Quite right; statistics that give squatters' bulk-registered domains equal weight to domains that actually originate and serve content are next to meaningless.
The more urgent challenges, IMO, are (a) near term, putting downward pressure on the site rank of parked domains, and (b) longer-term, relegating these blights on cyberspace to the virtual equivalent of public housing.
I'd bet the former is easily acheivable within a matter of weeks, if a few folks with access to the required mindshare would generate / offer / host / promote some form of a parked domain blacklist* that could be integrated into the DNS clients of users who so desire. A Mozilla extension (okay, IE too) to auto-submit these domains to Google's "Remove this result -> remove all pages from domainparkingsites.com" interface whenever they appear in a users search results would sit nicely on top of that too.
The latter is a tougher nut to crack; as infuriating as cybersquatters are, I still fear any expansion of regulatory power on the 'net more than I'd value a remedy for any current annoyance. Just my $.02.
*Ironic as this is in context, MS's URL Tracer - http://research.microsoft.com/URLTracer/ - is the only real offering I've seen yet in this space. Any suggestions for others?
I need to investigate the aforementioned OpenExchange more thoroughly, but in the meanwhile... I run an Exchange Server instance (have to since I develop against the MS stack for a living), and though it's neither free as in speech nor free as in beer, it does cover your criteria list pretty well: Web interface, Smartphone support, scheduling & schedule sharing, server-push based synchronization, etc. Until OSS finds a way to put up a solid, interface-compatible Exchange substitute (including scheduling, invitations & reminders), the various $5-$10/month account hosting services are an option I suppose.
I'm still hoping for a viable replacement myself, of course.
Slashdot Mirror
...easily topped with "Crime Captain Corresponded with Crappy Crypto, Consequently Captured"
Quite right; statistics that give squatters' bulk-registered domains equal weight to domains that actually originate and serve content are next to meaningless.
The more urgent challenges, IMO, are (a) near term, putting downward pressure on the site rank of parked domains, and (b) longer-term, relegating these blights on cyberspace to the virtual equivalent of public housing.
I'd bet the former is easily acheivable within a matter of weeks, if a few folks with access to the required mindshare would generate / offer / host / promote some form of a parked domain blacklist* that could be integrated into the DNS clients of users who so desire. A Mozilla extension (okay, IE too) to auto-submit these domains to Google's "Remove this result -> remove all pages from domainparkingsites.com" interface whenever they appear in a users search results would sit nicely on top of that too.
The latter is a tougher nut to crack; as infuriating as cybersquatters are, I still fear any expansion of regulatory power on the 'net more than I'd value a remedy for any current annoyance. Just my $.02.
*Ironic as this is in context, MS's URL Tracer - http://research.microsoft.com/URLTracer/ - is the only real offering I've seen yet in this space. Any suggestions for others?
I need to investigate the aforementioned OpenExchange more thoroughly, but in the meanwhile... I run an Exchange Server instance (have to since I develop against the MS stack for a living), and though it's neither free as in speech nor free as in beer, it does cover your criteria list pretty well: Web interface, Smartphone support, scheduling & schedule sharing, server-push based synchronization, etc. Until OSS finds a way to put up a solid, interface-compatible Exchange substitute (including scheduling, invitations & reminders), the various $5-$10/month account hosting services are an option I suppose.
I'm still hoping for a viable replacement myself, of course.