[wildcard-comments] from Time Warner

["An, Edward" <Edward.An@xxxxxxxxx>]

VeriSign's new SiteFinder functionality, which is essentially a "wildcard"
that redicrects traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a "no domain"
response from whichever site/browser a web surfer is using to a
VeriSign-operated website with search results and links to paid
advertisements, raises several significant issues for the internet business
community. 
First, any efforts to alter the Domain Name Systems that have been
established over the last several years by the internet community adversely
affect the internet infrastructure and entire internet community. The change
basically "rewires" an aspect of the internet that web architects, software
engineers, and users have always expected to behave a certain way. Among
other things, the sweeping change has led to many time-out errors and
inaccessibility of the sites on which users have come to rely upon in
locating their desired Web destinations, thwarted established anti-spam
mechanisms that rely upon a DNS look-up to determine if a URL exists,
complicated the analysis of network problems by administrators, and has
quite possibly polluted search engine results. 
The DNS systems depend upon "no such name" responses for several key uses,
including allowing web browsers to display "page not found" in the local
language and character set of the users when given incorrect URLs;
facilitating the detection of configuration failures by automated or
embedded tools that use HTTP but do not have a user interfact; and enabling
mail administrators to block all nonexistent URLs as a main prong of their
spam-fighting efforts. The implementation of SiteFinder has eliminated the
"no such name" response from the .com and .net vocabulary, which means that
the systems that were reliant upon that response are now all broken. 
Another known danger posed by wildcards stems from the fact that the
wildcard label will match anything at all, as long as there is no
non-wildcard name within the same zone that is a closer match to the query
name than the wildcard. A multitude of conventions and protocols use labels
at the left ends of the names of records to distinguish between records
associated with different services, all of which end up unable to accomplish
their intended functions with the implementation of VeriSign's wildcard. 
Between this "match anything" behavior and poor interaction with anything
that depends on "no such name" responses, wildcards interact with normal and
predictable human errors and end up having effects that go far beyond their
intended scope. 
In addition to compromising the reliability, stability, and functionality of
the internet as a whole, SiteFinder also disrupts users' experiences. First,
VeriSign was not fully equipped to handle the volume of traffic that
resulted from the implementation of the wildcard. Consequently, users who
mistype URLs (or purposefully type addresses that turn out inactive or
nonexistent) find themselves waiting for the page to resolve and eventually
timed out. Clearly, the added waiting time and the eventual time-out yields
a poor user experience (which users may very well blame on their browsers
rather than on VeriSign, the true culprit). 
Moreover, users have developed relationships with particular sites and have
chosen to use them as their internet browsing conduits. With VeriSign's
SiteFinder service, users find themselves diverted to VeriSign's web site in
the event of a typographical error or mistaken URL guess. The increased
usage of the internet across multiple market segments is largely a result of
users' increasing confidence in the predictability of their experience.
VeriSign's hijacking of users and diversion to its own pages, when it works,
disrupts that predictability, among other things. 
The issues described above illustrate the dangers that wildcards may pose to
the stability and reliability of core Internet infrastructure. In light of
VeriSign's role as the single registry for .com and .net domain names, any
unilateral action taken by Verisign with regard to the DNS space is also
viewed by many to be a violation to the spirit of the power entrusted to
them by the internet business community. Leaving aside whether Verisign has
the legal right to introduce wildcards, as recently-filed lawsuits by
Netster and GoDaddy have challenged, the adverse effects of the Verisign
service on the Internet community require that the SiteFinder service be
suspended until ICANN can fully assess the service and determine whether
such services may be implemented by DNS registries without disruption to the
community.


Edward An
Time Warner
(202)530-3458
Cell: (202)907-5015
edward.an@xxxxxxxxx
AIM: anedward


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