I just got introduced to a new web offering that has real potential. It's called RootOrange, and it allows you to split a domain name geographically.
Split a domain geographically? Huh? What? Yup, a single domain name can now be used (or better yet, sold) to multiple companies that operate in different regions using some intriguing new technology.
The business model of RootOrange is simple: they procure short, common, easy-to-remember domain names for different industries, then "sub-lease" them to regional companies that want the benefit of the convenient domain names. It's a simple, clever concept, and it gets me thinking about geolocation and targeting technology.
Apply the RootOrange concept to your home page: could you timeshare this valuable real estate so that different visitors saw different advertising based on their geography? This could be very powerful in some markets.
Could you as a publisher create some domains of your own and resell them to smaller advertisers with limited site traffic? I think so. And you could also supply some content to give these domains an SEO bump as well? I don't claim to know all the technical ins and outs, but I suspect you could.
Could you regionalize your own domain, creating versions for different geographic regions where the advertising and content were all both adapted to the geography? Why, yes you could.
Push the concept further. Could your search results page vary based on the geography of your visitor to push local listings closer to the top? If it makes business sense, the technology appears to be there.
Let's go into orbit now: could you present your database search results based on not just geography but say the job function of the visitor - a CFO would see different results from a sales manager? Well, I think about services like Bizo that target ads exactly that way. This concept may or may not interest them, but again the technology and the data exist.
There is lots of fresh thinking that can sprout from this root.