Program introduced in 2008 will be phased out.

Google is ending its Adsense for Domains program that allowed users of its online Adsense program to park their domain names.

The company recommends that customers migrate their parked domain names to a domain name parking company. A message sent to effected publishers this morning includes a link to a migration guide, although that link does not appear functional at this time. [Update: the link now works.]

Here’s how the program will wind down:

March 21: You’ll no longer be able to create new Hosted domains
April 18: Hosted domains will become inactive and it’ll no longer be possible to earn from them
June 27: Hosted domains will no longer be available in AdSense accounts

Google launched the self-serve program in 2008, much to the chagrin of Google’s domain parking feed partners.

Initial fears by these partners were unfounded, as the self-service solution never had the muscle to compete with the third party solutions. Its optimization was basic and parking domains with it at first required changing A records and CNAME records rather than simply changing nameservers. It also had limited templates, although it later added more.

[The original headline for this article referred to "Direct Adsense for Domains" program. The "Direct" terminology is actually part of the program that remains, so I have changed the title to reflect Google's term "hosted".]

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Google Kills URL Forwarding as Yahoo Caps Some Non-.Com Domains
2. Google Adsense For Domains Now Makes Parking Easier
3. Google Adsense for Domains Expands Use of Keyword Hints

Sedo changes TOS to reflect changes.

Sedo sent a notice to customers today about changes to its terms of service. Although I haven’t read the entire revised TOS, the company highlights three key changes:

1. Buyers have the ability to submit offers on fixed price listings below the “buy now” price. This could be good, but it’s all about the execution. If it’s clear to buyers that they can offer something less than the asking price then it could defeat the purpose of “buy now” listings.

2. Sedo parking now has zero click (transfer visitors directly to an advertiser without a clicks). Customers are automatically opted in.

3. Changes to the standard sales contract.

The new terms of service go into effect March 16.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Sedo to Release Domain MLS in 2010
2. Sedo Adds Three ccTLDs to Instant-Transfer Program
3. Sedo hit by DDoS Attack, Adds New Listing Feature

HostExploit applauds Oversee.net for fixing problems that landed it at top spot at recent “Bad Hosts” list.

HostExploit, a group that compiles a list of what it calls “Bad Hosts”, no longer lists Oversee.net as the #1 bad host.

In its fourth quarter report, the group says Oversee.net is now ranked as the #12 bad host.

Why? It’s kind of hard to tell. Last quarter I reached out to both Oversee.net and HostExploit about the ranking. I heard back from neither so I guess I’m on my own to interpret the results.

But HostExploit applauds Oversee.net in its latest report, stating:

For a responsible host, the shock of finding they are ranked unusually high, or even worse in the #1 position, can be enough to prompt immediate remedial action.

Take, for example, the Q3 2011 #1 overall Bad Host (#1 for both Badware and Infected sites) AS33626 Oversee.net. This customer oriented reseller swiftly investigated the causes behind its undesired status. The introduction of a clean-up program and new procedures promptly reversed the trend. (More on this in a future case study.)

The clean-up for Oversee.net progresses with an added confidence that their high ranking will drop further and take them off the #1 spot for badware.

Indeed, Oversee.net is still ranked #1 for badware. But the report notes that it continues to work on negating false positives for badware on parked domains. (Oversee.net is parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor.)

Sedo is also on the overall “bad” list at #39. Google is ranked #43.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

Related posts:

1. HostExploit Names Oversee.net #1 Bad Host
2. HostExploit Exploits Demand Media’s IPO Filing
3. Case Study: Parked Domains Outperform Search Ads