SitePoint.com

bonkedproducer · Sep 16, 2003, 07:46

Quote:

DragonHawk writes "As of a little while ago (it is around 7:45 PM US Eastern on Mon 15 Sep 2003 as I write this), VeriSign added a wildcard A record to the .COM and .NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com. What that means in plain English is that most mis-typed domain names that would formerly have resulted in a helpful error message now results in a VeriSign advertising opportunity. For example, if my domain name was 'somecompany.com,' and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising."

Source: http://slashdot.org/articles/03/09/1...&tid=98&tid=99

Anyone have any comments about this, and is anyone else interested in getting some grass roots movement going on stopping this before it gets out of hand.

I despise N$ and Veri$ign because of their unfair and illegal practices in the past - but this takes the cake... How many registars are talking to lawyers right now? I hope all of them.

Anyway, would love to know the sitepoint communities feelings on this one. Let's hope this is a temporary situation and that the brakes get put on this train quickly.

M. Johansson · Sep 16, 2003, 22:23

Verisign went right up to #2 on my list of companies I despise. They don't beat Real yet, though.

fish · Sep 17, 2003, 03:13

I don't get that Verisign page when I type in a non-existing domain. Maybe they have stopped it already?
Someone in the slashdot thread meant some search results were from Overture, I only get regular Inktomi results, and no results for the predefined categories. Perhaps this was to scummy even for Overture?
Interesting slashdot thread, noticed there are possibilities for ISP's to block this Verisign trick.

Quote:

They don't beat Real yet, though.

How can you despise Real when the brought us Annabelle the Sheep?

M. Johansson · Sep 17, 2003, 03:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by fish

How can you despise Real when the brought us Annabelle the Sheep?

I could say it, but this man says it better:
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1553

Also, what is Annabelle the Sheep?

vgarcia · Sep 17, 2003, 06:43

This is really bad. I do see the stupid Verisign search page now after mistyping a few domain names.

LorenBaker · Sep 17, 2003, 07:18

Verisign says that it handles over 20 million incorrect queries each day. Put a price tag on these mistakes, and that’s a petty penny earned for for a government granted service. What this will be leading to, may be a war over these nonexistent domain names between Verisign, AOL, Microsoft, and other Internet Service Providers and hosting companies.

Overture and Inktomi are serving the Results!

aspen · Sep 17, 2003, 07:43

I'm still getting IE's default error page.

Verisign needs to be replaced. A truly non-profit group needs to be given charge of the registry.

vgarcia · Sep 17, 2003, 08:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by aspen

I'm still getting IE's default error page.

Verisign needs to be replaced. A truly non-profit group needs to be given charge of the registry.

I get the Verisign page in IE6, NN4, Mozilla Firebird, and Opera 7.1.

And I wholeheartedly agree about the non-profit point.

fish · Sep 17, 2003, 09:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by M. Johansson

I could say it, but this man says it better:
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1553

It was a bit long so maybe I missed some points. Agree that RealPlayer is a bit bloated and hijacks all applicable file associations if you are not paying attention at setup. Still think it's small sins compared to Verisign.

Quote:

Originally Posted by M. Johansson

Also, what is Annabelle the Sheep?

Annabelle is the coolest visualization ever! You can see an image
here and
an Annabelle-focused review of Real Player here.

twd · Sep 17, 2003, 09:43

Whois.sc has a petition on the right hand side to sign to "Stop Verisign DNS Abuse ".

Yesterday, when I signed, it only had about 140 sigs. It is now up to 2200+ and growing rapidly. I refreshed the page a few times, and watched the number of sigs increase significantly each time.

Verisign needs to be stopped. A vocal puclic outraged over this is a place to start. I think everytime we get one of these crappy redirects we send verisign an irate email. Give em grief!

vgarcia · Sep 17, 2003, 09:52

Interesting observation here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=78637&cid=6971467

platinum · Sep 17, 2003, 09:58

That is so dodgy of them to do that!

