Domain Typos Cost Brands Millions a Year, Frustrate Consumers

[Chuck]

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a recent study by domain name strategy consultancy FairWinds Partners, the companies behind 250 of the most visited websites are, in aggregate, losing over 448millionimpressionsand $327millionper year through domains that are typos of those 250 websites.....................

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[Johnn]

There are solutions for this issue:

1. Have online FREE classes for the Internet users so they can spell the sites correctly.
2. The companies needed to form a new Internet department to buy all the typo names from DNForum members.
3. Heavy fines to search engines which display the typo sites

 

[WebMaster]

John is right. This is not typo domains owners problems .
This is why brains are for people and the people must use them .

 

[Focus]

Yes the entire market hinges on people not taking the time to or knowing how spell the damn website name correctly! Along with marketing directors who choose poorly thought out and easily confused names and then point the finger when people own similiar ones! You know how I feel about this matter, click!

 

[JB Lions]

"$327millionper year"

Looks like a decent enough amount of money to start buying some of those domains up.

 

[fab]

Hurray for typos!

 

[Diabro]

John is right. This is not typo domains owners problems .
This is why brains are for people and the people must use them .

Whoever you feel is responsible or not does not matter. Type domains are an easy target and are used to leverage domain legislation that can even effect legitimate domainers.

 

[Focus]

Almost anyone going to any domain name is generally looking for something else, the best generics have hardly the traffic and revenue of a typo with the exception of just a handful of domains. Typo domains and their revenue is what has powered & fueled this entire maket for years, without them it would nearly collapse.

 

[Diabro]

Almost anyone going to any domain name is generally looking for something else, the best generics have hardly the traffic and revenue of a typo with the exception of just a handful of domains. Typo domains and their revenue is what has powered & fueled this entire maket for years, without them it would nearly collapse.

I do not know if it will collapse but it will change. And I think that is a good thing. I would say more domainers are losing money and that combined they lose more than the good domainers make.

 

[radioz]

Generic typos (ie - Reciever.com) are OK;
Trademark typos (ie - Microsotf.com) are NOT and give all of us domainers a very black eye in the public's eye!

 

[myst woman]

the original target domain owners had ple-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-enty of time to buy the typos for their domains.
You no bid you no get. (traffic)

 

[snicksnack]

Generic typos (ie - Reciever.com) are OK;
Trademark typos (ie - Microsotf.com) are NOT and give all of us domainers a very black eye in the public's eye!

okay, where to draw the line ? what about wwwtarget.com or targte.com okay or not ? target is a trademark, but also a generic, same goes for orange and many other domains.

 

[Diabro]

the original target domain owners had ple-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-enty of time to buy the typos for their domains.
You no bid you no get. (traffic)

That may be true but they did not because in at least a few countries they do have copyright protection. They do go after the people who infringe on their trademarks and now, since they are already losing millions and have millions to spend, are going after changing the laws. You had it all figured out until it hit that roadblock though. :lol:

 

[draggar]

3. Heavy fines to search engines which display the typo sites

One major issue - this will give them the right to over-react with many domains. Where does the domain stop being a typo and become legitemate? Look at Microsoft vs. Mike Rowe (MikeRoweSoft).

Als, like SnickSnack's example, wwwtarget - it's clearly a typo but infringes on Target's trademark if you sell general items but what if you sell hunting supplies, primarily targets? Some Targets do sell those so is it still infringing?

Yes the entire market hinges on people not taking the time to or knowing how spell the damn website name correctly! Along with marketing directors who choose poorly thought out and easily confused names and then point the finger when people own similiar ones! You know how I feel about this matter, click!

Yep - I think this is a big part of it. Plus, in the past companies have filed WIPO cases, won the domain, but then let it drop only to repeat the whole process over and over again (Adidas, anyone?).

While it would be impossible for companies to think of every possible typo on their TM (and expensie) I think they should have some research done to find out what the more common versions would be.

Wasn't there an article a few years ago also where a hotel manager (or owner) didn't mind the typo-squatters who registered ones based on his hotel (location)(hotel chain).com. He figured he didn't have to spend the money on the domain but still got customers though that site.

I do own a couple of typos but they're generics and sadly they get very little traffic (one I'm going to drop and the other I have in line to be developed). People are getting to be better typers - many aren't even typing in www. so we can eleiminate many www(domain) domains.

 

[Biggie]

when "voice technology" takes hold...

will typos be called "speech-oes", when the computer can't distinguish what the hell the user is saying?

 

[Diabro]

One major issue - this will give them the right to over-react with many domains. Where does the domain stop being a typo and become legitemate? Look at Microsoft vs. Mike Rowe (MikeRoweSoft).

As you can see from some of the comments in this thread this will not matter. A lot a slimy people try to do too many sleazy things so the one thing that seems so simple, to make corporations look greedy and evil, cannot be achieved in this case. The corporations have been handed the moral high ground on a platinum platter. :yes:

 

[DTalk]

As you can see from some of the comments in this thread this will not matter.

A lot a slimy people try to do too many sleazy things so the one thing that seems so simple, to make corporations look greedy and evil, cannot be achieved in this case. The corporations have been handed the moral high ground on a platinum platter. :yes:

Agree.

However its dressed up (oh, wait! Its not my fault I own a near-dead-ringer of someone else's Trademarked brand - blame the stupid punters that can't spell, or type - or the TM owner that didn't buy 5000 typo domains at domainer-set prices....lol), typos feed off someone else's brand, and someone else's money & effort to market, promote & establish that brand....Not a great practice, imo.


Reality is, typo owners have got a few good years of rev from their typos....but, as Diabro says, you just give the moral high ground to the corporates - and, create a move for legislators to over-react, and hurt ALL domain owners much more by bringing in rules to try to stop typos....


...Win the short term battle...Lose the war....Great thinking...:?:

 

[Deleted member 73132]

shucks.. took me awhile to get here.. typed in dmforum.com

 

[razorblade]

I once owned a typo of a top ten website which was bringing me 80,000 uniques a month. But as some have already mentioned , most of the time the typo cannot provide anything close to what the visitor is expecting and I could not convert the traffiic, the bounce rate was 99%. I ended up pointing the url to another domain of mine and the bounce rate improved to an absolutely awful 98.1%.

I held it for three years. The traffic shot up over the last three years, but the bounce rate remained constant. So I sold it for pocket money - $4k.

This issue of typos has ramifications if you want to get involved in the moral issues.

1. I know for a fact that the website knew of the domain and could have taken it off me in a second. But being a top ten website, they really didn't care about a proverbial drop in the ocean of lost traffic.
2. It is really not like they are "losing" the traffic. Once the person gets to the right destination they will bookmark it if it is somewhere they will want to come back to. And even if they dont bookmark it, once they realize they tapped in a typo, they will retype it correctly
3. If typos have questionable morals, what about new extensions that come out and domainers buy names that they know are generic and make the huge companies buy the names off the holders of the major extensions
4.The approval of the .CO cctld for Columbia is like a kid in a candy store for typo domainers. Surely, if the "industry" really had a problem with typos believeing the owners to be paraiahs, then they could have made a special exception with .CO and swapped it around with .OC or any combination available short of .CO which will become the wildwest extension. No one seems to be complaining.

The typo I owned was and is the only typo I have ever held and I do not feel like I need to go to confession. IMO

 

[Diabro]

shucks.. took me awhile to get here.. typed in dmforum.com

I guess you kept putting in the u and the b.