VeriSign Considers Re-Launching Controversial "Site Finder" Search Service

[Wonk]

By David McGuire
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2004; 2:03 PM

A company that plays a key role in managing the Internet's domain system is considering whether to restart a controversial search service that makes money off Web users' typos, a move that threatens to reignite a debate over who controls key segments of the Internet.

Stratton Sclavos, chief executive of VeriSign Inc., told investors in a conference call last month that the company might relaunch its "Site Finder" service as early as April.

(snip)

Many of the technology experts, companies and nonprofit groups that oversee the Internet's infrastructure complained that Site Finder caused Internet services to malfunction, including filters that block spam e-mail and Internet browsers designed for non-English speakers.

(snip)

That would happen again if VeriSign relaunches Site Finder, said Paul Vixie, president of the Redwood City, Calif.-based Internet Systems Consortium, a nonprofit group that develops the software used by most of the world's Internet servers.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25819-2004Feb9.html

:wtf:

[Wonk]

1. Slashdot.org comments

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/02/10/0645207.shtml?tid=126&tid=95&tid=98&tid=99

[cosmicdot]

2. thought it at least curious, that Acxiom and VeriSign have intersected

San Jose Mercury News (CA)
September 24, 2003
Section: Business
Edition: Morning Final
Page: 1C
Memo:WEB LOG

VERISIGN THUMBS ITS NOSE AT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
DAN GILLMOR column


~snip~

VeriSign has thumbed its nose at Internet governance, and fundamentally at the spirit of cooperation that once defined the Net. It shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.

JetBlues: If you're one of the JetBlue airline customers whose private information was handed over to a Pentagon contractor and then merged with other private data from an Arkansas data-mining company, you should be outraged.

Unfortunately, there may be nothing you can do about it, except maybe find another airline to fly in the future.

JetBlue deserves more than verbal censure for its violation both of common decency and its posted privacy policy. The airline -- as well as Torch Concepts, the contractor looking for ways to find ''high-risk'' passengers, and Acxiom, which supplied additional information, including Social Security numbers -- deserves real sanctions.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.epic.org) has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. The FTC should do just that, and then levy penalties that serve as genuine deterrents to this kind of behavior in the future.

~snip~

I had to pay to retrieve this article:

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=0FDCB6D690EEFBB4&p_docnum=1&s_orderid=NB0104021021253716318&s_dlid=DL0104021021263616482&s_username=KRDB274385

[Wonk]

3. Critics Slam VeriSign's Site Finder - BizReport

Thursday, September 25, 2003

VeriSign Inc.'s move last week to steer misdirected Internet queries to its new search system was a technological success, lassoing millions of Web users who otherwise would have landed on search pages operated by other major online players.

Unfortunately for VeriSign, the launch of its Site Finder service also placed the company at the center of a mounting debate over who really controls one of the Internet's most vital resources.

On one side, VeriSign is taking heat from industry heavyweights like America Online and Microsoft that stand to lose substantial Web traffic -- and money -- to the VeriSign service. On the other stands a coalition of engineers, Internet pioneers and regulators who say VeriSign's surprise move threatens to "break" the Internet.

(snip)

For technologists, the VeriSign action amounted to fundamental break with an unofficial rulebook that has governed the Internet's operations for decades. In the past, if a company or individual wanted to make a major change to the way the Internet worked, they'd float the idea in the "community" of Internet architects and eventually seek the blessing of one or more global standards-setting bodies.

more...
http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5018