Ravedesigns · Sep 17, 2003, 10:04

Woohoo - Glad to see someone is finally doing something about this! Take a look at the good news at http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,60473,00.html

Stick it to 'em boys!

Steve

vgarcia · Sep 17, 2003, 10:04

Apparently they don't know how to write secure webpages either, allowing for cross-site scripting:
http://sitefinder.verisign.com/lpc?u...hoo.com';"

^^This works

bylla · Sep 17, 2003, 10:32

Do you think Godaddy will sue them?

LaughBlaster · Sep 17, 2003, 10:42

It'll take a huge lawsuit, and I have a feeling it will be coming soon.

Not only are they just acting like their sleazy NS self's, but they are now "suggesting" competitor sites when a typo is caught.

Instead of the user getting the good old fashioned "Your [disguised profanity removed....please search deeper in your lexicon in future] up" cannot find server page, they get Verisign's landing page with suggestions for the correct domain, ALONG with competitors. Don't know about anyone else, but that pisses me off royal.

Here is a good example, I own atemplatesite.com, lets say someone types in atemplatsite.com (leaving out the E)
http://www.atemplatsite.com
Look what they get, not only my domain, but suggestions for two others that could be considered competition, so what are the chances that I would lose a sale to a competitor if they got the regular cannot find server error, compared to the chances that I lose a sale from Verisign's unwanted and sleazy "suggestion" page. Without Verisign's help, my potential visitor would check the spelling and correct it, but now they will just happily click away, and possibly not visit the site they intended to in the first place.

I hate Verisign and all flavours of networksolutions, this just reassures me that these scumbags will forever by sleaze and they need to wiped off the bottom of our shoes.

aspen · Sep 17, 2003, 11:32

You hate Real and Verisign over SCO?

aspen · Sep 17, 2003, 14:27

Now I'm getting these damn things.

bonkedproducer · Sep 17, 2003, 14:49

glad to see that I'm not the only one that's ticked about this little hijack - maybe because I'm a godaddy shill (only because I love the service I've had with them) - Feel free to grab and use this little bugger I made up to post links to why veri$ign are evil bad ju-jus....

http://paulcouture.com/downloads/screwverisign.gif

billiousness · Sep 17, 2003, 15:14

This is just crap.

How can they justify this?

bonkedproducer · Sep 17, 2003, 15:24

they're Veri$ign - they don't have to justify anything - you see there is no real way that the users of the Internet can do anything to put them out of business, I mean look at how many e-commerce transactions everyday have to give their little cut to veri$ign... and what is some p!$$ant little registar or entity like oh... say ICAAN gonna do about it?

They are abusing their monopoly (as usual) and continuing to harass the general Internet populace with more unethical, immoral, and quite possibly illegal business practices, (like the fake invoices I so enjoyed getting... good thing I got them not a comptroller who would have just shot them out a check right) I hope that the people in charge there have houses without mirrors inside, because I know I couldn't look at myself if I came up with crap like this.

jehoshua · Sep 18, 2003, 18:09

Hi,

I have been blocking Internetseer.com and internetseer.net IP addressess, and today noticed that some of those IP address, when I do a DNS dig, show up as Verisign ??

Are they the same company ?

Peter

Ravedesigns · Sep 23, 2003, 09:14

And for the latest on Verisign's underhanded dirty work...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&type=business

I'm glad to see they're finally being sued

Steve

P.S. Just curious - anyone seeing any increased traffic to their sites from Sitefinder? I've seen a few visitors who apparently clicked through when my site was suggested as an alternative to the misspelled domain they entered and they were taken to the Sitefinder page.

M. Johansson · Sep 23, 2003, 12:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by aspen

You hate Real and Verisign over SCO?

Yeah. SCO's stuff is way too stupid to actually have an effect on anything (me

). Real and Verisign's stuff is actually very annoying.

mmj · Sep 23, 2003, 23:26

Verisign says that it stands to earn $150 million extra per year in advertising from its sitefinder service.

