McAfee Publishes In-Depth Study on Domain Name Typos
The popular internet security company McAfee has published a detailed study on domain name typos entitled “The State of Typo-Squatting 2007.” To be clear this study is not exactly on domain parking in general, but more specifically those domains which target misspellings of well-known brands, companies and websites.
Within this well-researched publication you can find more details on the McAfee’s methodology as well as tables detailing the following interesting information:
- Squatter Frequency Ranked by Selected Countries
(UK, Portugal, Spain…) - Top 100 Sites for Expected Typo-Squatting
(FreeCreditReport, Orkut, MetaCafe…) - Most Frequently Squatted Categories
(Games, Airlines, Media…)
Key Findings - Highlights
- The average browser: Typical consumers who misspell a popular Web site URL have a 1 in 14 chance of landing at a likely typo-squatter site.
- The biggest middle men: Top five parking companies, ranked by the percentage of squatters parked by them, are Information (28.5%), Hitfarm (11.3%), Domainsponsor (2.9%), Sedo (2.5%) and GoDaddy (2.3%). Together, the top five park 47.5% of squatters.
- Following the crowds: Popular, consumer-focused Web sites typically attract more squatters than business to business sites or niche content sites.
- Look What I Found Mommy: The incidence of pornographic content on non-adult typo-squatted sites is just 2.4%, suggesting improvement since previous studies by other researchers.
- The McDonald’s Effect: The average for the category is 8.4% and 24 of the top most squatted sites are children’s properties for kids 12 and under. Add in sites like MySpace and Miniclip and more than 60 of the top most squatted sites are properties that appeal to the 18 and under demographic.
Kevin Ham - The “.CM” Takeover
I found this interesting bit of information that I surprisingly had not heard yet.
Kevin Ham, an extremely successful domainer, struck a deal with the government of Cameroon to re-direct un-registered “.cm” typos to an ad-filled parking page owned by him. This wildcarding of the .cm domain is quite controversial.
New DotSauce Poll Question
What are your thoughts on domain name typos? Please respond to the latest poll question found in the right sidebar. I would also love to hear your comments, please leave one in the form below.
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December 14th, 2007 at 12:00 am
My thoughts? They’re very profitable. I owned one where people looking for an airline and guessing at the domain typed my domain instead. Bought it for $500 from the guy who had it initially,. Made ~17 bucks in a few days if memory serves (lots of traffic!). Sold it to someone else for a $300 profit a few days later.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:01 am
My understanding is that the automobile and consumer electronics niches are also great. (Speaking of which, I own newcardealership(s).ca - not typos, but when you look at the overture on those keywords, you realize there’s some beautiful seo value in those domains :D.)
December 14th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Excellent post. I recently wrote about typo domains too at http://tinyurl.com/343z98
One thing I didn’t know was how much GoDaddy was participating in the practice…
Typo domains and domain tasting are causing a few problems within the domain registration business and not enough is spoken about them.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:01 am
too much extra work, and the stigma attached to it makes it an avoidable practice.
good article!
December 14th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Very wonderful post. Typo domain and domain tasting causing some problems. Thanks for your information.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
[…] McAfee Publishes In-Depth Study on Domain Name Typos, http://www.dotsauce.com […]
December 15th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Just remember that in many cases you could open yourself to legal challenges with companies where the typo is effected. Especially if a small co. suddenly gets big.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Though I never misspelled a domain whenever I type a address in browser :lol:, but I think they can be a valuable asset still.
Companies should take care of misspelled domains and maybe register them along with actual names, so that cyber squatters don’t get much chance.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:40 am
[…] Think before you squat. […]