[News] Google Domain Squatting, Profiting from Typos

[intelliot]

p style="margin-left: 40px;"Google, 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."/p

p style="margin-left: 40px;"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 triggered a speculative frenzy of investment in domain
names, pushing the value of some beyond $1 million./p

p style="margin-left: 40px;"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 many
of the ads on those pages come directly from Google./ppvia a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002962245_google30.html"Seattle Times/a/ppThis is disgusting. Domain squatting is evil, in my opinion. It's nothing new. It's been around for a long time, and it's sickening that Google is getting into the game. It's profitable, but purely commercial and doesn't benefit anyone but Google. Bad business to get involved in.br/p

[mondine]

The practice has been around for a long time. I suppose that they can use the rationalization that 'if they didn't do it, someone else would'.
But it is a nasty side of the business, usually associated more with quick-buck, ethically challenged vultures; not a big outfit that likes to portray itself as one of the 'good guys'.