Sep 17, 2003, 07:43	#7
aspen Serial Publisher Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: East Lansing, MI USA Posts: 12,955	I'm still getting IE's default error page. Verisign needs to be replaced. A truly non-profit group needs to be given charge of the registry. __________________ Chris Beasley - I publish content and ecommerce sites. Featured Article: Free Comprehensive SEO Guide My Guide to Building a Successful Website My Blog\|My Webmaster Forums

Sep 17, 2003, 09:43	#10
twd SitePoint Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Tulsa, OK Posts: 30	Whois.sc has a petition on the right hand side to sign to "Stop Verisign DNS Abuse ". Yesterday, when I signed, it only had about 140 sigs. It is now up to 2200+ and growing rapidly. I refreshed the page a few times, and watched the number of sigs increase significantly each time. Verisign needs to be stopped. A vocal puclic outraged over this is a place to start. I think everytime we get one of these crappy redirects we send verisign an irate email. Give em grief! __________________ TulsaWebDesign.com TulsaEvents.com TulsaPhotos.com TulsaMovieTheaters.com

Sep 17, 2003, 09:58	#12
platinum + Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Adelaide, Australia Posts: 6,509	That is so dodgy of them to do that! __________________ gavinbenda.com.au // // netforge.com.au

Sep 17, 2003, 10:04	#13
Ravedesigns Community Advisor Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Lancaster, PA Posts: 2,909	Woohoo - Glad to see someone is finally doing something about this! Take a look at the good news at http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,60473,00.html Stick it to 'em boys! Steve __________________ ## Free Marketing Book With 101 Marketing Ideas ## and Advice to Help Grow Your Business Fast ## Get It Now at www.expertmarketingadvice.com!

Sep 17, 2003, 10:32	#15
bylla SitePoint Enthusiast Join Date: May 2001 Location: Sweden Posts: 91	Do you think Godaddy will sue them? __________________ Xavier Media - PHP forum .info \| .biz \| .ws \| .se \| .es \| .us

Sep 16, 2003, 22:23	#2
M. Johansson Wanna-be Apple nut Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Halmstad, Sweden Posts: 7,434	Verisign went right up to #2 on my list of companies I despise. They don't beat Real yet, though. __________________ Mattias Johansson Short, Swedish, Web Developer Buttons and Dog Tags with your custom design: FatStatement.com

Sep 17, 2003, 06:43	#5
vgarcia ☆★☆★ Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: in transition Posts: 21,423	This is really bad. I do see the stupid Verisign search page now after mistyping a few domain names.

Sep 17, 2003, 07:18	#6
LorenBaker SitePoint Evangelist Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: mars Posts: 417	Verisign says that it handles over 20 million incorrect queries each day. Put a price tag on these mistakes, and that’s a petty penny earned for for a government granted service. What this will be leading to, may be a war over these nonexistent domain names between Verisign, AOL, Microsoft, and other Internet Service Providers and hosting companies. Overture and Inktomi are serving the Results!

Sep 17, 2003, 09:52	#11
vgarcia ☆★☆★ Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: in transition Posts: 21,423	Interesting observation here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=78637&cid=6971467

Sep 17, 2003, 10:42	#16
LaughBlaster SitePoint Addict Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: C:\WINDOWS\Hell 2.0 Posts: 213	It'll take a huge lawsuit, and I have a feeling it will be coming soon. Not only are they just acting like their sleazy NS self's, but they are now "suggesting" competitor sites when a typo is caught. Instead of the user getting the good old fashioned "Your [disguised profanity removed....please search deeper in your lexicon in future] up" cannot find server page, they get Verisign's landing page with suggestions for the correct domain, ALONG with competitors. Don't know about anyone else, but that pisses me off royal. Here is a good example, I own atemplatesite.com, lets say someone types in atemplatsite.com (leaving out the E) http://www.atemplatsite.com Look what they get, not only my domain, but suggestions for two others that could be considered competition, so what are the chances that I would lose a sale to a competitor if they got the regular cannot find server error, compared to the chances that I lose a sale from Verisign's unwanted and sleazy "suggestion" page. Without Verisign's help, my potential visitor would check the spelling and correct it, but now they will just happily click away, and possibly not visit the site they intended to in the first place. I hate Verisign and all flavours of networksolutions, this just reassures me that these scumbags will forever by sleaze and they need to wiped off the bottom of our shoes. __________________ *Boredom is illegal, enjoy life while you can, Laugh a little* \|Jokes\|e-creations®\| clixGalore made me sad, see why. Last edited by TheOriginalH; Sep 24, 2003 at 02:49..

