Google Propping Up Typosquatting Biz?

An anonymous reader writes "Google is making oodles of cash placing ads on a vast sea of otherwise vacant Web sites that do little more than capitalize on misspelled domain name names, according to a story in today's Washington Post. From the story: 'Google Inc., which runs the largest ad network on the Internet, is making millions of dollars a year by filling otherwise unused Web sites with ads. In many instances, these ad-filled pages appear when users mistype an Internet address, such as BistBuy.com. This new form of advertising is turning into a booming business that some say is cluttering the Internet and could be violating trademark rules.'"

Comments

In other news...

[elwin_windleaf]

Typosquatter site BistBuy.com reports record profits and an all-time high hit count.

Hoo sed yoo need ejucashun too mayk munny

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Huh?

I don't blame Google for enabling typosquatting

[Anonymous Coward]

I blame DNS.

We should have stuck with numbers. In hex. Would have kept out all the lamers, nannies, and governments.

Heck we should go back to uucp over dial-up connections.

Are we calling it something else now?

[bluemeep]

Back in the olden days of 2004, we used to call it "cybersquatting." Kids these days and their crazy terminology. And their music.

Re:Are we calling it something else now?

[hackstraw]

Actually, I always thought cybersquatting was more like registering a bunch of potentially valuable domain names and doing nothing with them, until whoever would be rightfully interested in registering a name realizes it's taken and offers money to buy it back. It's a form of racket of course. Typosquatting is rather different.

But that was back in 1999, years before 2004 was ever imagined.

Re:WOw that's confusing

[Ohreally_factor]

Actually I don't see the big deal. This is nothing new.

Just the same, I'm going to register a complaint with the Netter Nusiness Nureau.

Obligatory

[Fruny]

* Typosquatters pay attention: slashdot.eu is not yet taken!

In the European Union, typosquatter slashdot.eu.

I have an even better idea

[selfdiscipline]

I have an even better idea... let the marketplace provide services for location of commercial websites: say maybe, have a list of words ("key words") that the internet browser could type in at a website, and then that website would facilitate finding the desired website, based on a huge database of known websites.