Microsoft "SiteFinder" Quietly Raking It In

An anonymous reader writes in with the news, which isn't particularly new, that Microsoft's Internet Explorer sends typo domain names to a page of pay-per-click ads. In this endeavor Microsoft joins Charter and Earthlink in profiting from the dubious practice that Verisign pioneered but failed to make stick. The article is on a site whose audience is, among others, those who attempt to profit by typo-squatting, and its tone is just a bit petulant because individuals cannot hope to profit in this game on the scale Microsoft effortlessly achieves.

Comments

Only if your default search engine is Live

[prostoalex]

That happens only if your default search engine is Live.com.

Going to http://www.lexus-financail.com/ site in IE 7 with no default search engine yields

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

So if you want to make untold millions as well, build (a) search engine and (b) popular web browser, and make (a) the default in (b).

Article is misleading - it's not just MSN/Live sea

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried what the article said to do. I have Google set as my default IE search engine. It just did a Google search for the incorrect domain. This seems like a feature (albeit one that I dislike) rather than some money grabbing scam.

Come on, if we want to bash MS, and especially IE, we can do much better than this.

MX-records are optional - SiteFinder really evil

[mi]

Mmm, I think Sitefinder only resolved/resolves A records, not MX records. Your mail would STILL bounce with NXDOMAIN, providing I'm right.

In the absence of an MX record e-mail gets delivered to the A record — MX records are optional. If none is found, the request is made for the A-record, and that gets used instead.