The Typo Millionaires

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Saturday February 12, 2005 @02:45AM from the slsshdot-and-slashdit dept.

theodp writes "Slate's Paul Boutin reports on the sordid history of the oldest scam on the Internet. For almost as long as the Web has existed, there's been a thriving economy of sites, services, and software vying to grab you as soon as your mistype a URL. Studies estimate that 10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped, adding up to at least 20 million wrong numbers per day, helping to enrich the likes of porn purveyors, ISP's, Paxfire, Microsoft and VeriSign."

30 of 308 comments (clear)

Great by suprchunk · 2005-02-12 02:46 · Score: 1, Funny

Now I am poorer than I originally thought? Damn.
What you need, when you need it by Inda · 2005-02-12 02:48 · Score: 2, Funny

I see no problem. :)
Slashdit
What you need, when you need it

--
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
1. Re:What you need, when you need it by darkov · 2005-02-12 03:01 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I prefer slashot.com. Check out the "related categories". They certainly understand their market.
  
  --
  Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
2. Re:What you need, when you need it by sxtxixtxcxh · 2005-02-12 13:57 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  i found a left-wing paranoia site at "slashdot.org" ...
  
  --
  for a minute there, i lost myself...
10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-12 02:50 · Score: 5, Funny

As are 75% of all hand-entered /. submissions.
1. Re:10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped by darkov · 2005-02-12 03:03 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  As are 100% of /. comments.
  
  --
  Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
2. Re:10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped by nmnilsson · 2005-02-12 11:51 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I assume you mean cmoments?
  ( or you'd have to adjust your percentage? :p )
  
  --
  No sig to see here. Move along.
not new by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-12 02:56 · Score: 5, Funny

I remember the time several years back when I read about people registering misspelled web addresses. So I thought I'd take a look, and tried the first spelling mistake I thought of, www.hotmale.com.

I've been very careful since about what I type.
Re:*cough* by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-12 02:56 · Score: 1, Funny

I suppose you think we type sl or s[ret]l several times a day instead of ls? Nope, not us slashfolk, never, not once!
It's true. by tektek · 2005-02-12 02:58 · Score: 4, Funny

It's hard typing correctly all the time with only one hand free. ;)
Zappos by strider44 · 2005-02-12 03:01 · Score: 4, Funny

Shoe shoppers who mistype www.zappos.com as wwwzappos.com get pictures of women who are wearing shoes but not much else.

Unfortunately, though Slate's servers are well hardened against DOS attacks such as what slashdot inflicts, since every slashdotter who will read that quote will instantly type in wwwzappos.com into his URL bar, the servers of that site will fall under the weight of the 80% of slashdotters who get that URL correct.
Re:An anonymous, underground internet? by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-12 03:04 · Score: 3, Funny

Sure.

While these folk have used the 10.x.x.x range for their tunnels I've been busy setting up gateways in the 192.168.x.x range. Feel free to connect and explore but try and avoid the infamous 127.0.0.1 gateway; there there be nothing but hardcore pr0n.
White House by ectotherm · 2005-02-12 03:04 · Score: 3, Funny

www.whitehouse.gov: Current President's home www.whitehouse.com: Former President Clinton's home ;)

--
"Nature bats last..."
Favorite mis-typed URLs? by chiph · 2005-02-12 03:06 · Score: 3, Funny

Mine is localhost.com

Those guys must be making a killing from people hitting ctrl-enter by mistake.

Chip H.
Re:Not just typos... by darkov · 2005-02-12 03:10 · Score: 4, Funny

Really? I just though it was where you went for teen porn. Do you think I attended a Christian youth group for the singing and praying?

--
Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
Can I get that with extra o's? by Agret · 2005-02-12 03:13 · Score: 2, Funny

Google have prevention for this type of thing on their site by registering multiple domains.

http://www.gooogle.com/
http://www.googlee.com/
http://www.googlle.com/

Word!

--
Have you metaroderated recently?
Re:An anonymous, underground internet? by vally_the_poo · 2005-02-12 03:15 · Score: 4, Funny

George W. Bush was right finally: there are internets !! Woaw, that will change my all life man !
This is actually somewhat scary... by mindaktiviti · 2005-02-12 03:15 · Score: 2, Funny

If you follow http://www.slahsdot.org/ it's almost the same site but there's "wrestling women" as the most popular link. Does that mean slash dotters have this affinity for buff chicks? We need a psychologist in here...
New Poll? by brianber · 2005-02-12 03:16 · Score: 2, Funny

How do you type?
Hunt and peck.
Use proper form but look at the keys
Don't look at the keys
Speech recognitin softwar wurks fur we
I don't have hands you insensitive clod!!
I dictate everthing to CowboyNeal
Right now, I've got a broken arm, so everything is one handed. Normally, though, I look at the keys.
Re: mistyped slashdot url by sploo22 · 2005-02-12 03:16 · Score: 2, Funny

Great... now let's watch it go down in flames.

I have a feeling they should switch to a bigger scale on those graphs. :)

--
Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
Re:20 percent?... by Xeo+024 · 2005-02-12 03:18 · Score: 3, Funny

Wow, 20%, huh?

People really have to stop typing with one hand.
Hotmail vs. Hotmale by iXiXi · 2005-02-12 03:28 · Score: 5, Funny

This isn't a fat finger mistake but a funny story. This lady that I worked with was Internet illiterate. She wanted to set up an e-mail address so she could send junk home that was personal in nature. She had trouble with her ISP e-mail and no one at work wanted to volunteer to intercede and help out. I told here to just go to hotmail.com and set up an account for free. She went to hotmale.com and started screaming !! She thought she would be fired on the spot...I had to get the President, John, to help calm her down...hell she was almost 66 years old. Never saw anything like that I guess. /snicker
Re:A friend of mine.. by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-12 03:33 · Score: 1, Funny

So how well does this do? He makes 6 figures canadian a year on it...
That's like what... 1000 USD/year? Not bad.
Re:Beginner Users by owlstead · 2005-02-12 03:51 · Score: 2, Funny

Yeah, that would explain the link to slsahdot.org in the article below. Those people that type URL's wrong are all lusers. They probably get internet access just to be able to read slsahdot.org, that must be ti. Whoops where I go.
Slutdot.org by Cumstien · 2005-02-12 04:03 · Score: 2, Funny

A lot of times I end up at slutdot.org, but it's not becuase I don't know how to type.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2005-02-12 04:07 · Score: 2, Funny

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Should the title be... by saddino · 2005-02-12 04:21 · Score: 3, Funny

...The Typo Milionaires? ;-)
Re:If you want people to join ... by rbarreira · 2005-02-12 05:37 · Score: 2, Funny

Maybe the idea is that normal people don't join, don't you think?

--

The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Re:I wonder by aduzik · 2005-02-12 05:38 · Score: 4, Funny

JERRY: Well wait a second, don't you see that's 555-FILK. KRAMER: What's Filk? JERRY: Filk's nothing, but 555-FILM is Movie Phone. KRAMER: Oh Movie Phone. JERRY: Yes, so people are just dialing it by mistake and getting you. KRAMER: So, I'm Filk? JERRY: You're Filk. KRAMER: Oh, Mama.

--
If it's not one thing it's your mother.
Re:Google are kings at this by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-12 07:53 · Score: 1, Funny

My favorite is http://cheesemuffin.info

How the fuck that's supposed to equal "Google", I've no clue. But apparently it does!