This has been in the works for a while but the service just went live from GoDaddy.com. The service is called “Geo Domain Map” and it allows customers (mainly domainers) to search a geographic location with keyword searches so they can pick up domain names made up of pertinent keywords on a grand scale.

Here’s the new service live: http://geo.godaddy.com/

I’m not sure this is a good idea. During my time at GoDaddy some of us would casually talk about how the internet is full of domain names bought solely for the intent to litter them with keywords and net out a minimum of a few bucks per year off each one. This is how domainers make their money and thus clutter up the internet with pages and pages of duplicate information only to direct web traffic in whichever direction is most profitable. In fact, it was a problem because one of the key practices these domainers would do is register a hundreds if not thousands of names at a time and then setup pages to see if they would monetize traffic. If they did, great, they were kept. If not, the domainers would come back to GoDaddy to return them for credits. This process is called Domain Kiting and being a domain registrar, this is good and bad. On one hand, of course, these domainers pay for a lot of domain names and pay quite a few bills at GoDaddy but on the other hand, they do cause unnecessary digital paperwork when they “return” the dud domains.

Well with the introduction of this location based domain name suggestion tool, GoDaddy has said “ok - if you want to play that game, we’ll give you a tool to do it so we can all make some cash”. The only problem is that - it doesn’t quite work the way you’d think.

For example, from a domainers perspective, if I want a whole slew of domain ames that are lawyer related, then I should be able to search for “law” and come up with a bunch of specific businesses that deal in the industry of “law”, right?

No. That isn’t how it works. If you want to target law firms by doing a search for “law”, you SHOULD find a Burch & Cracchiolo, Bowman and Brooks, etc… but the service won’t find these busineses because these great law firms don’t have the word “law” in their names. What it WILL FIND is locate a bunch of businesses that may or may NOT have anything to do with law and than slap your keyword to the beginning or end of the domain name and add a “.com” to the end. After checking out the first few names on this search for “law” in Phoenix, I don’t think these names will be of any value.

aandftrailerparklaw.com
aristocrattrailerparklaw.com
bel-airetrailerparklaw.com
biltmoregateslaw.com
biltmorevillaslaw.com
bronzebootlaw.com
camelbacktrailerranchlaw.com
chris-towntraveltrailerandmobilehomeparklaw.com
colonybiltmoreivlaw.com
elsereno-larosatrailerinnlaw.com
estrellaestatesfamilyparklaw.com
lawaandftrailerpark.com
lawalhambra.com
lawaristocrattrailerpark.com
lawbel-airetrailerpark.com
lawbiltmoregates.com
lawbiltmorevillas.com
lawbronzeboot.com
lawcamelbacktrailerranch.com
lawchris-towntraveltrailerandmobilehomepark.com
lawcolonybiltmoreiv.com
lawelsereno-larosatrailerinn.com
lawestrellaestatesfamilypark.com
lawmichigantrailerpark.com
lawnewhomemobilepark.com
lawpalmstrailerpark.com
lawpecangrovetrailerpark.com
lawperi-winklemobilehomepark.com
lawsilverbelltrailerpark.com
lawsingingspurmobilepark.com
lawsquawpeakterrace.com
lawtaliverde.com
lawthomastrailercourt.com
lawvillageonthelakes.com
lawwelcomehomemobilepark.com
lawwigwamvillamobilehomepark.com
michigantrailerparklaw.com
newhomemobileparklaw.com
palmstrailerparklaw.com
pecangrovetrailerparklaw.com
peri-winklemobilehomeparklaw.com
silverbelltrailerparklaw.com
singingspurmobileparklaw.com
squawpeakterracelaw.com
taliverdelaw.com
thomastrailercourtlaw.com
villageonthelakeslaw.com
welcomehomemobileparklaw.com
wigwamvillamobilehomeparklaw.com

So then now, not only is GoDaddy contributing to the littering of the internet by suggesting people buy domain names in bulk based on geographic location. It’s contributing in a way that makes REALLY POOR SENSE of what domain names to register.

If I had to choose between having domainers buy names that were relevant vs doing a blind purchase of a crap load of domain names where some tool just mashed together business names with a specific keyword the domainer wanted to target, I’d rather have the domainer do the work and honestly, the domainers should too…

Think about it - once domainers purchase names based off of GoDaddy’s super crazy suggestions of “mobile home parks” and the word “law” in the same domain name, what do you think will happen to the return rate? It’s going to skyrocket tremendously. And what was the problem that Bob raged about in 2006? Starts with a “K” and ends in “iting”…

You can read it here: Bob hates Kiters

But this is ALL OK because everyone associated makes money!

While this may be viewed as rambunctious “digital sprawl”, my impression of domainers and the tools they use or will use like http://geo.godaddy.com has changed. It’s changed because while there really isn’t any limitation to the Internet’s growth the amount of excess digital crap that will get in my way of finding the information I need will fade away through natural selection (read profitability). On the internet, you have MILLIONS of sites and only so many advertising dollars to go around on all the sites. Yes, the dollar amount can grow but the web traffic will really dictate where those dollars are spent and we web surfers only have so much time in a day to browse sites with these advertisements. For the people or businesses who are paying for these sites, it only makes sense to have them up as long as they’re having fun with them or making money. I was thinking about this the other day when I was driving on the freeway and this image came to mind.

In summary, the digital crap will fade away but please, there’s a huge difference between accidentally creating Internet clutter and intentionally creating Internet clutter. That being said, let the domainers have their fun but please, don’t use the geo location based domain registration tool.