During the dot.com boom, some entrepreneur registered (or tried to) all the zip codes in America,,, in 1999, domain name registration cost $35 per name. Domain names have once again become a land grab business - Financial Times mentions that even the misspelled domain mortage.com recently sold for $242,000 .

Tipped by Search Engine Land, Marchex (a company I'm not familiar with) announced yesterday the simultaneous launch of 100,000 local websites with generic domain names like:Cuisine.com, BayAreaHotels.com, SanFranciscoVeterinarians.com and some higher end American zip codes, like 90210.com. The company had gone on a $164 million domain name buying spree last year (imagine having the job of purchasing 100,000 domains).

The example websites I perused (listed above) rank local hotels, veterinarians, etc. by aggregating relevant reviews from different sites like Citysearch and Insiderpages. Its current revenue model is nothing more than selling Yahoo sponsored ads.

A Brilliant Ad Network Strategy

The strategy behind the 100,000 sites is what I'll call a massive ad network based on the ubiquitous search engine model. On Monday ("Google Maps + Reviews = Yelp.com killer") , I discussed how Google has positioned GoogleMaps as a review site mashup utilized for rating restaurants and other neighborhood businesses. When a business icon is clicked, Google Maps presents a search engine results page of reviews for the business that links to Yelp and other review sites. I posit that Google Maps (upon which users can also add their own reviews) has become a competitor to Yelp, and is actually in the downstream position as the "map-based search site" for a user looking for, say, a restaurant in their neighborhood. This is a powerful position, it's the first stop and closer to the user... it's the same position Google.com occupies in any search (diagram below)

Marchex's strategy is to position their 100,000 sites to rank highly in Google, Yahoo and other search engines for common search terms like "Bay Area Hotels", "San Francisco Veterinarians". Note that these domain names are generally comprised of a locale (San Francisco) and a category (veterinarians), so the domain name itself is essentially a "search engine optimized" keyword. Google directs the querying user to Marchex's hyperlocal review site for its focus topical theme, which in turn directs the user to actual reviews at Citysearch and other review sites. The eventual hope is users will adopt the Marchex site by contributing their own reviews and generating content, but even if it doesn't build consumer traction, the site will still be a part of the traffic pipeline between consumer and review content (diagram below).

Finally, the potential for mutually linking the sites together and creating a hierarchy of "portal" sites based both on category and locale is intriguing for search engine optimization purposes. Marchex also plans to position their "uber-search engine" Openlist.com as the first search stop to directing traffic to their 100,000 local site ad network.

Real estate listings sites have their "Marchex" counterparts - there are literally thousands of listings sites with names like AdultHomesinyourTown.com and SurfyourTown.com. Note both these sites have the same template because they and 1,000+ more are owned by BetterHomesUSA.com. The sites cover localities across America and the business model is lead generation focused on relocation referrals. BetterHomesUSA doesn't seem to be as sophisticated as Marchex as evidenced by a cryptic post on an abandoned BetterHomesUSA blog that tries to explain their value proposition.