[attrition] "http" leads to Microsoft?

[security curmudgeon]

Perhaps this is known, but it caught me off guard. I discovered this when 
I sent a URL to a friend, but typo'd the first part. Instead of a regular 
URL, I sent him "http//attrition.org" (note the lack of colon). Instead of 
him getting the web page, it would load Microsoft's home page instead.

To test this further, load Firefox and type in "http" by itself and hit 
enter. Watch as you land on http://www.microsoft.com =)

Why does this happen? Firefox can't resolve 'http', so it sends your 
request to google.com, searches for 'http' and delivers you the first 
result (also works via the "I'm feeling lucky" feature). You can see the 
same thing happen if you search Google for 'http' (first result) [0].

I don't know about you, but i'm not feeling lucky when I land on Microsoft 
after typing in 'http'. This is the company that didn't see the Internet 
as something of interest or potential until 1995, years after HTTP was 
developed and starting to gain wide spread acceptance. In 1995, Microsoft 
finally added "internet" to their Encarta Encyclopedia [1] and released 
Internet Explorer [2].


security curmudgeon
http://attrition.org/


[0] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=http&btnG=Search
[1] I can't find a public reference for this, can anyone else? Just some
     odd tidbit I remember reading last decade.
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryIE.mspx