search engines and whois data

March2005 · May 19, 2006

I guess if you run a search engine you could do lots of things, for example give domain names that are registered by Network Solutions for 10 years a higher ranking than a domain name registered by eNom or whatever for 1 year.

This issue has been discussed a tiny bit in this forum months ago, but I am wondering if anyone knows for a fact if this happens. Something to this affect (about the years) was mentioned in a patent that Google has.

Does anyone here think it is worth it to register domain names for 10 years when making a website so as to be seen as serious or whatever by search engines or potential customers who might happen to check the whois data?

DNAholic · May 19, 2006

That's one thing. I also heard that it looks at howmany years the domain is registered for also. Some believe that if the domain is reged say till 2010+ it will benefit you with google.

March2005 · May 20, 2006

Here is some text from Google's patent that was filed on December 31, 2003:

[0099] Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.

[0100] Also, or alternatively, the domain name server (DNS) record for a domain may be monitored to predict whether a domain is legitimate. The DNS record contains details of who registered the domain, administrative and technical addresses, and the addresses of name servers (i.e., servers that resolve the domain name into an IP address). By analyzing this data over time for a domain, illegitimate domains may be identified. For instance, search engine 125 may monitor whether physically correct address information exists over a period of time, whether contact information for the domain changes relatively often, whether there is a relatively high number of changes between different name servers and hosting companies, etc. In one implementation, a list of known-bad contact information, name servers, and/or IP addresses may be identified, stored, and used in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.

[0101] Also, or alternatively, the age, or other information, regarding a name server associated with a domain may be used to predict the legitimacy of the domain. A "good" name server may have a mix of different domains from different registrars and have a history of hosting those domains, while a "bad" name server might host mainly pornography or doorway domains, domains with commercial words (a common indicator of spam), or primarily bulk domains from a single registrar, or might be brand new. The newness of a name server might not automatically be a negative factor in determining the legitimacy of the associated domain, but in combination with other factors, such as ones described herein, it could be.