Microsoft "SiteFinder" Quietly Raking It In

An anonymous reader writes in with the news, which isn't particularly new, that Microsoft's Internet Explorer sends typo domain names to a page of pay-per-click ads. In this endeavor Microsoft joins Charter and Earthlink in profiting from the dubious practice that Verisign pioneered but failed to make stick. The article is on a site whose audience is, among others, those who attempt to profit by typo-squatting, and its tone is just a bit petulant because individuals cannot hope to profit in this game on the scale Microsoft effortlessly achieves.

And Google

[dedazo]

Rakes in millions (billions?) from shady parked domain farms that run AdWords.

Only if your default search engine is Live

[prostoalex]

That happens only if your default search engine is Live.com.

Going to http://www.lexus-financail.com/ [lexus-financail.com] site in IE 7 with no default search engine yields

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

So if you want to make untold millions as well, build (a) search engine and (b) popular web browser, and make (a) the default in (b).

Article is misleading - it's not just MSN/Live sea

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried what the article said to do. I have Google set as my default IE search engine. It just did a Google search for the incorrect domain. This seems like a feature (albeit one that I dislike) rather than some money grabbing scam.

Come on, if we want to bash MS, and especially IE, we can do much better than this.

This is inaccurate.

[eieken]

The Sitefinder you mention is nothing of the sort. What you are experiencing is IE7's auto-search feature. If you set your default search to Google, you'll get google search results with the same thing as IE.

Here [defhoboz.biz] is the first page from the blog, with me typing in the same search as the blog does.
Now here [defhoboz.biz] is what I get after I hit enter.

OpenDNS is the Solution

[AntiMac]

I highly recommend OpenDNS, available for free at http://www.opendns.com./ [www.opendns.com] They also redirect your typos to a search page, but you can brand the pages with your own logos. They provide many other useful services such as phishing site blocking and DNS usage statistics. You don't even need an account to use their DNS servers, if you don't want the statistics and custom settings.

I have 7 /24 networks registered with them now, and I can't thank them enough. I have zero DNS problems now, and it even seems much faster.

Re:This isn't even in the same league as SiteFinde

[RajivSLK]

Firefox makes money off of it too. Google pays Fire Fox a lot of money for those searches.

Re:This isn't even in the same league as SiteFinde

[jcorno]

This is just a 'feature' similar to the one in Firefox that automatically performs a google search on things you enter into the URL bar if they aren't valid addresses

That's not true. If it actually looks like an address to Firefox (i.e. it has a period in it and no spaces), then you get a "Server not found" page with the "Try Again" button. The important thing (to me, at least) is that Firefox leaves the url alone when this happens, so you can just correct your mistake and hit enter. IE makes you delete the long address they put in there and start over.

MX-records are optional - SiteFinder really evil

[mi]

Mmm, I think Sitefinder only resolved/resolves A records, not MX records. Your mail would STILL bounce with NXDOMAIN, providing I'm right.

In the absence of an MX record e-mail gets delivered to the A record — MX records [wikipedia.org] are optional. If none is found, the request is made for the A-record, and that gets used instead.

Re:Firefox?

[mrchaotica]

No, Firefox is not doing this! When you type in a domain name that doesn't exist, you get the following:

Server not found

Firefox can't find the server at www.feiwona.org.

• Check the address for typing errors such as ww.example.com instead of www.example.com
• If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
• If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

(Note: "domain name" means something in the form foo.TLD, not just a word. Words get interpreted as search terms, which do get sent to Google.)

Re:This isn't even in the same league as SiteFinde

[Binestar]

Compared to leaving it in the address like Firefox does, IE's practice of forcing me to copy and paste it back from the search field is incredibly (and needlessly!) annoying.

Tools -> options -> Advanced -> Scroll down to "Search from Address Bar" -> [*] "Do not search from addressbar"

Re:OpenDNS is the Solution

[AMSRay]

Thank you! I'm reading all the way down the list of comments thinking "OPEN DNS!, OPEN DNS!" How can any self-respecting geek not know about Open DNS? I've set all the routers at my company to use their DNS servers regardless of which ISP the connection uses. Sure they have some adds if you hit a typo for a domain name, but the proceeds pay for this FREE service. We've had zero problems with DNS issues since I switched. opendns.org

Re:Oops !!

[Achromatic1978]

The last time /. released browser stats, which was, IIRC, before the rise of Firefox, it actually ended up showing something like 70%+ of users were IE, to which there were a lot of hasty "oh, uh, well, I guess it's people having to use IE at work, or something..."

No Firefox is not evil.

[Erris]

Funny, if I replace that "M$" with Google re Firefox, it seems to fit the same mould. ... Like when my Firefox start page went from mozilla.com to google.com, you mean?

My homepage has never been changed by any gnu/linux distribution. I can't tell you what happens on Windoze.

When I make a typo in Konqueror I get the error message quoted before. Firefox gives the following:

Iceweasel can't find the server at www.poopydoo.com. * Check the address for typing errors such as ww.example.com instead of www.example.com * If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection. * If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Iceweasel is permitted to access the Web.

That is not a typo squat or selling of eyeballs, it's honest reporting of an error.

Enjoy your favorite OS, it's enjoying you.

Re:This isn't even in the same league as SiteFinde

[Kalriath]

Could you be any more misinformed. MSIE drops any nonexistent addresses (assuming you didn't configure it not to) into your default search engine. That can be Live, Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Ask.com, Baidu, even Dogpile if you're crazy. If you prefix it with "http://", then IE will NOT search for you, it will bail with "Cannot find server". There is no money for Microsoft if you a) set a different search engine as your default, b) disable searching from the address bar in Internet Options or c) enter in an address that CLEARLY is a domain name (i.e. has a protocol prefix) but is not correct

Oh, and the consumer likely appreciates Microsoft's approach more. Stop spreading idiocy.

Change default search engine

[RedMagic]

It's really not as bad as described. If you do mistype a domain name in Internet Explorer all it does is a search for it in the _default_ search engine. This of course happens to be Live search, but the default can easily be changed. Thus, since my default search engine in IE is Google (surprise!), mistyping a domain name takes me too Google search, which by the way also contains PPC ads.