|
Typo-squatting
(registering a domain name very similar to that used by another
organisation) is a more advanced form of cyber-squatting with
the objective of : a) captur ing some of the traffic that was
initially directed to the original website, through spelling
or typing mistakes and b) intercept ing some of the emails sent
to the original recipient.
It is not uncommon that web users misspell or simply mistype
a domain name or email address and mistakenly land on the wrong
website or send an email to the wrong recipient.
In October 2001 Marc Schneider published a
research in this field . He registered the domain name ‘jptmail.com’,
which is very close to ‘hotmail.com’ (the ‘j’
and ‘p’ key are situated next to ‘h’
and ‘o’ on the keyboard) to calculate the level
of traffic and emails he could capture from Hotmail account
users.
Although 'jptmail.com’ is not ideal
as users would have to make two mistakes while typing 'hotmail'
(hit 'j' and 'p' instead of 'h' and ''o') Mr Schneider was
still able to capture over 3000 visitors in one year.
He then calculated that an address with just one error could
generate up to ten times the traffic.
For emails the strategy is very simple, all typosquatters
have to do is set up a ‘catch-all’ email account
to redirect all messages to their inbox and focus on large
traffic websites.
Some
common typing mistakes are:
| Google |
googel.com |
| Microsoft |
microsofr.com |
| Hotmail |
hotmial.com |
| Cathay
Pacific |
cahtaypacific.com |
| Amazon |
amzon.com |
Getting started with Search Engine Marketing. Domainz
Meta-tags Primer
To
request a full brand protection report call
our experienced Online Solutions Team on 0800 366 2469.
|
