In a potentially significant development, VeriSign Inc. is privately testing a service that could let it direct large portions of trash traffic to Web sites of its choosing, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Mountain View, Calif., company operates the largest Internet “registry” — a master directory with listings that enable Web users and e-mails to reach Internet addresses ending in the popular “.com” and “.net” suffixes. When it makes the service public, which could occur in the coming weeks, VeriSign will send users who flub an address — say by typing bestby.com into their browsers instead of bestbuy.com — to another Web site, most likely an Internet search engine. In effect, VeriSign will be capturing error-prone users before the software from companies like Microsoft and AOL can nab them, potentially shifting significant sums of traffic away those sites.
VeriSign could, in turn, make money for sending the traffic to another site. “Like many registries, we’re continually exploring how to enhance the user experience,” a VeriSign spokesman says, and that, he adds, includes testing the redirection of users who make errors in Web navigation. (For technical reasons, VeriSign won’t be able to divert users unless the Web addresses they mistype include a “.com” or “.net” on the end.)
It’s unclear how much money can be made from redirection or how much trash traffic there is, but some industry executives think the numbers are huge. Afilias Ltd., an Irish company that runs the registry for Internet addresses ending in “.info,” says 10% to 12% of the roughly one billion look-ups a day it conducts in its master directory are for nonexistent addresses. Ram Mohan, chief technology officer of Afilias, calls efforts like VeriSign’s “game-changing moves,” but says Afilias has no current plans to exploit trash traffic. [WSJ.com]
CSS wiki zen garden
Is it possible to produce a wiki that offers all the power of a wiki while at the same time looking like a regular website? [A Whole Lotta Nothing]
Apparently it is… pretty cool stuff. A wiki (under the right circumstances) might actually be easier to use for a personal or small corporate site than a blog system like moveable type, which has also been discussed as a way to manage a site beyond the blog.
MyYahoo Now Supports RSS
You can add the Blogs module from this page.
Yahoo gets it. Though they make you add each site one by one instead of a nice OPML import which would certainly make the option more useful.
26,000-Hit Wonder Keeps It Hopping
Mike Stuto, the 36-year-old owner of Hi Fi and the co-creator of EL DJ, says it has the biggest selection of any jukebox in the world. “The reason it’s a great idea is because it’s a simple idea,” he said.
Mr. Stuto’s basic idea was to digitize his music collection and make it available in a jukebox that held far more than the standard 100 albums. EL DJ, or Extra Large Digital Jukebox, includes tracks from 1,798 full-length CD’s in Mr. Stuto’s collection. [New York Times]
The software for this baby is going to be made available for purchase. Seems that it will cost about $20 for the personal, not the commercial version and could be a very cool way to view and listen to your collection.
Universal to Cut Prices of Its CD’s
Battered by online piracy, the world’s largest record company said that it would cut prices on compact discs by as much as 30 percent.
Under the new pricing scheme, Universal would lower its wholesale price on a CD to $9.09 from $12.02. The company said it expected retail stores to lower CD prices to $12.98, from the $16.98 to $18.98 they now charge, and perhaps to as low as $10. When CD’s first arrived on the market they cost $15.98, and have climbed from there. [New York Times: Technology]
Court Blocks FCC Media Regs
U.S. federal court judges grant a stay order that prevents the new Federal Communications Commission media ownership rules from taking effect. The ruling marks the latest skirmish in the battle over media market reforms. [Wired News]
New exclusives for .Mac members
Apple is offering new exclusives for .Mac members, including a free copy of the StickyBrain 2 organizer [MacNN]
You’ll definitely also want to check out the beta for Backup 2.0 which finally lets you back up directly to an external FireWire drive.
RSA Seeks to Fix RFID Worries
Researchers at RSA Security Inc.’s lab have come up with a technique they said will eliminate many of the privacy concerns surrounding the use of RFID tags and enable enterprises and consumers to use the technology without worry.
