GoDaddy Has a Domain Search Plug-in for FireFox (and You Can Create Your Own)

Tags:  Firefox  Amazon  Google  Mozilla 

Ok, this is OLD news. The folks at Firefox spotted it back in September, and Ivan Tumanov blogged about it a couple of weeks later. GoDaddy has a domain search plug-in for Firefox. Today was the first time I noticed the slide-out that Ivan saw. That's way cool!

(BTW, check out Mozilla Developer Center's instructions on making your own search plug-in.)

Maybe GoDaddy should create a NetVibes module as well? I (along with 5 million other users) almost always have an open browser tab for NetVibe's personalized start page, which I use to keep track of my Netflix queue, shop for Amazon items, look up flight schedules, weather forecasts, movie times - AND whois info.

Going another step farther, GoDaddy could offer its customers a Netvibes-like tool. That's the approach Google's taking, by the way. The Google Apps for Your Domain package includes a shared start page in addition to email and website creator. Edelman PR senior strategist Steve Rubel points out that there are almost 10,000 widgets available for the Google start page (including several domain registration tools), which allow users to perform a WIDE variety of tasks without leaving Google.

Wired editor Chris Anderson writes that the content world is changing. Back during the Web 1.0 days, readers visited publishers' websites. But with the increasing popularity of RSS, media becomes "atomized and microchunked"; readers have on-demand access to whatever information they choose - and nothing more.

The services world is changing, too. In the Web 1.0 world, hosting providers buy ads to drive traffic to their websites, where the only available items are their own products. But with the increasing popularity of widgets, might it make sense to release your offerings into third-party ecosystems - and bring other companies' products and services into your own?

One of the Web hosting industry's longest-standing citizens, Isabel Wang is also a high-tech enthusiast. Through her WHIR blog, she examines the impact emerging Web technologies will have on the Web hosting business, and on the motivations of hosting consumers. Isabel has been in the web hosting ... (Read full bio)

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Comment by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I wonder if there are any statistics on the amount of revenue these plugins actually generate. They are certainly interesting and very inexpensive to develop for registrars and hosting companies.

Comment by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Hi John, I think there's more to these plugins than immediate revenue impact (unfortunately I haven't come across any stats). They also put you first in line should a future need arise. For instance, now that I've installed GoDaddy's Firefox extension, I'm less likely to type in a competitor's URL when I think of a domain name I'd like to register. Besides, as you've pointed out, these things don't cost very much to develop - especially compared with many hosting companies' advertising budgets.

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