Google Propping Up Typosquatting Biz?

An anonymous reader writes "Google is making oodles of cash placing ads on a vast sea of otherwise vacant Web sites that do little more than capitalize on misspelled domain name names, according to a story in today's Washington Post. From the story: 'Google Inc., 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.'"

Re:Whoa! Breaking News

[rs79]

No, it's not news it's a Microsoft plant. Google was the last one to get into this game and nowhere near the leader. Nice try, asshats.

OMGLOL!!!! bistbuy was slashdotted!!!

[Ohreally_factor]

Safari can't find the server.
Safari can't open the page "http://www.bistbuy.com/" because it can't find the server "www.bistbuy.com".

This is a non story. I really don't understand how anyone would hold Google culpable for this.

Wasting people's time

[Statecraftsman]

I think the biggest problem with typo-sqauatting and the nastier problem(for web developers) of domain-squatting is that it wastes people's time. It's like traffic when you're on the highway. Wouldn't it be great if you could just make traffic illegal one day? I understand the problem...how can you tell if someone is typo-squatting or doing an original website?

It's actually quite easy. It should be based on content. If all you see is a list of search categories and lots of ads, it's typo-squatting. If you see original articles and compelling content, it's legit.

Confusion between "evil" and profit

[9mm Censor]

I feel that people are confusing "evil" with profit. Google went public. Google is a business. Google now aims (moreso at least) to generate profit for its owners. But doing something that makes money for a company does not make it evil? Who does this hurt?

Missing link

[broothal]

This link should have been in the article: http://www.google.com/domainpark/ [google.com]

Millions?

[jamesmacaulay]

The article claims a vague "millions" of dollars at stake, but I'd be interested to know the actual numbers: I know that when I find myself at one of these pages, I am least likely to click on an ad.

Another idiocy of DNS

[postbigbang]

First, there was the highly enlightening 404, if there was a resolution at all. Then there was the typosquatters. My fav was Micros0ft.com.

But all of those are better than intercepts, which are surprisingly common these days in 'walled gardens'. I'll take a squatter, and if google can make some $$ on them, so much the better.

DNS is primitive, insecure, rife for diddling, and as goofy as SMTP. Yes, these were all good in their day. And yes, they were made out of brittle plastic, not visionary armor. So, google makes a few bucks. Ho fracking hum. More power to them. If I get a wrong phone #, does someone give me a list of alternatives? No, but they're often helpful as in "oh, that's a 6 not a 9" or something. With DNS you get a squat, not found, or a typosquat. How droll.

Re:Do no evil

[stirlingneg]

Evil is such a nebulous word.
In the Google dictionary, Evil is defined as something Google doesn't do.

Fat Fingers

[nickgrieve]

Someone must have some big fat fingers if they hit the "i" when going for the "e"...

nit pick :)

Re:Confusion between "evil" and profit

[hackstraw]

I feel that people are confusing "evil" with profit. Google went public. Google is a business. Google now aims (moreso at least) to generate profit for its owners. But doing something that makes money for a company does not make it evil? Who does this hurt?

Answer me that question once you go to a drugstore on Sunday morning, and you're tying to get rid of that hangover before doing your Sunday church appearance. With a splitting headache, then go to the pain relief isle, but B4Y3R aspirin, that looks just like BAYER aspirin minus the chemicals that relieve pain. But, you forgive the company because its now owned by Google and they owe it to their stockholders to put such products on the shelf.

Why is it that common sense and reality go out the window when a computer is involved (patent pending)?

Things with direct analogies to life like email forwarding vs snail mail forwarding don't make sense to people, but things like popup/under advertisements and typosquating makes sense. In the future, will businesses open on 212 Madison Ave when a known company is at 212 Madison St just in case someone gets lost?

Reminds me of when the only people that really profited off of the gold rush were shovel salesmen and prostitutes.

Re:OMGLOL!!!! bistbuy was slashdotted!!!

[sycro]

It's not stating that Google runs bistbuy.com. It is stating that the people who do run the site use Google Ads to make money, which makes Google money. And since Google must accept your use of their ad service, Google is promoting this sort of behavior.

Bistbuy?

[Peyna]

I'm sorry, but "Bistbuy" is not a "typo," it's a horrible and awful misspelling that a 3 year old wouldn't make.

Re:Maybe a software solution?

[fm6]

How do you define "misspelled"? It may be obvious to you that "bistbuy.com" is phony, but to a browser it's just another — valid — domain name.

Re:Maybe a software solution?

[Bogtha]

How do you determine what's a mistake and what's a legitimate domain? I don't want my browser to go to flicker.com when I typed flickr.com, and I don't want my browser to go to dig.com when I typed digg.com.

Re:Google isn't putting up the sites . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm...Google is EVIL in regards to this. When you sign up for adsense, they make a BIG stink over you having legitimate content. They claim to check your sites. Yes, once approved you can add to any number of sites...but they have all this RULES regarding where and how ads can be placed. They tell operators of legitimate sites that ads cant be placed on pages that showup when you log out. Yet, a spam scrapper squatting site is OK. This IS evil. Greed generally leads to being evil. There is no way they DONT know about this. You better believe if a label printing company WILLFULLY AND KNOWLEDGEABLY participate in such a scam that they would be held accountable as well.

Google isn't 'good'. They want there cash and via adsense they are supporting cybersquatters and that is disgusting and evil.

Re:Maybe a software solution?

[encyclo]

"Google" is itself a misspelling - so should all requests for Google [google.com] go to Googol [googol.com]?

Another example - "slashdot" is not a real word - so should Slashdot.org [slashdot.org] go to Slashers.org [slashers.org]? :)

Re:I don't blame Google for enabling typosquatting

[TheSpoom]

I don't blame Google either, considering that the ads aren't placed on the typo-squatting sites BY Google, they're placed by the typo-squatters themselves! What is Google supposed to do, weed out any advertisers that seem like they might be using the ads in a non-standard way?

Re:I don't blame Google for enabling typosquatting

[crossmr]

Why not? PC Gamer among a few others refuses to take ads from gold farmers. Why shouldn't google refuse to pay typosquatters, its not like their page is actually of any remote value.