VeriSign provoked fury over the practice it launched last Monday
to redirect surfers to its Site Finder search engine when they
enter a web address that is not registered on the internet or is
inactive.
VeriSign says it made the change to improve "the user
web-browsing experience", and implemented it by adding what are
known as wildcards to re-direct unregistered or unused names.
The alteration provoked a barrage of criticism. Network
administrators accused the registry of seeking not to aid the
misguided web user, but rather to generate more advertising revenue
from its search engine partners. But this is only one aspect of
their complaint given that others, including Microsoft, have done
this before.
According to CNet News.com, VeriSign implemented the change
without consulting internet standards groups, which has caused
other problems.
Some anti-spam software depends upon a check against the sending
address. Previously, a non-existent address would result in an
error message, and the e-mail containing that address could
instantly be discarded as spam. Now most .com and .net addresses
will end in a web page, not an error message, which would block
this approach to spam control.
VeriSign responded by promising to make "appropriate
adjustments" to accommodate spam controls, but the technical
difficulties have now drawn the attention of ICANN, which sets the
rules for internet domain names. The group has now issued an
advisory to VeriSign, requesting that it suspends the redirection
until an investigation has been carried out.
The Internet Architecture Board, which reports to ICANN, has
issued a report on wildcard systems, concluding that these are
dangerous and should not be used without a clear understanding of
the implications.
According to Reuters, VeriSign is setting up a committee of
advisors to look at the technical side of Site Finder. VeriSign
spokesman Tom Galvin told Reuters that, "The committee will be
chartered with providing technical information". He added, "But of
course we will take seriously whatever feedback they give us."
But he would not say what would happen if the committee
recommended that Site Finder be removed. "They are not there to
give us a recommendation. They are there to help us gather the
information so we can make the best long-term decisions about this
service," he told Reuters.
The main non-technical concern over Site Finder relates not to
the new system itself – other companies have and do use similar
re-direction services – but to the status of VeriSign. VeriSign, as
a top level domain registry, is perceived as having a conflict of
interest between itself as a domain registry and itself as a
revenue generating search engine.
A rival internet search company, Popular Enterprises, which runs
Netster.com, last Thursday filed a lawsuit against the registry,
claiming that it is acting anti-competitively.
Bill Marquez, president of Popular Enterprises, explained in a
statement that many search-related companies had seen substantial
decreases in search revenue since VeriSign's Site Finder was
launched on Monday and began exercising control over the internet
to manipulate business.
Go Daddy Software took similar action on Monday. According to
Reuters, Christine Jones, general counsel for the company which
acts as a popular domain name registrar, said that Go Daddy's
business was being harmed because Site Finder was allowing surfers
to search there rather than having to go through a domain name
registrar site.
VeriSign has yet to comment on the litigation.
