whole "domain tasting" bullshit has to end.
Try returning that losing lottery ticket the day after the draw. "Buyer's remorse"? Are you fucking kidding? Try returning your big mac an hour later. Try returning your custom-made whatever (and all domain names are custom - by definition, no two are alike).
Monetizing the bottom feeders (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope Google really does this. They need to, to restore their "don't be evil" reputation. Arguably, Google went over to the dark side when they started offering domain parking. [google.com]. "Maximize revenue on your parked pages with Google AdSense for domains", they advertise. (Insert Darth Vader quote here.)
"Domain tasting" is a drain on the anti-fraud systems of the Internet. All those domain changes help conceal phishing attacks, many of which involve buying domains with stolen credit cards and exploiting them before the credit card transaction is reversed. Blacklist systems like McAfee SiteAdvisor [www.siteadvisor] and PhishTank [phishtank.com] are always running behind the domain changes.
We rate sites at SiteTruth [sitetruth.com], and all those domain changes are a headache for us. I'm considering taking the position that all domains less than 30 days old are junk, unless they have a good SSL certificate. Is that too severe, or a good idea? Comments?
Re:That's a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That's a problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
If they don't have any content, putting ads on them is totally parasitic. Which is good for you, you make money for nothing, but a waste of time for everyone who stumbles on your page.
But you knew that. If you don't care about ading more worthless crap to the world, fine.
Re:Tasting parasites (Score:4, Insightful)
It costs $10 or less to register a domain.
Re:That's a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be careful. the last time I mentioned this, I was modded into oblivion.
In any case, it's severely obnoxious. I'm stunned that the admins/editors/whatever. could consider this idea worthwhile, given how often we rail against similar behavior on other sites.
Re:Tasting parasites (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That's a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Have we lost sight of "evil"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Have we as a community lost sight of what evil really is? I would agree with you that it is somewhat annoying to accidently stumble upon a link farm. But does that make it evil? Is the practice itself evil? I would say no on both counts. I think we don't give Google enough credit for accomplishing all that they have without succumbing to the predatory practices of large corporations a la Microsoft. I submit that we have really lowered the bar on what it takes to commit evil, and we should consider that a testament to the virtue of Google management.
Let's keep that in perspective. Slashdot discussions show that we don't even begin to hold our other sacred cow corporations (eg. Apple [slashdot.org]) to these extremely high standards.
Re:That's a problem? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:That's a problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:That's a problem? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ads makes me aggressive. I yell at the insurance salesman on the street, I send angry e-mails to the TV channels when they send ads with louder sound than the regular program and I return everything I get in the mail without putting a stamp on it. And I never ever click on a banner if it happens to sneak by my ad blocking measures.
I know some services are "ad supported" in order to keep the service "free". Well, good, but don't expect me to view the ads. Either charge me or kick me out but as long as a service is offered for free don't blame me for low income due to lack of banner clicking because my ad viewing circuits is already overloaded. Sorry...
Re:That's a problem? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That's a problem? (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's say your local cable company has a great new deal on a cable/tv/phone service combo that is $30 per month lower than what you're paying now. No strings whatsoever, they aren't trying to screw you over, they're just trying to steal market share away from their competitor.
What is the best method of communication for them to alert you to offers like these?