I agree 100% about the sentiments of domain tasting. I am 100% against tasters for 2 reasons.

1) Massive amount of domains are being taken up for no value content
2) Their methods of finding domain names is questionable. Peoples whois searches and domain registration attempts should not be available for someone else to use and profit over.

However I do not believe Google should be held liable for thios behaviour. Granted they could (and should) bring in rules to state that domains under x amount of days old cannot have advertising on them. But what would stop the taster using a different company instead?

I could not possibly disagree more, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I manage several domain portfolios (though tasting isn't involved in any).

I dislike the practice of domain tasting as much as the next guy. But to suggest that somehow Google is responsible for putting a stop to it is a ridiculous position to take. Google does not govern the domain name industry and they are not responsible for protecting the trademarks of the world. If someone else has a typo of your name that is raking in so much traffic that it's actually costing you business, then you can chalk that and the "$2000 per shot" up to your own lack of foresight coupled with the cost of doing business. It's 2007 -- if you're waiting for someone else to cover your rear end for you, and you're going to get burnt.