DomainTools published an interesting blog post identifying the various domains Google has registered over the last six years. After a careful read and a less careful analysis I determined it could be possible to predict Google’s future by:

1. Monitoring Google’s domain registrations on a “whois” service such as DomainTools.
2. Playing around with SearchMash a few times a month, noting any experience adjustments, and assessing their economic impacts.

The majority of the above domains are dormant, but note how DomainTools is capable of revealing Google’s plans. Google Checkout, Wi-Fi, Scholar, etc. were all predicated with fairly obvious domain purchases.

So what’s next for Google? I think it’s clear they are going right after Chipotle with BayAreaBurritos.com. You could argue Mexican cuisine is not a core competency of Google, but somewhere in those data farms lies the ultimate salsa verde recipe.

It’s also interesting to see Google get into the link farming business with Guxiang.com. I heard the misspelling of GuxiangCom.com is expected to push Google earnings up by $0.02/share…. Very impressive.

Last, is SearchMash.com which is a real domain with real traffic. If you are not familiar with SearchMash, it’s the sandbox that Google releases experiments in. The site has only been available to the public since October ’06, but quickly attracted 191K U.S. visitors by December ‘06.

Traffic has fallen off by 36% over the last two months, but the site features a handful of cool widgets that clues you into what might be coming next from Google.

Will it be burritos? Or will it be comparative analytical tools via Bench-Index.com? I’m willing to bet the former.

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