Why would any Web company that's amassed a good amount of traffic ever change its Web address? Topix.net, a news aggregator that's jointly owned by publishing giants Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune, is
in the throes of such a transformation after it purchased the rights to the domain Topix.com for $1 million in January. (Note: because "Topix" isn't a trademark, the use of Topix.com by another
company wouldn't be considered cybersquatting.)
The switch could have "disastrous short-term results" -- as in search results. Google, the Web's de facto search engine, is responsible
for 90% of Topix.net's search traffic; search traffic represents about 50% of the news site's visits. Some companies report their site vanishing from search engines after making such a switch. And
it's not for searches for their brand name. Type "Anna Nicole Smith news" into Google last week, and you'd get a result for Topix.net; now Topix.com, you might not see the result at all. Even if the
company's traffic dropped 10%, that's 10% less ad revenue. As company CEO Rich Skrenta says, "it could be a catastrophe for us."
If nothing else, his situation underscores just how
dependent Web companies have become on search engines for traffic, and thus, ad revenue.
Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »