7 ms·
"... meaning that typosquatting may actually be underexploited." Missing from the paper is an examination of web user behaviour Over time, so-called "direct n
by 1vuio0pswjnm7 11mo ago
"... meaning that typosquatting may actually be underexploited."
Missing from the paper is an examination of web user behaviour
Over time, so-called "direct navigation" where the domain name, e.g., example.com, was typed into the browser address bar, has declined. By the time Google terminated "Adsense for domains" in 2012 IMO it had managed to systematically subsume most of the traffic and associated revenue from the typosquatting/domain parking racket
https://web.archive.org/web/20250320184725if_/https://domainnamewire.com/2012/02/22/google-adsense-for-domains/ https://web.archive.org/web/20250320184725if_/https://domain...
With the introduction of the so-called "omnibar" or "omnibox" in Firefox^1 and Chrome, typographical errors in domain names are submitted as "searches" to a company that sells ad services. For example, Safari, Firefox, Chrome all sending search traffic to Google, LLC. From the DoJ antitrust litigation we know that Google has been paying ridiculously large sums of money to various companies for this traffic
1. Firefox originally called this the "awesome bar"
https://web.archive.org/web/20250927011424if_/https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/the-future-of-the-firefox-address-bar/ https://web.archive.org/web/20250927011424if_/https://www.cn...
Not to mention increasingly common user practice of direct navigation to a search engine webpage, e.g., google.com, then searching for the desired website, e.g., example.com
As everyone knows, one company, in some cases through acquisitions and/or anticompetitive conduct, came to control 1. search, 2. "the web browser", 3. online advertising services on the open web, 4. operating systems (mobile, "chromebook"), ...
If parked domains only get traffic from "direct navigation",^2 then it stands to reason that such traffic has declined as it has been increasingly captured by advertising-sponsored "default browsers" and, ultimately, Google. IMO, it makes sense that domain parking as a means of delivering ads and generating revenue would give way to these domains becoming unregistered or registered to malware distributers or the like
What are the registration histories for the unregistered edit distance 1 typosquatting domains. Consider the number that are "currently unregistered" versus "never before registered"
2. Perhaps the registrants are using other ways to send traffic to these domains