Sep 17, 2003, 11:32	#17
aspen Serial Publisher Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: East Lansing, MI USA Posts: 12,955	You hate Real and Verisign over SCO? __________________ Chris Beasley - I publish content and ecommerce sites. Featured Article: Free Comprehensive SEO Guide My Guide to Building a Successful Website My Blog\|My Webmaster Forums

Sep 17, 2003, 14:27	#18
aspen Serial Publisher Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: East Lansing, MI USA Posts: 12,955	Now I'm getting these damn things. __________________ Chris Beasley - I publish content and ecommerce sites. Featured Article: Free Comprehensive SEO Guide My Guide to Building a Successful Website My Blog\|My Webmaster Forums

Sep 17, 2003, 14:49	#19
bonkedproducer SitePoint Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 62	glad to see that I'm not the only one that's ticked about this little hijack - maybe because I'm a godaddy shill (only because I love the service I've had with them) - Feel free to grab and use this little bugger I made up to post links to why veri$ign are evil bad ju-jus.... http://paulcouture.com/downloads/screwverisign.gif __________________ "Clothes make the man; naked people have little influence in society." - Twain http://paulcouture.com Magical Snow and Letters from Santa

Sep 17, 2003, 15:14	#20
billiousness SitePoint Wizard Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Brisbane QLD Australia Posts: 1,489	This is just crap. How can they justify this?

Sep 17, 2003, 15:24	#21
bonkedproducer SitePoint Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 62	they're Veri$ign - they don't have to justify anything - you see there is no real way that the users of the Internet can do anything to put them out of business, I mean look at how many e-commerce transactions everyday have to give their little cut to veri$ign... and what is some p!$$ant little registar or entity like oh... say ICAAN gonna do about it? They are abusing their monopoly (as usual) and continuing to harass the general Internet populace with more unethical, immoral, and quite possibly illegal business practices, (like the fake invoices I so enjoyed getting... good thing I got them not a comptroller who would have just shot them out a check right) I hope that the people in charge there have houses without mirrors inside, because I know I couldn't look at myself if I came up with crap like this. __________________ "Clothes make the man; naked people have little influence in society." - Twain http://paulcouture.com Magical Snow and Letters from Santa

Sep 18, 2003, 18:09	#22
jehoshua SitePoint Evangelist Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 572	Hi, I have been blocking Internetseer.com and internetseer.net IP addressess, and today noticed that some of those IP address, when I do a DNS dig, show up as Verisign ?? Are they the same company ? Peter

Sep 23, 2003, 09:14	#23
Ravedesigns Community Advisor Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Lancaster, PA Posts: 2,909	And for the latest on Verisign's underhanded dirty work... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&type=business I'm glad to see they're finally being sued Steve P.S. Just curious - anyone seeing any increased traffic to their sites from Sitefinder? I've seen a few visitors who apparently clicked through when my site was suggested as an alternative to the misspelled domain they entered and they were taken to the Sitefinder page. __________________ ## Free Marketing Book With 101 Marketing Ideas ## and Advice to Help Grow Your Business Fast ## Get It Now at www.expertmarketingadvice.com!

Sep 23, 2003, 23:26	#25
mmj Test cases complete. 0 fails. Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 6,569	Verisign says that it stands to earn $150 million extra per year in advertising from its sitefinder service. __________________ [mmj] My momentous journey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Bit Depth Blog · Twitter · Contact me Spuds Jokes Bazaar VCS Inkscape Firefox phpBB

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