I just got the newest copy of the I-Domain newsletter and they have some great news about Verisign, so I'm going to re-print the part with the happy news:

I-Domain Digest Domain Name Strategy
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Moderated by: Keith Pieper mailto:domain@marketingwonk.com
Published by: Up2Speed LLC http://www.marketingwonk.com

Tell friends to subscribe for free by sending email to:
mailto:join-idomaindigest@list.marketingwonk.com
____________________________________________________________

September 23, 2003 IN THIS DIGEST Issue #420


MODERATOR COMMENT
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TOPIC: Verisign is Going Down

Just exactly how many licks does it take
before Verisign is down for the count? Within a week,
Verisign's SiteFinder service (http://snurl.com/2ct4)
has...

-stirred up privacy violation issues by using
Overture and Omniture tracking bugs and services
(http://snurl.com/2fe8 and http://snurl.com/2feg and
http://snurl.com/2fed)

-attracted a $100 million anti-trust lawsuit
(http://snurl.com/2fe6)

-attracted a lawsuit to block
SiteFinder(http://snurl.com/2fox)

-potentially violated countless trademarks

-potentially violated existing patents
(http://snurl.com/2feh)

-and generally pissed a lot of people off

The Internet Software Consortium (who serves nearly
80 percent of ISPs) has issued a patch to bypass
SiteFinder (http://snurl.com/2fe7). ICANN and the
Internet Advertising Bureau have asked Verisign to
discontinue SiteFinder (http://snurl.com/2fef).

Despite all of the uproar, Verisign sticks with the
service, claiming a large number of pleased customers
and users (http://snurl.com/2fe9).

But really, it's all about the moola. A potential
cash cow, SiteFinder has taken some 20 million typos
each day and driven Verisign's Alexa traffic rank
from 783 to 21 within three months (that means
Verisign has the 21st most visited site on the
Internet). Verisign's Alexa reach rank has
skyrocketed from 301 to 12 (only 11 more web sites
reach more unique user's than Verisign's site).
According to Alexa, 65 percent of Verisign's traffic
is now derived from SiteFinder.

What a great business idea. What a great opportunity.
What poor implementation and planning. SiteFinder is
only the most recent snafu Verisign has added to
their list of troubles. Let's not forget the Wait
List Service controversy.

These problems all stem from one thing...a
monopolistic company that does not care about the
customer or stakeholders. To this point, why should
they. They've had it all. But this might be the last
straw.

Keith Pieper


All of the "I" series of discussion lists are great and you should check them out if you have not hear of them before. There are a number on different topics like Search, Sales, Design, Etc.
Very Highly Recommeneded.

(hristian