-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
not sure how useful this may be, but fyi...
- --j.
- ------- Forwarded Message
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 22:11:13 -0600 From: Marcia Blake
This comes to us fresh from the July GoDaddy.com newsletter (naturally, in a bit trying to sell longer domain registration terms on GuessWhere):
Google recently filed United States Patent Application 20050071741. As part of that application, Google made apparent its efforts to wipe out search engine spam, stating:
"Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith."
Domains registered for longer periods give the indication, true or not, that their owner is legitimate. Google uses a domain's length of registration when indexing and ranking a Web site for inclusion in their organic search results.