The solution, which involves fooling RFID (radio frequency identification) readers into believing all possible tags are present at any given time, is an inexpensive, elegant answer to a number of the privacy and security questions being asked about RFID technology, security experts say. [eWeek]
EarthLink Files Suit Against 100 E-Mailers Accused Of Spamming
ATLANTA (AP) — EarthLink Inc. filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against 100 people, mostly in Alabama and Canada, blaming them for millions of unwanted commercial E-mail messages, otherwise known as spam.
EarthLink, the third-largest Internet service provider, accuses the Alabama individuals of using stolen credit cards, identity theft, and banking fraud to fund Internet accounts and send out more than 250 million pieces of junk E-mail.
They went undetected for about six months by creating an elaborate chain of bogus names, false addresses and nonexistent companies, according to the lawsuit.
“This is a very tech-savvy spam ring, which has made this a particularly challenging investigation,” said Karen Cashion, lead attorney for EarthLink’s lawsuit. [Security Pipeline]
TVs Join The Wireless Grid
Now that Wi-Fi wireless networking technology is starting to speed up to 54 megabits per second and beyond, wireless connections will soon be suitably fast enough to carry high-quality video streams stored either locally on a home PC or server, or directly from the Internet itself.
Sony has been talking about its plans to bring network connections to its many home appliances for about a year, though it has thrown its lot in with IEEE 802.11a, a variant of wireless networking technology that isn’t compatible with Wi-Fi. An interesting new plasma TV screen from KiSS Technology may provide a hint of what to expect in the coming year. [Forbes.com]
PVR Threat Growing
Advertisers are poised to waste $5.5 billion in television ad expenditures in 2007 if television networks don’t adapt to the rising penetration of the personal video recorder, with its ability to zap commercials. [TelevisionWeek ]
Virtual Delivery Seen as Death to Discs
Virtual Delivery Seen as Death to Discs: CDs and DVDs may be on their way to extinction, even though Hollywood will win the war against illegal downloading, according to a new report from Forrester. The study predicts that in five years, CDs and DVDs will start to go the way of the vinyl LP as 33 percent of music sales and 19 percent of home video revenue shifts to streaming and downloading. [PaidContent.org]
Interestingly I finally purchased my first tracks… damn the ITMS is easy. My first track was Bob Dylan, Hurricane followed very quickly by Blonde on Blonde. This morning I scooped up Verve Remixed 2…
Security Expert Turns Political
Wired News talks with Richard Forno about his latest book, a departure from his usual computer security work. In it, he warns that ‘the real danger facing America is what we’re allowing ourselves to become.’ [Wired News]
Apple shooting for supercomputer heights
The company lands a big customer for its Power Mac G5: Virginia Tech, which will use 1,100 G5s as part of a cluster that’s designed to make the list of the world’s largest supercomputers. [CNET News.com]
Why having bluetooth in your Palm would be cool to have….
Search Engine Size Wars & Google’s Supplemental Results
Who has the biggest index? The search engine size wars have erupted again to dispute this — and the new Google supplemental index is complicating matters. [Search Engine Watch]
Hitachi Unveils its Itty Bitty RFID
Taking the concept of e-commerce in new directions, Hitachi (Quote, Company Info) Tuesday unveiled one of the world’s tiniest RFID chips with an internal antenna.
The Tokyo-based firm said its new 0.4 by 0.4 mm chip could be embedded in bank notes, gift certificates and other paper documents. The previous iteration of Hitachi’s u-chip, announced in 2001, was as small, but needed an external antenna to communicate with the reader, limiting its application. The new chip is compatible with ID number and support systems for the original u-chip. [InternetNews.com]
A Support Group for Spammers
Spammers congregate online at the Bulk Club, a site where they trade tips and support. But a glitch reveals the club’s roster, potentially exposing members to more backlash from those opposed to spam. By Brian McWilliams. [Wired News]
Selling your personal data
Harvard Professor John Deighton asserts that consumers should capitalize on the value of their personal information and get something in return. [CNET News.com]
MCI bundles broadband Net with voice
MCI on Tuesday signed an agreement with broadband service company Covad Communications to provide high-speed Internet services to its subscribers.
The deal will enable the carrier to extend its service footprint and allow it to bundle its local and long-distance voice services with Covad’s Internet services. [MCI bundles broadband Net with voice | CNET News.com]