The Typo Millionaires

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."

Comments

An anonymous, underground internet?

[caluml]

Interested in joining an anonymous, underground internet?
http://meta.fshell.org/

Re:An anonymous, underground internet?

[Cthefuture]

This is an interesting idea that I have been wondering about for some time. However, when people start saying things like "don't tell anyone how you got in" that does not make me feel comfortable. It's the whole security by obscurity thing.

I mean, if it were truely a great design then why not switch the entire Internet? A good design can handle the load. A good design is still secure (or anonymous) even if everyone used it.

Are there any other "nets inside the Net" out there?

Re:An anonymous, underground internet?

[InfiniteWisdom]

There have always been internets. An internet is simply several LANs connected via IP routers. Somewhere along the line one big huge internet formed that we refer to as the Internet (notice the capitalization). Today other internets are usually referred to as "intranets".

Beginner Users

[Aneurysm]

It's a shame that the people who are probably more likely to mis-type a URL and not notice/tell the difference are probably beginner users of the internet. These people are also perhaps more likely to fall for scams such as downloading trojans etc. I work as an IT trainer teaching older people how to use computers, and many of them are unable to tell the difference between typing something into a search engine, and typing something into an address box. They are definately the people that don't know that mis-typing a URL actually makes much of a difference, and I have seen many of them attempt to install malware, just because the install box has popped up, and they have no idea what to do with it.

Software Makes Wrongs Assumption About Users

[reallocate]

...many of them are unable to tell the difference between typing something into a search engine, and typing something into an address box.

Both boxes look pretty much the same.

What you're highlighting is the imlicit expectation among software designers that users will come to understand the how the Internet works. That is, that users will understand what a URL is, how DNS works, what a search engine is, and ehat happens when you enter a search phrase versus entering a URL.

Those are unwarranted expectations. An analogy would be cars designed on the assumption that drivers understand how internal combustion engines work. Few of us would be able to drive safely if that was a prerequisite.

The most effective way to protect users from crooks and abusers on the net is to design software that does the protecting and is not based on unreasonable assumptions about user knowledge.

If you want people to join ...

[arhar]

... it might not be a good idea to spew venom and arrogance from almost every sentence.

However, if you're happy with things currently, go back to your pap-fed, TV-induced brain-numbing stupor, and smile at the nice pretty pictures, the short snappy soundbites, and cower in fear at the Fox news alerts, and feel free not to engage.

(The instructions are deliberately vague. A sort of aptitude test, if you will.)

After reading crap like that, I can't imagine any normal person joining this ... only the types bearing strong resemblance to Jimmy Fallon's IT guy character from Saturday Night Live ...