I've put a seperate post on the Google World/Adword forum about recent news stories in the technical press about this project. (It relates to Adwords because of the use/abuse of Adsense by typo-squatters to generate income.)
This tool has actually been available for free download for a while. What is new is that a "light" version is going to be released and promoted for use by the general public. (Emphasis on parents.)
Microsoft is getting increasingly agressive about this. They are quite frank about how they feel about typo-squatters, and are strongly advocating for action against them. The website includes detailed instructions on such things as how to go about "filing multi-domain takedown notices to ISPs hosting typo-squating domains."
As I noted in my other post, it's not lost on me that perhaps this has something to do about Microsoft's entry into the contextual ad market. Personally, I think it's a bit of brilliant marketing - Microsoft has put everyone on notice exactly what their position on typo-squating is, and they will certainly be called on it if their policies and their implementation don't differ significantly from Google's.
Anyway, if you have a domain or domains that are vulnerable to typo-squating, here's a tool to help you. Or, if you are a typo-squatter - here's your heads-up!
Microsoft Research has released a new tool to help pinpoint large-scale typo-squatters that are known to be gaming pay-per-click domain parking services. The lightweight prototype (...) keeps tabs on a sophisticated typo-squatting scheme that uses multilayer URL redirection to make money from Google's AdSense for domains program.
[eweek.com...]
