[IP] Internal Memo at VeriSign
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32973.html
Users 'vote with their mouses' for Site Finder
By <mailto:john.leyden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>John Leyden
Posted: 23/09/2003 at 10:58 GMT
MemoWatch Russell (AKA Rusty) Lewis, general manager of VeriSign's Global
Registry Services has been busy with his pen lately. At the weekend he
wrote to ICANN
<http://www.icann.org/correspondence/lewis-to-twomey-21sep03.htm>declining
the Net governing body's
<http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-19sep03.htm>request to suspend
VeriSign's controversial Site Finder service.
He's also written to his employees to explain VeriSign's actions, which
techies allege undermine well-established Net technical standards.
Rusty is prepared to take these considerations in mind in considering
modifying Site Finder, however he shows no signs that VeriSign is prepared
to drop the much-criticised service. On the contrary, Rusty claims Net
users have "voted with their mouses" in favour of the service by using it
millions of times a day.
What!
Surfers normally only reach Site Finder by accident when they mistype
something into their browser. So how can the 65 million people who wound up
on Site Finder by last Sunday be described as "voting for the service"? ®
That memo in full...
Dear Colleagues,
VeriSign recently launched an innovative service to millions of Internet
users. Our new Site Finder service improves the navigation experience for
users by replacing frustrating error messages that offer no useful
information with a consistent Web page that offers the user navigation
assistance. Research has indicated that over 20 million users make these
errors every day, whether by mistyping a domain name or deliberately
searching for a domain that has not been registered.
Site Finder is a powerful tool that improves Web navigation for users. When
a user types a .com or .net domain name into their browser address bar that
does not exist, a "natural language" algorithm is run against the query to
attempt to find domain names that are similar in spelling. An example would
be www.bookstre.com - instead of a confusing error message, Site Finder
would ask the user if they meant to type www.bookstore.com, and also
present related categories and listings. I encourage all of you to
experience this for yourselves from your browsers today.
Millions of Internet users have already benefited from Site Finder. Through
Sunday, Sept. 21, Site Finder has been visited over 65 million times by
Internet users. The most popular function has been the Search tool, which
has been used over 11 million times to search for a domain name. The "Did
You Mean?" tool has been used 1.6 million times by users looking for an
alternative domain name. Site Finder has averaged more than 5 million
unique visitors a day.
Having said that, as a new and innovative service there is work still to be
done. In the course of our implementation various users have given us
constructive feedback on how best to implement the service to address
technical issues. VeriSign is committed to working with the Internet
community on Site Finder, so we have established a Technical Review Panel
to assist us in gathering and analyzing technical information regarding
Site Finder. Over the coming days, we will continue to take feedback and
incorporate constructive ideas about how we can improve the service and
assess its effectiveness.
We are inviting comments about the service by emailing VeriSign at
sitefinder@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx In addition, information about Site Finder and
its implementation is available at
http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/sitefinder/index.html
In an effort to gather and analyze feedback about the service, VeriSign has
established a Technical Review Panel comprised of Internet community
leaders. Over the next few weeks, the Technical Review Panel will gather
information to assist VeriSign in assessing any operational impact and
taking any appropriate action.
As with any technology innovation, there will be differences of opinion and
even some controversy. We remain focused on the fact that Internet users
have "voted with their mouses" that they like the service by using it
millions of times a day.
As we make long-term decisions about the service we will keep you informed
about developments. If you have any questions about Site Finder, don't
hesitate to email me.
Regards,
Rusty Lewis
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