09-17-2003, 12:00 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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VeriSign Eyes Valuable 'Junk' Traffic
This has nothing to do with Pocket PCs, but it's very interesting for the impact that it might have on the way people do searches and find sites. I don't know how many people misspell "pocketpcthoughts", but if they get it wrong, their browser tells them as much. But what if, instead, they're taken to a page listing off paid-for entries related to the domain name? That person might never try to find this site if they start clicking on other links. What's strange is that I tried this on a few typo'd domain names yesterday, and it worked - but today I can't seem to bring up the Verisign page that this article talks about. See if you can do it. ;-)
"VeriSign Inc. today used its power as the operator of the "dot-com" and "dot-net" Internet domains to redirect a torrent of valuable "junk" Internet traffic away from Microsoft and America Online into its own proprietary search page. Once VeriSign finishes installing the system virtually any Internet surfer in the world who enters an incorrect Internet address ending in .com or .net into their browser will be funneled into the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant's newly christened "Site Finder" service. VeriSign expects to complete the installation before midnight Monday.
VeriSign confirmed last week it was testing the system, rankling officials at Microsoft and America Online, both of which lose a source of traffic -- and revenue -- to their own in-house redirection pages. At stake is control of a large amount of valuable Internet traffic. Every second, somewhere in the world, someone types an incorrect address into their Internet browser and gets bounced to a Web page he or she didn't want. VeriSign says it handles more than 20 million incorrect queries every day."
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09-17-2003, 12:02 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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It's evil. :evil: Evil evil evil. They're breaking DNS for their commercial profit. I avoid them as a registrar at all costs nowadays -- Network Solutions is a huge hassle anyway.
--janak
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09-17-2003, 12:04 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 258
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I get a 404 if I misspell 'pocketpcthoughs' 
Pardon my ignorance, but how do domain names work? Are they centrally regulated like IP addresses?
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09-17-2003, 12:08 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by easylife
Pardon my ignorance, but how do domain names work? Are they centrally regulated like IP addresses?
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Sort of. ICANN is the DNS equivalent of IANA -- it delegates responsibility to registrars. IMHO VeriSign is abusing their privilege, but I'm not an expert on the legal structures of DNS nowadays ever since it was decentralized. It's a fairly complex setup -- and I haven't even touched upon the technical aspects of DNS, which is another thing entirely.
--janak
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09-17-2003, 12:10 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
I avoid them as a registrar at all costs nowadays -- Network Solutions is a huge hassle anyway.
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Yeah, you and everyone else. :wink: I haven't used them for years - they're a relic, a dinosaur from a different age. I use www.thenic.com now, but since so much of the domain manipulation happens through OpenSRS now, it doesn't matter all that much which domain you use. GoDaddy looks pretty sweet though too...
That's why they're doing this of course - they lost the domain name registration wars, and they're desperate for more profit.
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09-17-2003, 12:13 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
That's why they're doing this of course - they lost the domain name registration wars, and they're desperate for more profit.
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Yes, but heaven forbid they try to do it legitimately -- like perhaps making their website actually useable? :roll: Register.com is what I use -- it's easy, very centralized -- I can manage all the domains from one login yet have different billing addresses for each, they provide free DNS, etc. (It isn't the cheapest, but that's not a problem for me.) They also make it a snap to switch. I'll never do business with NSI again.
--janak
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09-17-2003, 12:22 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 412
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
That's why they're doing this of course - they lost the domain name registration wars, and they're desperate for more profit.
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Yes, but heaven forbid they try to do it legitimately -- like perhaps making their website actually useable? :roll: Register.com is what I use -- it's easy, very centralized -- I can manage all the domains from one login yet have different billing addresses for each, they provide free DNS, etc. (It isn't the cheapest, but that's not a problem for me.) They also make it a snap to switch. I'll never do business with NSI again.
--janak |
It's a much larger problem than just profit:
http://www.iab.org/Documents/icann-vgrs-response.html
(check out the names on that mail!)
and
Paul Hoffman, Director, Internet Mail Consortium:
"ICANN should demand that VGRS immediately stop giving incorrect answers to
any query in .com and .net, and should instead follow the IETF standards.
If VGRS refuses, ICANN should re-delegate the .com and .net zones to
registries that are more willing to follow the DNS standards."
And:
Charles Oriez, AITP Legislative Committee:
One of my peer zones had a typo'ed MX record. Before VeriSign's sabotage (yes, sabotage) the lookup of the corresponding address record would simply fail with NXDOMAIN. The source MTA would then try to deliver to the secondary MTAs on the list of MX records in order of priority. Mail delivery would proceed normally using the secondary MTA(s).
However to my complete and utter astonishment, 64.94.110.11 has a working MTA listening on port 25 (why???). This means that any MX records with typos in the primary record will have all their e-mail redirected to VeriSign's MTA. Mail that would normally automatically be re-routed to the secondary MTA instead now gets bounced by Verisign's ''Snubby Mail Rejector Daemon v1.3''. Not returning NXDOMAIN will break mail delivery to secondary MTAs.
And what about spam filters? It will break any spam filter that tries to
verify that the source MTA hostname claimed in the HELO request is
resolvable (i.e. that the claimed HELO name is not fictious). --
This action by Verisign breaks anti-spam features and e-mail recovery.
I
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09-17-2003, 12:26 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Karen
It's a much larger problem than just profit:
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Oh, believe me, I know. As far as I can tell they're violating the DNS RFCs, and in addition to backup MXes, they'll also break a lot of spiders and other tools that are out there. It's just plain wrong -- but that's why I said they were evil at the beginning.  I hope ICANN can wield a cluestick, but they're a politically convoluted organization themselves. 
--janak
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09-17-2003, 12:27 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 555
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A big legitimate company like VeriSign, doing something as petty as this...<sigh> leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I liken this to websites of academic institutes who have those pop-up "spycam" ads.
Shows you how much respect they have for themselves.
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09-17-2003, 12:31 AM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 864
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
GoDaddy looks pretty sweet though too...
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I use GoDaddy and let me say their domain management tools kick major butt! I LOATHE Versign I still get mailers from them saying "Your Domain is about expire!" and some of them I have locked up until 2009!
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