ICM Registry launches .XXX search engine
When ICM Registry was promoting the idea of the .xxx top level domain extension one of the perks that was heralded to potential buyers was the implementation of a search engine specifically for .xxx domains. That day has arrived with the launch of the .XXX search engine.
Originally scheduled to launch on September 28, press releases had been sent out to the mainstream media prior to the 28th and the media could not risk being scooped, so many of them announced the launch ahead of time. This resulted in ICM releasing the search engine a little early so they could take advantage of the additional traffic they, and the .xxx domain owners, might receive.
Unlike other “porn specific” search engines that have been attempted in the past, the .XXX search engine will only crawl domains with the .xxx extension. According to the Search.XXX Policies and Principles page, the search engine will crawl developed .XXX websites that contain adult entertainment content only. If the domain is parked, it will not be crawled. While it does not crawl dotcoms, they do give instructions on how to forward your .xxx site to your .com using your DNS “A” record so you can still take advantage of their traffic.
While I am not really in the habit of surfing porn, or searching Google for porn specific keywords, I did take a look at the site so I could provide my observations. The only reason I mention Google is because ICM partnered with Google and is apparently using their algorithm. One might see a .xxx Adwords and Adsense in the future.
The first thing I noticed was that they let you change the background color from light to dark. After re-gaining my composure I noticed that they offer 19 different languages. Since “blonde” was already on my radar I decide to try using that search phrase in different languages. Now, you have to understand that I have no idea what some of the languages offered were, most often, the Asian options. I checked out a couple of the links and they came out in what seemed to be the proper language, but I could not help but notice but 日本語 sent me to a twink site; I guess they were blonde twinks. For the record, they also offer an option for orientation, straight porn, gay porn, or all of the above.
Once you get inside where the results are you will notice that on the left hand side there is a “Quick Search” list on the left with 49 options. I can’t comment as to how they picked which niches to list and which not to, but what did stand out to me was the use of the quick search link for “blonde.” I had noticed that they used the plural for brunettes and singular for blonde. I did a search using the singular and plural for blonde on Google and there was a difference of about a billion (literally); on the .xxx engine, it was exactly the same, 26,300. I did notice that if I searched for blond (sans the “e”), I lost 200 results. I saw someone ask for SEO tips on GFY; that is going to be a good question. I don’t know all the tubes, but I saw some obvious ones when I was playing around; so I am guessing backlinks help. I have also seen results that did not seem obvious at all. It appears that keyword stuffing might help since lesbiansexvideos.xxx ranks for blowjobs.
I guess the most surprising thing for me was how few results are turning up. The competition seems very light, so if you invested in a .xxx domain and traffic begins to flow in, it should be pretty easy to rank well. I don’t recall seeing a search that gave me more than 30,000 results. The question is will traffic be coming?
There is a thread on GFY in which one webmaster is kind enough to share his stats, so if you want to see what kind of numbers he is pulling in and the countries they are coming from, you can follow the link. There are some interesting numbers, but I do not want to copy them without permission.
It will be interesting to see if more traffic continues after the media blitz is completed or if ICM continues to advertise like they did with their television commercials a few months back. Bing and Internet Explorer are doing it, so who knows? Only time will tell.
