TYPOS under Fire

[btrader]

Read this...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002962245_google30.html

 

[IAmAllanShore]

A snip from the article to clue folks in before clicking:


Typed too fast? Google profits from your typo
By Leslie Walker and Brian Krebs

The Washington Post

Google, 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. It also triggered a speculative frenzy of investment in domain names, pushing the value of some beyond $1 million.

Google specifically bars Web addresses that infringe on trademarks from using its ad network, but a review of placeholder Web sites that result from misspelled domain names of well-known companies found many of the ads on those pages come directly from Google.

"It seems very hard to reconcile Google's support of this activity with their 'Do No Evil' motto," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard University researcher who has looked extensively into advertising on unused domains.

Google is defending its business practices, saying it removes participating sites from its ad network if a trademark owner complains those sites are confusingly similar.

"Unless it is confusing to somebody, trademark law doesn't apply," said Rose Hagan, Google's chief trademark lawyer.

The Silicon Valley search giant is the largest but not the only ad network showing ads on placeholder Web pages. Yahoo! and Australian firm Dark Blue Sea run similar services.

This form of online advertising relies on "type-in traffic": users who type the information they're looking for into the Web browser's address bar instead of using a search engine. Industry analysts estimate 15 percent of Web traffic originates this way.

That has created a demand for domain parking, which involves owners of a domain name "parking" that name with a firm that creates placeholder pages and then inviting Google or other Internet ad networks to fill them with ads.

When Web surfers arrive at those sites and click on those ads, Google and Yahoo! get paid by advertisers for that click and share their revenue with the owners of the domain names.


-Allan :gl:

 

[cvxdes]

Personally, I don't support typo domains. It pisses me off when I type googld.com, and I get a parked page. Then I think "WTF?" and nothice the domain. If you get your own typo's, then I wouldn't care. But getting huge sites typos to leech their trafic with typo's, is, wrong, IMHO.

 

[Dave_Z]

Anybody want sitefinder back? :hehe:

 

[CrazyTech]

Well it's in the grey area certainly to use a typo IMHO and I believe in the law's opinion in at least some cases. However, I'm afraid in most cases everyone will be able to get around it. I'm not a big fan of the typo domains myself and I absolutely hate it when I do the same as cv and type in the wrong name and come to a landing page.

I don't believe that there is anything such as bad press when it comes to stories like this and I think it again shows the focus on the domain industry that continues to grow.

 

[Premium]

Type the site in right, no problems. Don't complain just because you can't spell!

 

[Malaysia]

i can see typos selling for high XXXX because of the 'misspelled ' traffic

 

[fonzie_007]

Prehaps these threads should be merged as an earlier thread on this subject was already posted in industry news: http://www.namepros.com/industry-news/192570-google-making-millions-ads-unused-sites.html

 

[linker]

what do you expect?

So should the "company" or whover automatically get all of the domains that are even close to beign a typo? How do we police this? Perhaps I have a site called Gaggle... Is that a Google typo? There are way to many variations on way too many words, so I think it is impossible to just draw a line and say this is the way it is...

I really see nothing that can be done about this... what difference does it make if you type in gooogle.whatever and see ads, than if you type <insertgenericwordhere>.whatever and see ads?

Face it, typos are just part of the web....

 

[btrader]

So should the "company" or whover automatically get all of the domains that are even close to beign a typo? How do we police this? Perhaps I have a site called Gaggle... Is that a Google typo? There are way to many variations on way too many words, so I think it is impossible to just draw a line and say this is the way it is...

I really see nothing that can be done about this... what difference does it make if you type in gooogle.whatever and see ads, than if you type <insertgenericwordhere>.whatever and see ads?

Face it, typos are just part of the web....

I think the problem is that Microsfot.com would be an exploitive way to draw traffic - and would definetly be trading on Microsoft's trademark. Google is profitting from this (as much as any domainer) - so they may be liable...

 

[AlexWilhelm]

Idk, it seems legit to me. This was actually on Digg, and everybody was bitching up a storm. All i know is that i regged lapotrodcuts.com, and it has been a total loss.


Alex

 

[Keynes]

The risk increasingly outweighs the reward in typos -- especially in branded trademarks

 

[tetrapak]

Typo business is like prostitution, there is too much money in it to make it completely illegal/impossible.