Is Your Web Traffic Under Threat? Microsoft Battles Google Over Dodgy Domains

December 20, 2005: Microsoft researchers claim to have uncovered a widespread typo-squatting scam that uses misspelled domains to serve Google advertising.

The practise of typo-squatting involves registering domains with common spelling errors in order to hijack traffic from legitimate sites. The traffic is then redirected to sites filled with Google AdSense advertising.

Microsoft maintains that the scheme is only made possible because of Google’s AdSense for domains program that allows owners to split revenue from parked domains with Google. It also claims that by allowing the use of deliberately misspelled domains, Google is violating its own terms of service as typo-squatting uses “site promotion of incentive or fraudulent clicking.”

Typo-squatting can be more than an unwanted advertising problem too. In the past misspelled redirections have lead to pages that install viruses, worse still many childrens domains have had typo redirections lead to adults only sites.

Have you had trouble with typo-squatting?

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