Fergie's Tech Blog

The Web's Million-Dollar Typos

Leslie Walker and Brian Krebs write in The Washington Post:

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

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 that 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 researcher at Harvard University who has done extensive research into advertising on unused domains.

posted by Fergie @ 4/30/2006 09:56:00 AM