Only a few days after BPHG Media launched the project for its one-word generic domain Prices.com, another company is planning to bring its domain to the next level. Time Inc. is going to relaunch its Health.com portal on Monday. The site was not much more than a so-called brochure site before, which means that it was barely more than the online destination of a Time Inc. health magazine and it did not feature enough original online content or web 2.0 features to compete with other popular websites in the lucrative health sector.

The new website will feature new content by Healthwise, wellness content by Health magazine, food content, as well as a health and disease database where users can make searches for symptoms, technical terms, drug names. Moreover, Time Inc. is going to turn Health.com into a web 2.0 site by introducing community features such as forums, blogs and other areas where users can generate content themselves.

The biggest competitor of Health.com is WebMD, a site that is already well-established and popular among web surfers. Although Health.com clearly has the better domain name which Time Inc. could use to jump-start the project, WebMD is still far more popular than Health.com. It would now be wise to use the domain name’s generic nature to rebrand the site as an authority for reliable and high-quality health information on the Internet. It’s also the perfect domain to use in advertisements and promotions both online and offline. Time Warner could, for example, feature the site in its own publications and media services.

The re-development of Health.com is a good example of two different aspects. Firstly, we see more and more generic domains being developed into first-class online destinations and online businesses. This is a trend that I hope will continue to intensify, as it will increase the value of generic domain names and it will help the domain industry to get away from the get-rich-quick-image it still has. Secondly, Health.com shows that traditional media companies have to re-think as advertising dollars migrate to the Internet. Health magazine, for example, saw a 4.9% decrease in ad pages in the first quarter of 2008, according to Advertising Age and the Publishers Information Bureau. Now the magazine tries to get those advertisers back as well as acquire new advertising clients by selling them ads on their new website. It’s the same reason why CBS Corp. is now going to acquire CNet Networks Inc. for $1.8 billion.

Lots of money is to be made on the web, and an increasing amount of corporations realizes that now is the time to react. Very soon it might be too late.