ICANN demands SiteFinder to stop

Deadline: 6:00 PM PDT on 4 October 2003

[Lisa]

ICANN has today insisted that VeriSign suspend the SiteFinder service, and restore the .com and .net top-level domains to the way they were operated prior to 15 September 2003. If VeriSign does not comply with this demand by 6:00 PM PDT on 4 October 2003, ICANN will be forced to take the steps necessary to enforce VeriSign's contractual obligations.

To see the announcement:
[icann.org...]

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Previous Thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[Brett_Tabke]

I hope Verisign complies or it could get very messy for the whole internet.

/off moving domains off verisign asap.

[Marc_P]

Indeed this was to be expected. The ethics and legality of their move has made many people very irate. Glad to see ICANN reacting so strongly.

[wkitty42]

ahhhhyeah... :)

[woop01]

Verisign is already backing down...

[biz.yahoo.com ]

[pendanticist]

Hey Brett! Hold up a minute.

:)

Pendanticist

[PatrickDeese]

During the more than two weeks that Site Finder has been operational, there is no data to indicate that the core operation of the Domain Name System or stability of the Internet has been adversely affected.

According to my corporate legalese to common usage translator that means:

"In two weeks we made more money on site finder than we did on all other services of the corporation combined. We are now going to use this money to pay for lawyers to explore any and all loopholes in the operating contract to reactivate this service as soon as possible."

[agerhart]

"In two weeks we made more money on site finder than we did on all other services of the corporation combined. We are now going to use this money to pay for lawyers to explore any and all loopholes in the operating contract to reactivate this service as soon as possible."

Makes sense from a business stand point.

[pleeker]

Can't decide which is more surprising: ICANN reacting so quickly and strongly, or Verisign not putting up an immediate fight.

[The Contractor]

Site Finder has been used more than 40 million times by Internet users to get where they want to go online.

"The service has been well received by millions of Internet users who appreciate getting navigation tools as opposed to the 'dead end' of an error message," added Lewis.

And they know that how? I never saw a poll in place. Could you imagine what VeriSign and other registrars would do if Microsoft became a registrar and implemented this into Internet Explorer - bet VeriSign wouldn't be stating the above ;)

[BlueSky]

I'm glad ICANN finally moved. They should have done it sooner. Love this part of VeriSign's press release: "The service has been well received by millions of Internet users who appreciate getting navigation tools as opposed to the 'dead end' of an error message," added Lewis. Who did they canvas for that opinion?

[percentages]

This is good news. Verisign made a major mistake and I am in many ways pleased to see they didn't put up a fight over it.

>moving domains off verisign asap.
I'm stunned you have any left there. I thought most technical folks had moved a long time ago?

Lisa, is the wholesale price of domain names government regulated or set by Verisign? If it isn't regulated I wouldn't be surprised to see a huge increase as their next move. Please tell me it is regulated :)

[sidyadav]

Who did they canvas for that opinion?

hhhmmm.... certainly not me.

Sid

[musicales]

Could you imagine what VeriSign and other registrars would do if Microsoft became a registrar and implemented this into Internet Explorer

How easy it would be for Microsoft in their next non-IE browser application to redirect all page not founds to a microsoft sitefinder service. Once everyone gets used to not having a standard 'page not found', it will be very easy for MS to move in.

[sidyadav]

Yeah, but, the main problem of this 'whole thing' is VeriSign is making $$$ with it, and if Microsoft builds a "Site finder" without making money from it , and it is as useful as any other Site Finder service, then I reckon its OK for Microsoft to do it.

[BlueSky]

Lisa, is the wholesale price of domain names government regulated or set by Verisign? If it isn't regulated I wouldn't be surprised to see a huge increase as their next move.

It's not government but ICANN regulated. The max fee VeriSign can charge other registrars for .com and .net is $6.00:

[icann.org...]

[icann.org...]

[caustic]

verisign removes redirects:

[news.com.com...]

end of controversy.

[Powdork]

ok, so then does anyone want to buy verisane.com, haven't even finished it yet?;)
One that was finished is veri-sign.com. Its veri-funny. Not mine though:(

[DrDoc]

Could you imagine what VeriSign and other registrars would do if Microsoft became a registrar and implemented this into Internet Explorer

How easy it would be for Microsoft in their next non-IE browser application to redirect all page not founds to a microsoft sitefinder service.

What do you mean "if"? They already do! The default "Page not found" page is [search.msn.com...]
They've been redirecting IE users there for quite some time now!

[sidyadav]

hey yeah, true, I use to see that before, but I don't know where its gone now, I can only access it via its original URL but can't with a mis-spelled URL. Wonder where its dis-appeared.

Funny thing here: [search.msn.com...] lol!

Sid

[DaveN]

nice article [bizreport.com...]

[rcjordan]

from the above article:

Friday's news that VeriSign had agreed to temporarily shut down its Site Finder search page was covered by all the major tech press...

It's not fully shut down, not the search function anyway. I'm still getting traffic from sitefinder.

[quiet]

There is a petition at **** to stop them... I'd rather give the link that is in my profile (which will get you there) since its so incredibly cute. I'm not comfortable with posting URLs.

--q

<edited> wow... didn't let me even post the whois.... -q

[Powdork]

If you want to sign the petition, the answer lies in the hyphenated domain.