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The Typo Millionaires

Posted by ryuzaki0 on 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."

5 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. 10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As are 75% of all hand-entered /. submissions.

  2. not new by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  3. slashdot by digitalchinky · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I recall once typing in slashdot.org, (incorrectly) and ended up at a site displaying nice frequency/time graphs of how often that occured. (A lot)

    I wish I could remember what it was - I think salshdot.org - (now just a black page with an automatic redirect)

    One of those milk through the nose moments.

  4. Re: mistyped slashdot url by nikmal · · Score: 5, Informative

    slsahdot.org

  5. Hotmail vs. Hotmale by iXiXi · · 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