Web 2.0.11562 beta

Let me take up the position that nobody wants to hear - Verisign deserves this increase and fought hard to win it as a consolation prize. They implemented a scheme whereby non-registered .com and .net domains typed in inadvertantly would resolve to what amounted to a basic parking page. Monetizing typo traffic by taking advantage of their position as registry for .com and .net.

People became insensed with jealous rage and ICANN stepped in and forbade it. Most people feel that it’s unfair for Verisign to have a permanent monopoly in the lucrative .com market, even though they are unaware of how we got to this situation. In the early days Verisign stepped up and did what it took to make the DNS system happen. No it’s not enough to have BIND, and to have ISPs setting up nameservers - it required some infrastructure that someone had to provide.

OK so I’m following Kevin Murphy’s lead again, but I’m intrigued by the nation of Cameroon’s inevitable rise to type-in traffic stardom. I’m referring to their change in policy to allow any requests for any unspecified .cm domains to resolve to a PPC page that they can make money from. I remember the outcry when Verisign tried it, but as pointed out Cameroon does not fall under any jurisdiction that has any power to make them stop. Even OpenDNS can not help here, since HTTP requests to .cm domains may in fact be legitimate. Well OK, I may never have gone to a .cm site before today, but the point remains valid.

In other news, Moniker.com was apparently bought by Kanoodle. When you look at some of the ethically-challenged registrars operating today I think they picked a winner! Elsewhere it was noted that iREIT purchased some additional portfolios consisting of some 40,000 domains including CreditReports.com and FarmLoans.com. Nice.

Maybe I’m the only domain name investor who thinks OpenDNS is a good thing. I think it’s good because it leaves a path open for future improvements to the DNS system we all know and love. First some debunking….

The widely touted benefits and exaggerated blogger claims sound like a load of hooey to me. Spamhaus inntegration sounds OK, but this will not change the balance of power in the war against spam. This will help deter phishing attacks, but is by no means anywhere near the end of the story. It’s just not that simple. And yes they will serve many, many ads on pages for not found domains. Not all that different from Verisign’s old Site Finder plan, except as somebody pointed out people opt in to this service.

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