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.
