Google Profiting From Typo-Squatting, Report Charges

Google (GOOG) is profiting from millions of typo-squatting Web sites that earn advertising from Google’s AdSense advertising program, Harvard University professor Ben Edelman says.

In a report published Monday, Edelman says Google profits from typo-squatting Web sites that run ads using Google’s AdSense–which, ironically, are often bought by the owners of the legitimate sites Web surfers were trying to visit.

“This is one of the unsavory ways we all end up paying Google,” Edelman says in an interview. “Users don’t have to write Google a check to receive Google’s services. But, one way or another, Google manages to get users’ money.”

Typo-squatting sites are found at domains that have one letter different from legitimate, trademarked domains–bankofdamerica.com, for instance, as depicted in the screenshot above, which has a “d” in the URL.

Typo-squatting has been around since the beginning of the Web, but until recently, typo-squatters had limited means of profiting from surfers’ bad spelling or clumsy typing.

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