Google’s Recent Domain Registrations: Labs, Screenwise & AdWords

Google has been busy registering several domain names in recent days that could be signs of things to come. A couple seem to relate to some kind of lab-related project(s), some are AdWords-related and others are related to the Google Screenwise program that I wrote about earlier this week.

Here’s a look at at least some of Google’s recent domain registrations:

Lab Domains

These two domains were registered on February 6th:

GoogleWebLab.com
ChromeWebLab.com

Neither resolves to an active web page as of this moment. Last summer, Google announced the closure of Google Labs, the experimental area where many popular Google products were born. The old GoogleLabs.com domain is now doing a 301 redirect to Google.com.

Is Google planning to revive Labs? We asked on Friday, but a Google spokesperson was noncommittal about future plans for these domains:

We don’t comment on specific trademarks or domains, but like most web companies, from time to time Google secures trademarks or domains that are relevant to both current and future products.

Screenwise Domains

On February 8th, Google registered four domains related to the new Screenwise program:

screenwisedirect.com
screenwisefuture.com
screenwiseinternettrends.com
screenwisemedia.com

These domains are in addition to the currently active screenwisepanel.com domain, which appears to be where selected participants register for Google’s data gathering program. If I had to hazard a guess, the new domains above seem to hint that Google’s very serious about becoming a consumer data gatherer and source. None of the four domains are currently active.

AdWords Domains

Google registered these eight domains on January 26th:

adwordscommunity.com
adwords-community.com
adwordscommunities.com
adwords-communities.com
communitiesadwords.com
communities-adwords.com
communityadwords.com
community-adwords.com

They seem to suggest some kind of hub or forum for AdWords users. Or perhaps they’re for something educational, like the HowToGoMo project that launched in the fall to help marketers and website owners learn to develop and optimize for mobile browsing.

Or maybe Google is just claiming more online real estate and the domains will never be used. After all, the company’s standard registration email address is associated with about 10,000 domains.

(tip on some domains via Fusible.com)