Google's Domain Name Land Grab: Consumer Convenience Or Coercive Control Point?

Internet naming decisions are the sort of Internet plumbing inside baseball that only interests policy wonks and marketing mavens. That is until an 800 pound gorilla like Google decides to pay $25 million for a single generic top-level domain name (gTLD). Buying ".app" for almost four-times the previous record for a gTLD not only raised eyebrows, but questions about the strategy behind Google's expansive and expensive domain name land grab. Although the most costly, .app is merely one of over 100 gTLDs, Google had already spent nearly $20 million applying for. Indeed, the company states that it has actually lost 29 out of 35 auctions in which it has participated. Early speculation of Google's motives were quite benign: the company was just making a logical expansion into the domain registrar business, challenging the likes of GoDaddy and Network Solutions. Yet investing such tidy sums on generic name applications and auctions implies there may be more to the strategy. Also, some of Google's registrations are closed, meaning they will be used only by Google sites. That makes sense for names like .google or .nexus, but things get intriguing when considering some of the generic names Google has locked up.

Google's stated plans for gTLDs include monetization through registration fees and incremental ad revenue. For example, its application for the .lol domain reads:

The proposed gTLD, .lol will provide a new online structure for the aggregation of comedic content and provides an alternate distribution channel for Internet users posting such content. Charleston Road Registry [Google's legal shell for domain registrations] also anticipates the .lol gTLD will help grow the volume of professional and user-generated comedic content on the Internet, thereby increasing competition among all registrants to create more relevant and unique content.  Charleston Road Registry further anticipates the .lol gTLD may contribute to an increase in online advertising given the specific nature of the domain.

Several of Google's generic domain applications appear to be designed as YouTube channels or product marketplaces. Indeed, a gTLD makes a convenient, universal portal for online video and shopping sites.

Yet there was plenty of backlash to companies like Google locking up generic terms long before the record-setting .app purchase. Over three years ago, (now former) Senator Jay Rockefeller alerted the Internet's name and numbering coordinator, ICANN of the potential costs of cybersquatting by opening up so many generic names, asking them to reconsider their plans, while a consumer group warned of threats to the "free and open Internet that consumers rely upon." These threats were recently articulated by one software developer outraged over Google's sequestration of the .dev domain in which he labeled "Google, "Our Patron Saint of the Closed Web."

Domains as filtering mechanisms

Google hasn't detailed plans for the .app domain, however its ICANN application makes clear that the company will use domain registrations as a form of curation and ad revenue. For example, the .app application states [emphasis added]:

This specialized domain name space provides a mechanism by which application developers can easily link and manage their applications and related services. This specialization makes it clear to Internet users that this is the authoritative and designated space where they can find  applications and information about developers accessible via differentiated and streamlined web addresses.

When Internet users visit a website in the proposed gTLD environment, they will be able to reliably expect content relevant to the proposed gTLD.

The proposed gTLD will provide a more trusted and user-friendly environment where domain names and content related to the .app  gTLD can flourish.

The .app gTLD provides application developers with the opportunity to differentiate their online content by linking all of their application offerings to a unique umbrella.

The .app registration also includes the online advertising boilerplate cited above.

The domain name system could evolve into a virtual App Store, however Google states it the .app gTLD does not affect plans for its existing Play Store. However one could see the user convenience of a .app domain name morphing into a virtual requirement for software publishers by training users that other sites aren't legitimate or trustworthy, i.e. the only assurance of 'authorized', high-quality apps, with Google's imprimatur, is from the .app domain. Developer emptor.

Let's be clear, Google's stated plans for gTLDs remain benign and a company spokesman reiterates it has no malicious intent and is subject to ICANN oversight, however let's examine how gTLD curation might evolve into coercion. Since apps on the authorized domain are authoritative and trustworthy, why not go the Apple route and lock down Android devices by making it practically impossible for normal users to install apps from anywhere else? Indeed, since Google controls the search results for two-thirds of the desktops and effectively all Android devices, it could be virtually impossible to even find apps not on the authorized domain.

An overreach perhaps? Then consider Google's recent announcement to improve the "trustworthiness" of search results. Like so many things tech companies do in the name of convenience and security, this sounds great on the surface. Google just wants to rank pages based on their factual content, not SEO metadata. But as noted skeptic Steven Novella points out:

I do acknowledge that while this approach is valid and will likely be useful, it does concentrate a great deal of power in the hands of very few people. Whoever builds the databases will have a level of power tantamount to determining what is truth.

This, of course, is an inherent issue with the internet itself – any gatekeeper that rises to a significant degree of dominance will have incredible power over the flow of information.

And it's a short step from skepticism to cynicism, as expressed on alternative news site GlobalResearch:

Presumably, the meters of truthfulness and trustworthiness ultimately implemented by Google will stem from government accounts and it’s mouthpiece mainstream media reports. The rise of the alternative media has directly correlated with the routine exposure of misinformation, propaganda, and outright lies emanating from these institutions.

Again, a Google spokesman emphatically states it has no plans nor intentions of filtering search results or locking down app installations based on gTLDs and that Google's domain and search activities are completely separate and independent. But as the company surely knows in light of the Right to be Forgotten cases in Europe, it's incredible power over users' most basic Internet experience via search results means people hold it to the highest standards and are on the lookout for the slightest hint of abuse.

What's this have to do with domains?

Google is already a virtual gatekeeper to the Internet for people that begin and end their online explorations with its search bar, but should it be successful in migrating 'legitimate' content to 'trusted' top-level domains that it controls like .app or others it has applied for, it could effectively render large swaths of the Internet invisible or at least suspect to most users: the seedy dark corners of the Internet where you never know what you might find. Impossible? Just try using Chrome to access a secure site (HTTPS) where Google doesn't trust the certificate.

Google's CIO hints at the possibilities of this automatically mediated future in a letter to ICANN arguing for closed gTLDs:

Our application for the .blog TLD describes a new way of automatically linking new second­-level domains to blogs on our Blogger platform — this approach eliminates the need for any technical configuration on the part of the user and thus makes the domain name more user friendly … The ability to associate a TLD to a specific service creates opportunities for technical innovation and simplification.

The letter goes on to make clear that Google stands ready to educate users of the value of new generic domains [emphasis added]:

In order to overcome users’ propensity to use .com domains, a new gTLD operator will need to make significant investments to raise awareness of the TLD and make the case to users to change their behavior. If these TLDs are successful, it will not be due to the inherent value of a generic term, but rather because users are persuaded to make use of these domains.

Let me be reiterate that nothing Google has done or said describes its use of gTLDs for anything but the most beneficial or benign purposes. Indeed, a Google spokesman followed up to make that point at great length. However, marrying control over such vast expanses of the Internet's basic address space, its ZIP codes if you will, with Google's dominance of the search and online ad market, creates opportunities for information control. Internet users, policy makers and regulators should ensure the Google holds to its "Don't be evil" motto. Trust, but verify.

Corrections: March 5, 2015

Following a conversation with a Google spokesman, passages throughout the column have been updated to clarify the company's official positions and policies.  

An earlier version of this column stated Google has acquired hundreds of gTLDs, the $20 million figure is actually an estimate of the total application fees, at $185,000 each, for which gTLDs Google has applied. 

An earlier version of this column stated that many gTLDs Google has been awarded are closed, a Google spokesman says that only a few, like .dev, are closed.

An earlier version of this column didn't specify Google's success rate at gTLD auctions.

An earlier version of this article implied Google could filter search results or lock down app installations based on gTLD. A company spokesman emphatically states it has no plans nor intentions of doing so and that Google's domain and search activities are completely separate and independent.