Bryan Braun has an interesting post about his experience with what he calls a “haunted domain”:
- He buys a domain that seems fine on the surface.
- When he begins using it, he notices some things aren’t right (organic search traffic, for example, is dead).
- After some investigation, he learns the domain was previously used to host pirated music.
- He has to ask himself: now what?
Being able to ascertain the reputation and vitality of a domain is an intriguing problem.
At a societal level, it’s not really a problem we’ve had to wrestle with (yet). Imagine, for example, 200 years from now when somebody is reading a well-researched book whose sources point to all kinds of domains online which at one point were credible sources but now are possibly gambling, porn, or piracy web sites.
If you take the long view, we’re still at the very beginning of the internet’s history where buying a domain has traditionally meant you’re buying “new”.
But what will happen as the lifespan of a domain begins to outpace us humans? You’re going to want to know where your domain has been.
The “condition” of a domain could very well become a million dollar industry with experts. Similar to how we have CARFAX vehicle history reports, domain history reports could become standard fare when purchasing a domain.
In fact, parallels to other real-world purchase verification and buyer protection programs is intriguing.
Car Titles
Establishing legal ownership of a vehicle through titles is something the government participates in. You’ll often hear people advertise a used vehicle as having a “clean title”, meaning it doesn’t have a salvaged or rebuilt title (which indicates a history of damage).
But how the car was used is also important. Was the car part of a fleet, e.g. a rental car? Was it owned by a private third-party its whole life? Did that person drive Uber? So. Many. Questions.
Even where the car has been is important. I remember buying a car in Las Vegas once and the dealer was telling me how people from New England frequently fly into town to buy a car. Why? Because they want a car whose lifespan had been in the dry desert and would thus be free of the effects of harsh winters (rust from snow/salted roads, etc).
Houses
When you buy a house, getting an inspection is pretty standard fare (where I live). Part of the home buying process includes paying an inspector to come in and assess the state of the home — and hopefully find any problems the current owners either don’t know about or are keeping from you.
But the history of the home is often important too. Was it a drug house? Was it a rental? An Airbnb?
Houses have interesting parallels to domains because their lifespans are so much longer than other things like cars (my current house was built in the 1930’s). Homes can go through many owners, some of whom improve it over time while others damage it.
You know those home renovation shows? The nerd version of that would be a “domain renovation” show where people buy old domains, fix them up (get them whitelisted with search engines again, build lots of reputable inbound links, etc.), and then flip them for a good price.
Collector Items (Cards, Books, Toys, etc.)
What I love most about this world is the verbiage around the various grading systems, such as:
- Mint
- Near mint
- Excellent
- Very good
- Good
- Fair
- Poor
- Damaged
Even within “Mint” there are various categorizations such as:
- MIB: Mint In Box
- MOC: Mint On Card (still has the OG tags)
- FM: Factory Mint
Can you imagine something similar for domains?
- MNR: Mint, Never Registered
- MNPT: Mint, No Public Traffic
- MNB: Mint, No Backlinks
Conclusion
Honestly, I don’t really have anything else to say about this, lol. It’s simply fun to think about and write down what comes to mind.
That said, it wouldn’t surprise me if a standardized grading system with institutional verification rises up around the world of domains. URLs are everywhere — from official government records to scrawled on the back a door in a public restroom — and they’ll be embedded in civilization for years to come. (Even more so if domains become the currency of online handles!)
Today usa.gov
is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government. But a few hundred years from now, who knows? Maybe it’ll be an index for pirated music.
Whatever happened to romanempire.gov
?