[wildcard-comments] Verisign's Sitefinder
SiteFinder is a terrible and I am appalled that it is allowed to exist: 1. It makes spam more difficult to detect and reject. 2. It treats an error condition other than an error. 3. It turns an underlying protocol into a revenue generation product for a single company. 4. I have no way to "unsubscribe" to the product. 5. Broken links on web sites now provide free advertising for Verisign regardless of the intent of web site's owner or designer. 6. Consistency is lost since .com and .net errors are no longer handles as .org, .gov, .de, etc. errors. 7.The ability to simply correct a typo in the browser address bar is lost since what is typed is replaced by a SiteFinder address. 8. Internet privacy has been eroded. No company should be allowed to abuse the privileged position of being an Internet registry in this manner. This is not the first instance of Versign's overly aggressive business practices: 1. They recently settled with the FTC over deceptive marketing regarding domain name registration. 2. They have been successfully sued for domain name slamming in the past and under suit again for the same practice. This is not a company that I wish to trust with any personal information. It is exceedingly arrogant for a company to conclude that internet users are voting in favor of the service by counting the accesses to the site. Users dumped onto the site through no choice of their own. Once there, they may experiment to with the service, but such experimentation should not be interpreted as a vote for the service. I hope this invasion and degradation of the internet is stopped and that measures are put into place so that it does not happen again. Sincerely, Marilyn L. Schweitzer |