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VeriSign Looks At Earning Money on Domain Typos

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the seemingly-good-ideas dept.

Harald Paulsen writes "In a recent article Computer Business Review uncovers how VeriSign Inc is testing a service that would return a webpage if a user mistypes an URL. Basically all nonexistant domain queries could return an IP address and if the user was trying to access a page with a webbrowser they could get redirected to a search-engine, or worse: a page asking them to buy a domain. This is most certainly breaking the DNS standard and could be compared to cybersquatting (Hey Ford, want to have a banner ad whenever someone mistypes Toyota?). This is interesting in relation to an earlier story about register.com and holding-pages."

10 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Typical Verisign/Network Solutions crap... by LinuxMan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So not only do they spam us, reserve weird rights to our domain names, and cybersquat, but now they are doing this. It is really too bad there is not some kind of ICANN policy against this type of thing... Then again, ICANN is made up of a bunch of organizations like them anyway, so the whole thing is corrupt.

    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

    1. Re:Typical Verisign/Network Solutions crap... by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Want to know a Secret.... The only reason ICANN and Verisign have any control is that people agree to use them as the basis for DNS, anyone who wants to could set up a network of DNS servers with names identical to those that exist on existing DNS servers that point to totally different websites and there would be nothing illegal about that.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  2. Statistics on mistyping of "slashdot " by prakslash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://slsahdot.org

  3. Re:You can't cybersquat.... by dhwebb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The issue is that all unused domains to come to a versign ad basically. What about the other registrars that you could register through. This seems like a mis-use of power.

    --
    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
  4. And people trust Verisign? by Edgewize · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Paxfire's Sullivan said his company's service is set up so that only web traffic returns an IP address. Domain queries for non-web applications such as email or FTP are dropped or return error messages, he said."

    Bullshit. He's lying or clueless, or both. It's not like DNS requests have a flag saying "I'm sending this query for a web page!" My take? They're lying to hide the side-effects of this blatant violation of internet standards from the general public.

  5. This is already done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Tell me how this is different from IE giving you a "Domain not found" page when you mistype a URL, complete with microsoft search engine, suggested related domains, and an offer to buy the nonexistant domain name?

    I've always hated that, especially because it lets MS log every single incorrect URL typed.

  6. Precedent? by DarkBlackFox · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If precedent is already set as per online advertising through a competitor (think Gator, where it was deemed legal to show pop-ups of a competing company when visiting certain sites, or sites with certain keywords), how would something like this hold up, where it is the user's fault for mis-spelling the intended domain?

    If it's legal to pop up competing websites without consent, then surely it's legal to redirect to a competing website when there is indirect consent (e.g. the user types in the erronous address).

    Not that it's a desireable thing, just based on past precedent it seems the direction the legal system is heading.

    I just thank my lucky stars I don't get redirected to some obscure/spyware infested search engine when I misspell slashdot- just a simple page informing me I've misspelled it, with a convenient number of how many others are afflicted with the same travesty.

  7. more IPs, less domains... by illumina+us · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With IPv6 on the verge of being implemented, how will this affect domain names? There will be a plethora of IPs but less and less usable domain names to bind to. Unless of course people want to start using stuff like y4h00.com! or 47t4v15t4.com; registering unused domains for comerical purposes is a detriment to the world wide web, and also, forces developing groups to use awkward domain names.

    --
    -illumina+us "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."
  8. Microsoft could do this already by Krellan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the client side, Microsoft is already collecting every mistyped URL and substituting their own search engine!

    In MSIE, a hostname that is not found will be sent to Microsoft. A page will be auto-generated, containing links to similar hostnames, and the Microsoft MSN search engine.

    Microsoft is already receiving this information. I'm sure that there is a high commercial value in knowing the exact data on which domains are mistyped the most often! I would be surprised if Microsoft doesn't use this information internally, or resell it to the highest bidder.

    Since MSIE is 90% of the installed browser base, I would be very surprised if server-side information on mistyped domains (as Verisign is logging) is very different from client-side information. The client-side information might even be more accurate, due to intermediary DNS servers doing caching of negative results!

    Does anybody know for sure what Microsoft is doing with their large database of mistyped domains?

    --

    Dr. Demento On The 'Net!

  9. Who ordered a sub? by yerricde · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the perspective of a DNS server or client, what's the difference between a subdomain and a domain? Isn't "slashdot.org" a subdomain of "org"?

    These are subdomains: sub 1 sub 2 sub 3

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?