Industry News Digest: March 2025
- by webmaster
Table of contents
Welcome to our monthly Industry News Digest. Explore new online trends and domain industry news to stay up-to-date. Here’s a summary for March 2025.
Sedo and InterNetX Publish Global Domain Report 2025
Sedo (the largest domain marketplace) and InterNetX (registrar) have released their annual Global Domain Report 2025, dedicated to the primary and secondary domain name markets. The report includes data from dozens of sources, as well as a survey of industry participants.
The domain industry saw a slowdown in the overall number of domain registrations in 2024.
Significant gTLDs (generic top-level domain) such as .com and .net declined due to market saturation and the growing popularity of new gTLDs, which attract companies and individuals looking for more specific and creative domain options. However, 59% of Sedo’s sales were .com.
At the same time, ccTLDs (country code top-level domain) showed a slight increase, as local and regional companies focused on targeting specific geographic markets. 13% of Sedo’s sales came from Germany’s .de suffix.
According to the report, the median sale price at Sedo was $549.
The number of .ai extension registrations has grown by almost 400% over the past five years, driven by the growing influence of AI (artificial intelligence) as a disruptive technology, and is currently approaching 600,000 domain registrations.
Sedo and InterNetX also place a strong emphasis on domain security in their report. ccTLDs have the highest percentage of domain security measures in place, likely due to stricter national regulations and associated higher monitoring requirements. At the same time, the report notes that security is not yet at the highest level and requires special attention. Some security measures, such as TLS/SSL, are becoming standard practice, while others, such as DNSSEC, require more advocacy and simplification to achieve wider adoption.
Why should you care? Analyzing such reports helps you not only choose the right domain for your website but also predict market changes and reduce risks.
For instance, the growing interest in .ai domain extensions demonstrates the popularity of IT-related domains. If your site has anything to do with IT, you should consider this when choosing a domain name.
Source: Domain Name Wire
Advertisers Now Need to Manually Enable Ads on Parked Domains in Google
Google has made significant changes to its policy regarding advertising on parked domains (registered but not used for their intended purpose domains. Some owners of parked domains place ads on them to generate income) for all of its accounts. Previously, this feature was turned on automatically, but now advertisers will need to manually activate it in their Google accounts.
Before that ads were shown on parked domains by default (unless the advertiser disabled the feature). This brought income to domain registrars, who received a share of clicks on such ads.
Since September 2024, advertising on parked domains has become available for new accounts only after manual activation in the settings.
Now this rule applies to all existing accounts.
Why should you care? Reducing advertising on parked domains will reduce the number of “garbage” clicks, but will also limit the opportunity for parked domain holders to quickly earn money.
Also, according to Andrew Allemann, founder of Domain Name Wire, this could cause an increase in the cost of domain registration by 10-15%. Since advertising on parked domains is one of the sources of income for registrants, among other things. Andrew Allemann notes that few Google account owners will remember to enable the display function on parked domains. This service was connected automatically and was taken for granted for a long time.
Source: Domain Name Wire
Gemini Deep Research Now Available to All Users
Google has announced that Deep Research, its AI research feature, is available for free to all Gemini users, but with a few restrictions. It is available to all users, including non-paying ones, “a few times a month.” However, Gemini Advanced subscribers will continue to have full access to the feature.
Deep Research is an AI research feature that searches and summarizes information.
To make the most of Deep Research, users can now connect Gemini to other Google apps, such as Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and Photos. Google Photos integration is planned for the coming months.
Why should you care? These updates from Google are part of a wider trend in which large tech companies are making AI tools more accessible and useful for everyday tasks.
Microsoft’s Copilot, Perplexity, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT already offer advanced features for data analysis and creative work. Now Google is adding its own contribution with free access to Deep Research.
Gemini’s integration with Google Tasks, Calendar, and future support for Photos complements ecosystem solutions like Apple Intelligence (syncing with Apple devices) and Meta AI (interaction via messengers). At the same time, each platform, with its new features and solutions, strengthens the other, offering users flexibility.
This isn’t a race, but an evolution: together, the platforms are creating a future where technology adapts to people, not the other way around.
Source: Google Blog
Research Reveals the Changes in Ways People Buy from Local Businesses
Bright Local, a British digital marketing platform, released a report analyzing 15 years of consumer review data, revealing shifts in how people research and buy from local businesses.
The study shows an increase in the number of online reviews from 2015 to 2016 when smartphone ownership reached 77% among U.S. adults. This trend peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when 59% of consumers researched local businesses daily.
Consumers now place less importance on traditional review metrics:
- Fewer expect perfect five-star ratings.
- Less care about recent reviews.
- Star ratings don’t inspire confidence and aren’t seen as accurate indicators of business quality. Consumers consider such reviews to be mostly purchased.
Despite their lower importance, consumers still write reviews. In the last five years, almost three-quarters of adults in the US have written an online review.
Google remains the preferred review platform. Research shows changes among other platforms:
- Facebook usage and trust have dropped from 2020 to 2025.
- Yelp remains stable as a trusted review source.
- YouTube (34% of consumers use it), local news sources (48% of consumers use it), and social media are more influential in helping consumers make decisions.
Why should you care? According to the report, despite the challenges of maintaining a constant flow of new reviews, consumers are willing to leave them. The key is to give them a compelling reason to do so (like a memorable experience) and catch them at the right moment. Businesses should no longer aim for five-star ratings but for live communication with users. Such an approach can inspire more trust among potential customers.
To achieve this, you should try to be present on various platforms, not just review sites. Also, you can use your business profile, for instance on Google, to connect with socially conscious consumers.
Source: Search Engine Journal
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