ANOTHER MYSTERY SOLVED:

VeriSign to suspend Site Finder service: ICANN INSISTS PROGRAM BE SHUT DOWN (Aaron Davis, 10/04/03, San Jose Mercury News

VeriSign said Friday that it will suspend its controversial new Internet address search service after the regulatory body overseeing the Net's domain name system threatened a courtroom showdown. The service had been blamed for disabling junk e-mail filters and raising sweeping privacy and security problems that could destabilize the Internet. [...]

Since Site Finder's launch in mid-September, VeriSign has used its unique position as controller of the master database of domain names and their numerical equivalents to direct about 5 million misspelled or mistyped Web site requests each day to its own lucrative search page. In so doing, VeriSign edged out similar search services offered by about a dozen other companies.

VeriSign's Site Finder offers likely correct alternatives as well as search functions, browsing features and advertisements to redirected Web surfers. It has already become the focus of a potential class-action lawsuit by competitors.

Kinda wondered how come that kept happening.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 4, 2003 11:33 AM