poll GOOGLE WANTS TO KILL THE URL!!

[teper]

So i was just going through some tech new and found this one.
Definitely a big one for domaining.

https://www.wired.com/story/google-wants-to-kill-the-url/

What do you think? Will Google or any other company down the line replace the entire concept of URL or Domain Names?

 

[Mister Funsky]

From the article:

"Academics have considered options over the years, but the problem doesn't have an easy answer." This means the net as we know it is here to stay for a while.

 

[golan]

Did read, did not understand. Mind to give us tldr? And how this can possibly affect domain part in url? I guess it's about cutting off the junk that follows the domain...

 

[domains21]

It is true that many people do not use URLs as such these days, they mainly just type the domain into a search engine and then click a result from it. In fact, I've lost count of how many times I have seen people search for Google, get on Google and then click the link for Google from Google, and then do their search.

Removing the URL is dangerous, due to the easy way a site can be cloned. Most people trust the look of the site to tell them that they are on the right place first and foremost, but even this and a look for the little green padlock or 'Secure' text isn't going to mean much if the user has ended up on a phishing site from the results.

And so the URL showing or at least the domain name itself, NEEDS to be there as an immediate identifier that the site you are about to go to, IS indeed, the right one.

 

[HFT]

What I could drive is that the .com would lose it's stronghold in the domain world people would simply type in the name/brand/company, without much regard for the TLDR.

 

[arjun29]

Plz make a summary someone. I read it with half eyes closed and couldn't get it. 10pm here and I am sleepy..

 

[domains21]

What I could drive is that the .com would lose it's stronghold in the domain world

Most people don't care about the extension of the site they are visiting. Just as long as it is legit and that's up to the owners to make sure that message gets out there.

 

[HFT]

Most people don't care about the extension of the site they are visiting. Just as long as it is legit and that's up to the owners to make sure that message gets out there.

I think the resales are mostly more favourable for .com's also any startup's first prefer to get a .com as almost all household names/tech companies have a .com, and most people dream to go big.

 

[john888]

Verisign should cancel word "Google" from the dot com registry. Then lets see how well their business runs without a domain name.

 

[Eric Lyon]

They're looking to emphasize the identity. They want to replace the URL, but that may mean more emphasis on the domain name (the identity) and less focus on the path (/forums/general-domain-discussion.2/) and query strings (?order=reply_count).

If they do pull it off, it will likely increase the importance of domain names.

 

[domvault]

They're looking to emphasize the identity. They want to replace the URL, but that may mean more emphasis on the domain name (the identity) and less focus on the path (/forums/general-domain-discussion.2/) and query strings (?order=reply_count).

If they do pull it off, it will likely increase the importance of domain names.

thanks that's comforting to hear

 

[omelet]

They're looking to emphasize the identity. They want to replace the URL, but that may mean more emphasis on the domain name (the identity) and less focus on the path (/forums/general-domain-discussion.2/) and query strings (?order=reply_count).

If they do pull it off, it will likely increase the importance of domain names.

cannot agree more.

 

[biggie]

so... the domain sky ain't falling, again?



imo….

 

[Venture]

Google makes zero or less revenue (if Adsense is on the website) if someone types in a URL instead of searching. That is either the direct reason for this stance, or it has indirectly been echoing in corridors, emails, seeding the idea that "URLs kinda suck". For me URLs are both technical building blocks, and expressions, of the whole web experience.

Threat / way to increase revenue. You can clearly see this in Chrome right now:

Maybe bookmarks will be next?

 

[E-Thunder]

Not surprised we all voted no

 

[CJ6]

They need to wait until I get some truly kickass domains.

 

[weblord]

which turned out to be good news for us. it alarmed me i just renewed domains on another thread. lol

 

[garptrader]

On my newest Kindle Fire tablet the Google search app does not have a navigation bar and when you search for websites the domain does not appear. Theoretically if you are searching for your bank or registrar of a domain marketplace where you have domains listed for sale the first search result is probably the correct one. But it is still an uneasy feeling to not see that .com at the end of the domain. So I switched to Amazon's Silk browser instead. I get direct navigation back and I see the domain names again.

 

[creataweb]

Yeah no way in hell I'm going to use search to get to my bank online lol. If I can't see the URL that's a problem.

 

[weblord]

i don't use google for websites that i know i have an account on, i usually type it manually on the url bar or pull it on my bookmarks.

 

[urlurl]

since different co's with the same name are using separate extension's, i think this would be impossible.

the extension is almost like an area code to a phone number...

 

[namemarket]

.....If they do pull it off, it will likely increase the importance of domain names.

Strongly disagree, only quality developed sites, with SSL security and good seo work who also rank highly in search index could maintain high name value with most all other domains not meeting that criteria and parked pages or landing pages and small low quality sites would see their domain values drop like a rock if G kills URLs, imo.

 

[namemarket]

...If they do pull it off, it will likely increase the importance of domain names.

It's possible I am wrong in thinking the opposite.

So can you please explain why you say that?

 

[lock]

Poll is wrong as what will happen is the http://www. will be dropped.
Browsers will direct link benefiting gtlds. Domains will stay and type ins will be true type in and worth more.

 

[joro001]

Strongly disagree, only quality developed sites, with SSL security and good seo work who also rank highly in search index could maintain high name value with most all other domains not meeting that criteria and parked pages or landing pages and small low quality sites would see their domain values drop like a rock if G kills URLs, imo.

I've seen your other post on this and the risk of google ditching top bar url search entirely. To me it would be a very extreme option and far from certain they will do that. Even if they did that people would just go to google search, type in xyz.com if they are looking to buy it and then find the domain indexed in the search engine and proceed with negotiations from there. Even domains parked at non secure efty get indexed in the search results. If people want to buy a domain name Google making it more inconvenient to do so won't destroy domain value, people would just have to go through a bit more effort via search navigation.

My other thought is this will mean more sales on trusted marketplaces like Afternic/ Godaddy/ Sedo etc. as those who don't know or can't be bothered for these changes will search on the various domain sites/networks to buy the names they are after. In this most extreme scenario the Afternic's of the world will see their revenue soar IMO. Again this is even if Google really means and does what you suggest they will. It could be they mean tidying up urls more etc. but even in worst case scenario i'm not too worried.