Rogers Hijacks DNS, Puts Yahoo! Ads on Google's Subdomains

[dgridley]

Rogers, a huge cable internet provider in Canada, has decided to hijack all unregistered domains, and replace them with Yahoo! advertisements. This means Rogers users who type in a domain that doesn't exist, are now getting Yahoo ads instead of the normal "not found" error.

http://blamcast.net/articles/rogers-hijacks-dns

:notme:

Wow.. Google's not gonna like that. :hehe:

 

[gjvblack]

Looks like Google AND Yahoo are going to be pissed. This would bring in hundreds of dollars in revenue though for all those ads. Wonder what will happen when Google finds out, im pretty sure Google can take them down...

 

[Chicken]

Looks like Google AND Yahoo are going to be pissed. This would bring in hundreds of dollars in revenue though for all those ads. Wonder what will happen when Google finds out, im pretty sure Google can take them down...

It would bring a lot more the hundreds of dollars of ads in. Rogers is a pretty big company and I don't think they would back down to Google.

 

[dgridley]

I agree.. Rogers is pretty darn big.. and let's face it, no ISP's = no internetz. I think Rogers can give Google a run for the money.

To be fair, I think there's not alot wrong with it.. they're in business to make money, after all.

It would bring a lot more the hundreds of dollars of ads in. Rogers is a pretty big company and I don't think they would back down to Google.

 

[gjvblack]

True, but can google still ban their sites? or sue them for this?

 

[dgridley]

You can sue someone for anything.. be interesting to see how this plays out. Roger's legal team must have looked into the legality before hand, I'd think.

http://www.google.com/search?source...rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US269&q=rogers+hijacks+dns

 

[Steven]

I was wondering what that site was about...
I'm using Rogers, and I get this annoying page when I type in the wrong domain.

http://www20.search.rogers.com/search?qo=comeondontspammeplease.com

 

[matt_bodis]

They didn't hijack DNS.

This is a deal that most ISPs have with either Yahoo or Google. Verizon DSL has the same deal with Yahoo:

http://wwwz.websearch.verizon.net/search?qo=www.gamesgamesgamesgamesgames.com&rn=LmDonnl39uLnSH5

 

[dgridley]

I wonder how Google feels getting Yahoo ads on their 404 pages?

They didn't hijack DNS.

This is a deal that most ISPs have with either Yahoo or Google. Verizon DSL has the same deal with Yahoo:

http://wwwz.websearch.verizon.net/search?qo=www.gamesgamesgamesgamesgames.com&rn=LmDonnl39uLnSH5

 

[matt_bodis]

Well Verizon only shows the ads on non-registered domain names, so the Rogers setup is a bit different.

You can just imagine how much cash they are bringing in from these types of deals.

 

[Jackie]

Use an alternative DNS provider like http://opendns.com/ if you don't like it. It's free. :p
ISPs, ideally, should give subscribers the choice to opt-out though.

 

[Ronald Regging]

If they were just serving up ads on non-existent domains, that would be one thing. However, by including non-existent subdomains on established domains, I think they'll find themselves getting sued sooner than later and probably by more than one company.

I'm not sure how they could argue that they aren't directly profiting off of Google's TM. The people who are trying to go to those non-existent subdomains are obviously attempting to access Google's site, be it unsuccessfully. I would imagine in most cases, these attempts are due to typos of an existing subdomain.

 

[Ctack]

If they were just serving up ads on non-existent domains, that would be one thing. However, by including non-existent subdomains on established domains, I think they'll find themselves getting sued sooner than later and probably by more than one company.

I'm not sure how they could argue that they aren't directly profiting off of Google's TM. The people who are trying to go to those non-existent subdomains are obviously attempting to access Google's site, be it unsuccessfully. I would imagine in most cases, these attempts are due to typos of an existing subdomain.

exactly, they have just typo squatted every domain in existence.

 

[shockie]

my goodness. serving up ads on a non-existent subdomain is absolutely pushing it. everyone should stick to directories instead of subdomains if this bullsh_t keeps up.

is there some way to return 301s or 302s for wildcard subdomains through mod_rewrite?

 

[jberryhill]

You can just imagine how much cash they are bringing in from these types of deals.

I'll bet you can't.

According to people with indirect knowledge of the numbers at Verizon - in order to imagine the cash flow, you're going to have to invest in a bigger imagination first.