Bad news for free hosting providers.

[JJW]

Google blocks co.cc from search results

I found this interesting that google just full blocked the subdomains and are not letting people use the any more in the search engine. Due to malware violators.

http://www.tekgoblin.com/2011/07/10/...earch-results/

[deeplist]

Good. About damn time. Now all they need to do is block .tk and we'll be set.

[JJW]

Applies to both sections. Domains is this section and the one under free hosting applies to free hosts and having to get paid for domains.

[deeplist]

Same discussion. No point in having two separate threads on it.

[Decker]

Twice for the same thing, DOH!

[wswd]

Yep, completely agree with Deeplist. This is probably the best thing that ever happened to hosting in a long time.

[Seraphim]

Yeah. .co.cc tended to be very unreliable, I had quite a few service outage reports from a client that was using it that ultimately proved to be the fault of .co.cc and not my services.

Now it makes sense why if it was getting exploited for malware.

Not sure how much of a benefit there would be from google dropping all .tk entries. .tk will revoke a name that goes more than a couple months without a site being attached to it.

[deanhills]

Yep, completely agree with Deeplist. This is probably the best thing that ever happened to hosting in a long time.

I'm not so sure about this. One of the reasons why people go for free domains is that they don't have credit cards to purchase domains. Although there are a bunch of not so good fly by nighters among those who have co.cc Websites, there are also people who are serious about their Websites, but just were unable to purchase a domain. I feel sorry for them, and wish that a way could be found to purchase domains that fit the payment systems that are unique to their countries. I know India has problems, and that some resellers are charging huge premiums so that Indian citizens can purchase a domain without a credit card.

I'm also uncomfortable with one search engine having so much power to block a large section of Website building enthusiasts. It just gives me the feeling of Big Brother lurking around. What next?

[deeplist]

One of the reasons why people go for free domains is that they don't have credit cards to purchase domains.

Credit cards are not the only method of payment accepted. I actually have a few people from central Africa that wire money to me via Western Union to have a TLD registered on their behalf. In addition to that, I have several people from around the United States and Canada that will physically mail a money order, cash or check to me so a TLD can be registered on their behalf. Either you're too young, do not have adequate credit, or live in an area where no CC network exists, so they won't issue you one. Either way, I do NOT feel sorry for those with no credit card. There are alternatives and if they choose to not use them and cry about not having a credit card, it's their own fault.

[Decker]

The 'too young' bit does ring true, but if that's the case get parent/guardian to do it on your behalf and take it out of your pocket money or pay them from your job (forever hopeful on that one ) - unless your trying to be the next illegal download king and don't want them to know.

There are loads of option though, I don't have and won't have a CC and I'm nearly *&*(%%+-* years old but I can pay by a number of means that don't require one either, again though it's the 'paying' part that stops a lot (if there's a free one why not use it).

For anyone that wants to be any sort of host pay attention - IT COSTS MONEY!

[deeplist]

I purchased my first .com when I was 14. I went to the post office, purchased a money order and mailed it to an enom reseller. They received it a few days later and the domain was mine. There were also many times when I wanted something online and I was too young to buy it. I would give my mom the cash for the item and then she would allow me to use her credit card to buy the item. There's ways around not having a credit card, so that's not a valid excuse.

[CS Squad]

About the credit card thing, as I know, some countries are charging very high for online purchase using credit card.
I'm not sure whether this is allowed by VISA or MasterCard or not, but I've been heard that some countries banks is charging very high commission for online payments.

Also, I've heard some of my customers told me that there are rules in their country where makes them difficult to apply for a credit card or even debit card, so they have to pay a large amount of "commission" to those people who have credit card to make online payments for them.

But honestly, .co.cc really have too much phishing sites and malware sites.
A lot of those so called banks emails to phish victims, are actually hosted on a website that is using .co.cc.
Until now, there are still a lot people thinks that .co.cc are a domain extension like .co.uk or .co.jp, then get cheated to give away their banks credential to those phishing sites.

[deanhills]

Credit cards are not the only method of payment accepted. I actually have a few people from central Africa that wire money to me via Western Union to have a TLD registered on their behalf. In addition to that, I have several people from around the United States and Canada that will physically mail a money order, cash or check to me so a TLD can be registered on their behalf. Either you're too young, do not have adequate credit, or live in an area where no CC network exists, so they won't issue you one. Either way, I do NOT feel sorry for those with no credit card. There are alternatives and if they choose to not use them and cry about not having a credit card, it's their own fault.

I won't touch a .cc myself, but not everyone who has a Website uses a paid host and as far as I know only a paid host will help with purchasing a domain at a reasonable price. I also think it is unfair that the rest of the world has to use a payment system that works mostly for North America. Granted, there are plenty of resellers available in countries outside of North America that follow the rule of the land, but it usually comes at a premium. The same thing applies to software, just a few times worse. I'm living in the UAE and I can't just go to the Adobe Website and buy Dreamweaver online unless I have a credit card from the US, Canada, UK, Italy, etc. I have to go to a shop in Dubai and pay almost double the price because they are aware that it is the only way I can get hold of the software. And then guess what happens next, people are pirating software as they can't get hold of software even when they have a local credit card. Fortunately domains are still OK.


But yes, I have to agree, perhaps having it too easily available can be a big problem too, which far outweighs the "sad story" of someone having difficulties to get hold of a domain. I'd go as far as saying that maybe they should not allow free domains to be included in any of the search engines period. People can still have their free domains, but they won't show up in search engine results.

[ExpertWebHost]

Generally, google acts on the bases of user feedback and statistics they have. It seems Co.cc seems to have too many problems like malware, spam and others .

[worlditsme]

That much is certainly true, if only they would drop some of the other problematic ones.