tedster - 6:13 pm on Apr 23, 2006 (gmt 0)

At Boston PubCon last week, I proposed an idea to Matt Cutts that Google create some kind of "certified domain change" service -- so that companies who really must rebrand, or who purchase a more desirable domain name for some other reason, have some recourse with Google other than getting buried in the SERPs and taking a financial hit.

I for one would love to see something like this option. It could, perhaps, be offered through the SiteMaps program. Google could put all kinds of restrictions and proof of ownership into it (they would need to, I'm sure). Just, please, give us a smooth way to transition to a new domain. At any rate, Matt was very receptive and said something like "we do need something like that, I'll pass it on."

What do others think? Does this make sense? Would you use such a program? If it were free? If it were paid?