October 1st, 2006
New domains hint at search mashups
When Google registers domain names, we should listen. Rarely do they point these domains anywhere, but they often foreshadow new products or services. For example, if Google registers google-widgets.com, often we can expect to see a service like widgets.google.com coming soon.
Mashups are the subject of a flurry of domain registration activity from Google recently — as Gary Price notes, it's not about maps, but search. Here is a list of the newly registered domains:
mash-search.com/net/orgmash-serch.com/net/org
mashsearch.com/net/org
mashserch.com/net/org
mashup-search.com/net/org
mashups-search.com/net/org
mashupsearch.com*/net/org
mashupssearch.com/net/org
search-mash.com/net/org
search-mashes.com/net/org
search-mashup.com/net/org
search-mashups.com/net/org
searchmash.com/net/org
searchmashes.com/net/org
searchmashup.com**/net/org
searchmashups.com/net/org
serch-mashup.com/net/org
serch-mash.com/net/org
serchmash.com/net/org
serchmashup.com/net/org
wwwsearchmash.com/net/org
wwwsearchmashup.com/net/org
They have covered almost every combination of "search" and "mashup" possible, so now it's time to make a few predictions. Google has been pushing the Google AJAX Search API pretty hard recently — giving us some mashups of their own, and calling out for samples that other people have made.
I am thinking these domains are probably a sign they are working on a directory of mashups. Gary also guesses that the domains could refer to a something like Rollyo — similar to what I guessed "IndexBench" could mean last week. What do you think?
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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