There's
a lot of speculation about the
information that Google has about
domain names. Last year, Google
became a domain name registrar
but they haven't offered domain
registration services in the meantime.
There must be another reason
why Google decided to become
a registrar. What does Google
know about your domain name
and what do they not know?
Why did Google become a
domain registrar?
It seems that Google doesn't
intent to buy or sell domain
names. It's much more likely
that Google wanted to have
greater access to domain information.
As a registrar, Google has
access to the APIs (Application
Programming Interfaces) of
other registrars. While Google
doesn't have access to the
customer records of VeriSign
or other registrars, they
can now easily query their WHOIS records.
What can Google do with
that information?
Google probably wants to
analyze domain names. By regularly
checking the WHOIS information
of a web site, Google can
track the history of a domain
name.
That allows Google to find
relations between different
domains names and changes
in ownership. If a domain
name has a new owner, Google
might reconsider the value
of the domain name in the
ranking algorithm.
Some people buy old domain
names to avoid the Google sandbox effect
and to benefit from existing
links. If Google can detect
the ownership change of a
domain name, it might become
more difficult to benefit
from old domain names.
What can Google not do?
Google cannot access the
customer information of other
registrars. They only have
access to the same information
that you get when you use
a public WHOIS service.
That means that Google cannot
access your data if you use
the domain privacy services
that some registrars offer.
However, this could also lead
to problems.
If you hide too much information
about your domain name, your
domain name could be flagged
in Google's ranking algorithm
and Google's trust in your
domain name might be reduced.
It's difficult to tell what
Google really does with the
domain data. It's probably best
not to try to cheat Google with
domain purchases just for SEO
purposes. Concentrate on your
main web site and optimize the
content of your pages to get
high search engine rankings.
Building a web site with good
content and good inbound
links takes longer than
buying an old domain name. However,
you can be sure that this method
won't trigger any domain spam
filters.
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