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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.'"
Typosquatter site BistBuy.com reports record profits and an all-time high hit count.
Huh?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
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.
Back in the olden days of 2004, we used to call it "cybersquatting." Kids these days and their crazy terminology. And their music.
I imagine very few businesses can legitimately claim that the ads on bistbuy.com would confuse anyone looking for bestbuy.com.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
It's actually quite easy. It should be based on content. If all you see is a list of search categories and lots of ads, it's typo-squatting. If you see original articles and compelling content, it's legit.
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.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
This link should have been in the article: http://www.google.com/domainpark/
The Post claims, "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.'"
.com and .net domains can now be registered
I also couldn't open bistbuy.com --
Here's what searching whois for bistbuy.com gave me
Whois Server Version 1.3
Domain names in the
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net/
for detailed information.
Domain Name: BISTBUY.COM
Registrar: DOMAINDOORMAN, LLC
Whois Server: whois.domaindoorman.com
Referral URL: http://www.domaindoorman.com/
Name Server: NS1.12GF6.COM
Name Server: NS2.12GF6.COM
Name Server: NS3.12GF6.COM
Status: REDEMPTIONPERIOD
Updated Date: 29-apr-2006
Creation Date: 22-nov-2005
Expiration Date: 22-nov-2006
Nothing appears to link bistbuy.com (if it ever was a valid destination) to Google.
I'm not convinced yet that this story is a smear job, but very little of their story appears to check out.
First, there was the highly enlightening 404, if there was a resolution at all. Then there was the typosquatters. My fav was Micros0ft.com.
But all of those are better than intercepts, which are surprisingly common these days in 'walled gardens'. I'll take a squatter, and if google can make some $$ on them, so much the better.
DNS is primitive, insecure, rife for diddling, and as goofy as SMTP. Yes, these were all good in their day. And yes, they were made out of brittle plastic, not visionary armor. So, google makes a few bucks. Ho fracking hum. More power to them. If I get a wrong phone #, does someone give me a list of alternatives? No, but they're often helpful as in "oh, that's a 6 not a 9" or something. With DNS you get a squat, not found, or a typosquat. How droll.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Someone must have some big fat fingers if they hit the "i" when going for the "e"...
:)
nit pick
Has anybody thought to add a feature to firefox (or maybe an extension) whereby if a user misspells a domain name, it gives the option to correct the spelling?
I feel that people are confusing "evil" with profit. Google went public. Google is a business. Google now aims (moreso at least) to generate profit for its owners. But doing something that makes money for a company does not make it evil? Who does this hurt?
Answer me that question once you go to a drugstore on Sunday morning, and you're tying to get rid of that hangover before doing your Sunday church appearance. With a splitting headache, then go to the pain relief isle, but B4Y3R aspirin, that looks just like BAYER aspirin minus the chemicals that relieve pain. But, you forgive the company because its now owned by Google and they owe it to their stockholders to put such products on the shelf.
Why is it that common sense and reality go out the window when a computer is involved (patent pending)?
Things with direct analogies to life like email forwarding vs snail mail forwarding don't make sense to people, but things like popup/under advertisements and typosquating makes sense. In the future, will businesses open on 212 Madison Ave when a known company is at 212 Madison St just in case someone gets lost?
Reminds me of when the only people that really profited off of the gold rush were shovel salesmen and prostitutes.
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.
-------
Incite and flee.
Whats _really_ funny is this;
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies
Especially this:
# No Google ad or Google search box may be displayed on any domain parking websites, pop-ups, pop-unders, or in any email.
Do no evil, do not put adsense on parked domains.. err, no, wait.