September 20, 2003

An Internet search service launched this week to redirect Web surfers who mistype addresses became the subject of a $100 million antitrust lawsuit filed by a rival.

The federal lawsuit was the latest attack on the Site Finder offering from VeriSign Inc., a company that directs much of the Internet's traffic through its control of directories for two of the most popular domain names, ``.com'' and ``.net.''

Popular Enterprises LLC, which has a similar service it says got superseded by Site Finder, said it was losing revenues from directing traffic to Web sites that pay for search listings. A spokesman for VeriSign, based in Mountain View, Calif., said Friday the company would not comment on pending litigation, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla., where Popular is headquartered.

VeriSign has defended the service it launched Monday, saying it gave Internet users help finding what they were hunting instead of a generic error message. The company estimates that people mistype ``.com'' and ``.net'' names some 20 million times daily. Now, when someone types a ``.com'' or ``.net'' address for which no Web site exists, VeriSign's directories pass on the request to Site Finder, which returns a list of likely alternatives. A search box is also provided, and VeriSign gets unspecified revenues for its use.

``As the emotion and the fiction passes away, the reality we'll all be left with is: You'll be getting to where you're looking for quicker,'' VeriSign spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy said Friday. Critics complain that the new service gives a private company too much control over online commerce and lets it profit from an essential monopoly over ``.com'' and ``.net'' names. They say the service could disrupt Internet standards and rival services.

VeriSign's Site Finder is similar to the referrals offered to users of America Online, the Internet Explorer browser from Microsoft Corp. and the free SmartBrowse toolbar from Popular. What's different is VeriSign's status as master-keeper of ``.com'' and ``.net'' directories. In that position, it can intercept mistyped addresses before services from AOL, Microsoft or Popular kick in.

``Site Finder has completely stopped our core functionality,'' said Robert Hart, Popular's marketing director. ``It has taken away well over half of the revenue that's generated from the applications. It's making our distribution of our toolbar hard to justify.'' Hart, who refused to disclose the company's revenues, said SmartBrowse has 1.4 million users, a base that grows by thousands daily.

Site Finder does not affect referrals that Popular gets when Internet users type misspellings already registered by the company. Many companies seek to capture traffic by registering common misspellings of popular sites like Disney.com and NYTimes.com. Although the lawsuit does not specify an amount, company officials estimated damages at $100 million.

Source: CRM Assist

        

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