The Times: Tech column - Typosquatting/Drudge profits/TiVo
By David Rowan
IF you want to become a multimillionaire without working really hard, have you considered the vast fortunes to be made out of other people's spelling mistakes? Just ask John Zuccarini, an American entrepreneur who has apparently been pulling in up to $1 million a year by registering internet domain names a letter or two away from those of established websites.
At the last count, Zuccarini, 53, owned 5,359 of these misspelt web addresses, catching anyone who called up Micosoft.net, SonyMuisc.com, or not-quite children's sites such as BobtheBiulder.com. The only problem is that Zuccarini redirects most of these addresses to porn sites, to which his various companies charge referral fees for each click. And that has made him most unpopular. He has already lost 53 state and federal lawsuits and had 200 web addresses confiscated. Last week, the US authorities caught up with him in Florida and he faces four years in jail if convicted under a law designed to protect children on the internet.
But even as he prepares for his trial, Zuccarini's dubious domains are continuing to boost traffic to a Dutch "amateur video" website, earning him up to 18p commission a time. He also makes it difficult for visitors to leave these sites, using a dubious practice known as "mousetrapping" - attempts to click on a browser's "back" button or to close a page merely prompt further windows and pop-up ads to fill the screen.
It will be interesting to see how Zuccarini justifies his targeting of children as potential porn-site visitors - children being more likely than adults to misspell the names of The Teletubbies, the Disney Store and The Simpsons (all part of Zuccarini's portfolio). The case offers yet more evidence of the inadequate way the web is policed by regulatory bodies such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which failed to disable his websites despite sanctioning him scores of times in the past.
But even if Zuccarini is stopped, the lucrative business of "typo-squatting" (as it is known) will not go away. Indeed, only last week we learnt that one of the biggest legitimate internet companies also sees huge commercial possibilities in redirecting traffic from misspelt domain names. VeriSign, which runs the largest registry of internet addresses, is said to be testing a new service that will let it decide where this traffic should end up - and charging a commission in the process. It is enough to make a surfer take a spelling refresher course.
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WHO says there is no money in non-subscription news websites? The Drudge Report may have lost its sparkle since the Monica Lewinsky days, but the big bucks are now rolling in. With more than six million visitors on a typical day to read a selection of headline links and rumours, the site is charging £2,800 a day for banner ads, even as other sites mourn the banner's demise. Matt Drudge, who still runs the site from home, says he is making almost £800,000 a year from the ads and his radio broadcasts. He has been known to misplace the odd fact, but if Drudge is right, that would buy him a lot of hats.
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IF YOU like TiVo, the hard-disk recorder that learns which television shows you like, then stand by for its free alternative. Freevo is an open-source version of the personal video recorder which means the software can be adapted and improved by anyone who is interested. It already lets you watch and record TV, play music and video, and view photos. But soon it should also let you "pause" live programmes on your PC. The Linux-based system (at freevo.sourceforge.net) is gaining a following among users with technical proficiency. Let us see how long it takes for lawsuits to begin.
(The Times, September 9 2003)
IF you want to become a multimillionaire without working really hard, have you considered the vast fortunes to be made out of other people's spelling mistakes? Just ask John Zuccarini, an American entrepreneur who has apparently been pulling in up to $1 million a year by registering internet domain names a letter or two away from those of established websites.
At the last count, Zuccarini, 53, owned 5,359 of these misspelt web addresses, catching anyone who called up Micosoft.net, SonyMuisc.com, or not-quite children's sites such as BobtheBiulder.com. The only problem is that Zuccarini redirects most of these addresses to porn sites, to which his various companies charge referral fees for each click. And that has made him most unpopular. He has already lost 53 state and federal lawsuits and had 200 web addresses confiscated. Last week, the US authorities caught up with him in Florida and he faces four years in jail if convicted under a law designed to protect children on the internet.
But even as he prepares for his trial, Zuccarini's dubious domains are continuing to boost traffic to a Dutch "amateur video" website, earning him up to 18p commission a time. He also makes it difficult for visitors to leave these sites, using a dubious practice known as "mousetrapping" - attempts to click on a browser's "back" button or to close a page merely prompt further windows and pop-up ads to fill the screen.
It will be interesting to see how Zuccarini justifies his targeting of children as potential porn-site visitors - children being more likely than adults to misspell the names of The Teletubbies, the Disney Store and The Simpsons (all part of Zuccarini's portfolio). The case offers yet more evidence of the inadequate way the web is policed by regulatory bodies such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which failed to disable his websites despite sanctioning him scores of times in the past.
But even if Zuccarini is stopped, the lucrative business of "typo-squatting" (as it is known) will not go away. Indeed, only last week we learnt that one of the biggest legitimate internet companies also sees huge commercial possibilities in redirecting traffic from misspelt domain names. VeriSign, which runs the largest registry of internet addresses, is said to be testing a new service that will let it decide where this traffic should end up - and charging a commission in the process. It is enough to make a surfer take a spelling refresher course.
++++
WHO says there is no money in non-subscription news websites? The Drudge Report may have lost its sparkle since the Monica Lewinsky days, but the big bucks are now rolling in. With more than six million visitors on a typical day to read a selection of headline links and rumours, the site is charging £2,800 a day for banner ads, even as other sites mourn the banner's demise. Matt Drudge, who still runs the site from home, says he is making almost £800,000 a year from the ads and his radio broadcasts. He has been known to misplace the odd fact, but if Drudge is right, that would buy him a lot of hats.
++++
IF YOU like TiVo, the hard-disk recorder that learns which television shows you like, then stand by for its free alternative. Freevo is an open-source version of the personal video recorder which means the software can be adapted and improved by anyone who is interested. It already lets you watch and record TV, play music and video, and view photos. But soon it should also let you "pause" live programmes on your PC. The Linux-based system (at freevo.sourceforge.net) is gaining a following among users with technical proficiency. Let us see how long it takes for lawsuits to begin.
(The Times, September 9 2003)
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