Privacy Digest

Fixing Typos by Web Users, Without Raising Hackles: "People who sign up for OpenDNS’s service are offered an easier way to find Web pages and greater online protection from malicious sites."

[...]

SAN FRANCISCO, July 2 -- David Ulevitch is trying to turn two numbers into a multimillion-dollar business.

The numbers -- each composed of a quartet of digits -- are just two of the more than four billion unique identifiers, the street addresses of cyberspace, that permit computers and other electronic devices to find one another on the Internet.

With the cleverness of a Wall Street arbitrageur, Mr. Ulevitch, who is a 25-year-old anthropology graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, has figured out how to use the numbers to make a business out of the propensity of Web surfers to make simple typing errors.

Moreover, he has done it in a way that has not outraged the band of gray-bearded technical designers of the original Internet, which in itself is no simple feat and plays no small part in his success.

Mr. Ulevitch's offer is quite simple. People who sign up for his service at OpenDNS.com are promised an easier way to locate Web pages and more protection from people who try to steal personal information from Web users.

It can also block Web sites that offer pornography or other undesired material.

He does this by using the Domain Name System, or DNS, which is the phonebook for the Internet. Every Web site is assigned unique machine-readable numbers which are used to direct Internet traffic. Mr. Ulevitch inserts his service between a user's computer and the broader Internet. When an Internet-connected computer or router is configured by adding OpenDNS.com's two numbers -- 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 -- OpenDNS makes it possible to access Web sites faster.

His service will also correct standard spelling mistakes. For example, if a user types google.cm instead of google.com, OpenDNS will redirect the query to the correct Web page. OpenDNS also makes it possible for users to use the Web address query box of a Web browser in the same way users now use the search engine query box found in all modern Web browsers. Typing a search request into the regular Web address box on a computer that uses the OpenDNS service will return search results and related advertisements from Yahoo.

OpenDNS makes money when a Web user clicks on the advertising links. It is nearly profitable, Mr. Ulevitch said."

(Read Original Article - Via NYT > Technology.)