The practice of using the five-day registration grace period to test the marketability of a domain name was dealt a possible blow this week with news that Google is considering banning newly registered domains from participating in its Domain Names program.

The news was first reported by Jay Westerdal on the DomainTools Blog. According to Westerdal, the policy shift could mean an end to low-quality, SEO-optimized sites that have run rampant online by abusing Google's AdSense program.

"The good news is that the quantity of advertising will be spread among fewer domains now and so those domain owners that actually own real full domains should receive more money if bid prices start to rise as a result of this," Westerdal wrote. "However, some advocates of domain tasting say that perhaps no one will be able to serve the niche for some ads and no one will make money on the unserved ads."

TechCrunch blogger Duncan Riley isn't so sure a policy shift will deliver better publishers to those enrolled in Google's AdSense program.

If Google decides to put a stop to domain tasting, according to Riley, those who practice the craft could simply go elsewhere. However, Google is the largest player in the field, and that might be enough to stop -- or severely hamper -- the practice.

According to figures disclosed in an unrelated court case, one Google AdSense partner that used domain tasting generated $3 million per month after Google subtracted its share of the revenue.