Google results - How useless are they?

[Jonathan]

I'm not writing this to pick on or single anyone out. Don't take this personally if it's something that you do. It's just something that I've seen a lot of, and I find it annoying. Feel free to argue to the contrary...

I'm amazed by the number of people who try to show the quality of their domain names by showing us the Google results with the terms unquoted. How useless is that? I mean, there are sites with giant wordlists. If the two words are anywhere on the same page (they could be the first and last word of a giant document, Google shows them. What did you prove by doing that?

I understand if it's done on eBay, because there are plenty of suckers here. But I think the crowd here is a little better than that.


And for those who disagree with me, here are some unregistered domain names you might want to register (I expect np$ if you do).

whatthey.com - 722,000,000 results for What They in Google
whathey.com - 28,200,000 results for What Hey in Google
whatyeah.com - 18,700,000 results for What Yeah in Google
potatoboxer.com - 107,000 results for Potato Boxer in Google


Google results CAN be useful, to show that a certain term exists or is used.

For example, at one time I had sockbabies.com in my possession. I'd never heard of sock babies before. But I used Google to find out about it. That doesn't mean that I told people there were 241,000 results when I searched for sock babies in Google. But I could have directed them to Google if they'd asked me if there was such a thing as sock babies.

 

[slaughterbeck]

Almost completely useless unless it’s a phrase and you use the quotes, unless it’s a single word.

P.S. What's so unusual about Potato Boxer returning a number of results? Geeeeesh I’m I the only one who owns one of those?

 

[equity78]

Agree only if it is quoted does it carry some weight.

 

[Jonathan]

P.S. What's so unusual about Potato Boxer returning a number of results? Geeeeesh I’m I the only one who owns one of those?

Yes.

But seriously, it's just an example. There are 33 results in Google for "potato boxer". That would be a worthless domain name.

Obviously these only apply when trying to show the value or nonvalue of a domain name. It's different if somebody wanted to register potatoboxer.com and do something with it. That's fine, but don't pretend potato boxer is a really popular term.

 

[barefoottech]

Yes Reg whatthey.com
Using What they as search term is Useless unless they are Keywords in Content
but Reg What-they.com and it will be found by SE's with What they
Yet everyone says no hyphens

 

[Keynes]

Even in quotes the results don't always tell us much. I think a good use, however, is to look at how quickly a newer concept or word is spreading in use/popularity.

 

[ThreeD]

if you have two single dictionary words in a domain name like goodfood.com it can still be a goldmine if you develop the domain name. I mean the key thing here is that the two words together make sense. The google search return does however does not reflect the domains popularity or value.

 

[tolkein]

Barefoottech: I realize that things are opposite for the Germans - they like to have hyphens in their domains. Just do a search on Google.de and you'll see.

 

[worldstar]

IF aaabbb have huge results in google searth then aaabbb is a good name!
IF aaa bbb have huge results in google searth then aaabbb often is not a good name!
IF aaabbb have huge results in OVT keyword searth then aaabbb is a good name!
IF aaa bbb have huge results in OVT keyword searth then aaabbb is a good name also I think!

 

[CrazyTech]

I'd be one of those people and I do so for the following reason.

Generally when I post Google results it's because I know that it's a popular topic, field, etc. For instance, I own the domain mobilevideo.us. When you type in mobile video you see ~56 million results. Every listing that comes up in the first page includes the phrase mobile video - 1 or 2 on the 2nd page don't and the same for the 3rd page. I do this because this is a phrase that's used. I use the Google returns to show a degree of popularity for something - not necessarily to value the name or anything. It's common sense that if there are lots of results for something then it's probably more popular.

For instance:

Mobile Video (~53 million)

Potato Boxer (106,000)

If it's two popular but random words then I'm not going to post Google results.

 

[tolkein]

Here's a question: "free mp3" and "download mp3" have very high OVT and lots of results in Google. Why then does freemp3.com, downloadmp3.com & mp3download.com only show parked pages?

 

[Jonathan]

Here's a question: "free mp3" and "download mp3" have very high OVT and lots of results in Google. Why then does freemp3.com, downloadmp3.com & mp3download.com only show parked pages?

Because it makes lots of money from clickthroughs?

I'd be one of those people and I do so for the following reason.

Generally when I post Google results it's because I know that it's a popular topic, field, etc. For instance, I own the domain mobilevideo.us. When you type in mobile video you see ~56 million results. Every listing that comes up in the first page includes the phrase mobile video - 1 or 2 on the 2nd page don't and the same for the 3rd page. I do this because this is a phrase that's used. I use the Google returns to show a degree of popularity for something - not necessarily to value the name or anything. It's common sense that if there are lots of results for something then it's probably more popular.

For instance:

Mobile Video (~53 million)

Potato Boxer (106,000)

If it's two popular but random words then I'm not going to post Google results.

See I'd only value "mobile video". There is a lot that shows up up for mobile video in quotes, but not as much as unquoted. In my opinion, unquoted words are completely worthless. I mean, the results for digital television don't matter unless you have the quotes. Without the quotes, maybe the digital was the first post on a page and the word television was in the last post of the same page, making the result completely irrelevant.