[Infowarrior] - Earthlink rolls out "Sitefinder" service on dead domains

[Richard Forno]

Today, if you use EarthLink internet access, when you mis-type the URL of
the web site you were trying to find, or if the site no longer exists, one
of several things happens:

    * (a) The site you wanted also owns the misspelling and redirects you.
You typed "Goooogle.com" but you get to google.com anyway.

    * (b) Someone unrelated to the site you wanted owns the misspelling and
serves you their own page. Often it's a page filled with useless nonsense
text and affiliate links, or it's a prankster.

    * (c) The misspelled domain is not owned by anyone, or no longer exists.
Your browser (often Internet Explorer) or an add-on toolbar you may have
displays a suggestion for what you were looking for, or sends you to the
site it thinks you wanted.

    * (d) The misspelled domain is not owned by anyone, or no longer exists,
and you get an error page with very little information on it that you've
come to understand is the equivalent of "Try Again." In Safari,

Last week EarthLink started rolling out a new system for handling certain
specific types of browser errors on our network. You'll only see it in the
fourth case listed above. It serves you a page with suggestions for what
site you might have been looking for, along with the ability to search using
Yahoo. It also has an ad on it. We think that for the vast majority of users
who end up in bucket "d", this is a better experience because it helps them
to get where they are going quicker, and doesn't leave them with a dead end.
In addition, EarthLink will generate revenue from the page.

< - >

http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/08/handling_dead_domains_1.php