Google Profits From Typo Squatting, Report Charges

Google is profiting from millions of typo-squatting websites that earn advertising from Google’s Adsense advertising program, Harvard University professor Ben Edelman says.

In a report published Monday, Edelman says Google profits from typo-squatting websites that run ads using Google’s Adsense — which, ironically, are often bought by the owners of the legitimate sites web surfers were trying to visit.

“This is one of the unsavory ways we all end up paying Google,” Edelman says in an interview. “Users don’t have to write Google a check to receive Google’s services. But, one way or another, Google manages to get users’ money.”

Typo-squatting sites are found at domains that have one letter different from legitimate, trademarked domains — bankofdamerica.com, for instance, as depicted in the screenshot above, which has a “d” in the URL.

Typo-squatting has been around since the beginning of the web, but until recently, typo-squatters had limited means of profiting from surfers’ bad spelling or clumsy typing. But using Google’s Adsense for Domains (AFD) program, typo-squatters fill their sites with sponsored links that often point to the legitimate domain. If a misdirected surfer hits a sponsored link, the legitimate domain owner ends up paying the typo-squatter for that referral, and Google as well.

The typo-squatter Bankofdamerica.com, for example, has a sponsored link to the real Bank of America website. Typo-squatting, Edelman says, is illegal.

“There sure are a lot of these sites, in the millions,” Edelman said. “The overall majority show Google ads.”

full story: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/google-profitin.html