Domain Name Registration and Parking for Profit

Google Inc., which runs the largest ad network on the Internet, is making millions of dollars a year by filling otherwise unused Web sites with ads. In many instances, these ad-filled pages appear when users mistype an Internet address, such as "BistBuy.com."

But according to the google terms of service, you can't use typo domain names in the google adsense program.

This new form of advertising is turning into a booming business that some say is cluttering the Internet and could be violating trademark rules. It also has sparked a speculative frenzy of investment in domain names, pushing the value of some beyond the $1 million mark.

Psst . . . Wanna Buy Some Domains?

Google specifically bars Web addresses that infringe on trademarks from using its ad network, but a review of placeholder Web sites that result from misspelled domain names of well-known companies found that many of the ads on those pages come directly from Google.

Hmmm. You can't do that! Bad doggie! We'll do it though.

Google is defending its business practices, saying that it removes participating sites from its ad network if a trademark owner complains that those sites are confusingly similar -- even though close misspellings don't necessarily prove that a legal infringement has occurred. "Unless it is confusing to somebody, trademark law doesn't apply," said Rose Hagan, Google's chief trademark lawyer.

Ahhhh, so making a business out of violating trademark law is okay as long as you pull it down when someone sends a cease and desist order?

The Silicon Valley search giant is the largest but not the only ad network showing ads on placeholder Web pages. Yahoo and Australian firm Dark Blue Sea run similar services.

This form of online advertising relies on "type-in traffic": users who type the information they're looking for directly into the Web browser's address bar instead of using a search engine to scour the Web. Industry analysts estimate that 15 percent of all Web traffic originates this way.

That has created a demand for a practice known as domain parking, which involves owners of a domain name "parking" that name with a firm that creates placeholder pages and then inviting Google or other Internet ad networks to fill them with ads. When Web surfers arrive at those sites and click on those ads, Google and Yahoo get paid by advertisers for that click and share their revenue with the owners of the domain names.

Type-in traffic is nothing new. This is more like depending on TYPO-IN Traffic.

Opinion is divided on these type of ad pages. Some say they are nothing more than frustrating junk pages. Others, including those who speculate on potential traffic of a specific domain name, say they help people find information related to what they're looking for.

"We want those pages to function as alternatives to search engines," said Matthew Bentley, chief strategy officer for Sedo, a large parking service that manages more than 1 million unused addresses placed with the Google ad network.

The parked ad pages are mostly unattractive, but Sedo, Google and Yahoo have all said that they are working to improve them by adding more information. The parking service usually handles the creation of the ad sites.

Okay, now that is just bs. They don't plan to add more information as long as people are clicking the ads. They will continue to condone the behavior if it makes them money.

Advertisers are the ones who lose here initially because the quality of the traffic they are getting is going to be terrible. Then all of those with legitimate websites that utilize adsense and yahoo publisher will suffer next because of all the trash pages driving advertisers away from the program altogether.

Adsense and yahoo publisher were good ideas until greed took over. Calling sedo a legitimate business is just a joke.

More things that just piss me off