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Ansearch Case Files: Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics

		ARTICLES Ansearch – A New & Innovative Australian Search Engine or Something More Sinister? Judge for yourself! Part Three of a Detailed Seven Part Series. Prepared by: Melissa Martin, Diane Scott & Peter McNamara with contributions from many industry sources. Note: Despite emails requesting comments on this article to Ansearch CEO Dean Jones, Ansearch Media relations employee Louisa Williams & Optum CEO Peter Jermyn, neither company has chosen to respond to address the concerns raised. Ansearch: A Detailed Seven Part Series Ansearch Case Files: Background Information & Introduction Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Under Fire Ansearch Case Files: Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics Ansearch Case Files: Discovery Spreads Ansearch Case Files: The Domain Dispute Resolution Process Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch & Associated Domain Names Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Contact Information Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics Further investigation into the practices at Ansearch, reveal that a significant portion of traffic is seems to be being funneled from expired or unregistered domain names that have been bought by Ansearch or entities affiliated with them. Again, this practice is nothing new and many sites use this technique to capture excess traffic. In fact, it is often considered to be a legitimate approach to buy appropriate domain names of common misspellings and typos and point them to a genuine company website. The technique can also be useful to increase brand awareness in the marketplace. However, in legitimate use and for both ethical and legal reasons, most companies will steer well clear of registering the names of competitors and those well protected by strong copyright or trademarks. Considering the above, it is alarming to scrutinize the dangerous path followed by Ansearch in registering domain names that are misleadingly similar to well known brand names. In many cases, if not all, such misleading domain names registered to Ansearch associates redirected visitors to Ansearch result pages, a practice commonly known as cyber squatting. Typically, if an Internet marketer is caught out on this type of "bait and switch" action or in cases where ownership of a domain name is contested, the marketer will readily relinquish the domain and simply register more. However, is it a legitimate approach for a start-up seeking credibility in the Australian search engine space to adopt strategies distressingly familiar to ones commonly used within the adult online industry that cause many disturbing problems? Cyber squatting can be defined as “registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else's trademark.” The practice evolved as it became evident that many Internet users took a logical approach to searching for information by simply typing the name of a company, product or name into the address bar of their browser, prefacing such guesses with ‘www’ and following them with popular extensions such as .com.au or .com. This simplistic approach actually works often enough to make it worth trying before hitting a search engine. After all, many newer Internet users haven't yet learned how to use search engines effectively and more experienced users often find search engines to be awkward and time consuming because of non-relevant results. It also opened up a whole new avenue for companies wishing to capitalize on misspellings, unregistered extensions and unprotected brands. Although cases of cyber squatting are less common today since most businesses are decidedly more “internet savvy”, Ansearch’s methodical approach to registering the names has resulted in a lengthy list. The list of Australian domains now registered and pointing to Ansearch includes: Well-known brands: australiaairlines.com.au, bandaid.com.au Celebrities: tomcruise.com.au, pamelaanderson.com.au, michaelschumacher.com.au Newspapers: usatoday.com.au, thesydneymorningherald.com.au, latimes.com.au Television: abcnews.com.au, australiaidol.com.au, sesamestreet.com.au Well known websites: allrecipes.com.au, angelfire.com.au, chatcity.com.au, dejanews.com.au, fanfiction.com.au, hottmail.com.au And even direct Australian competitors: webwombats.com.au, stickybeeks.com.au The list includes hundreds of domains, registered through a small number of entities, and has precipitated a growing tide of discontent with the new engine. As an example of totally shameless behaviour, the domain fairtrading.com.au was registered and pointed at the Ansearch search engine. Fair Trading is a department of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with offices in each state of Australia, “promoting competition and fair trading”. The names of a number of other popular Australian government departments have also been picked up. It seems that very little is held sacred at the company headquarters. Many Australians are familiar with the ABC NewsRadio program “WebWatch” heard on Saturday afternoons at 5:50 p.m. that discusses up and coming websites on the internet Internet scene. Ansearch, as it turns out was featured on a Saturday afternoon in December and is linked from the WebWatch page. In return, the domain abcradio.com.au was picked up. You can even find many listings within the search results of the main stream search engines that look quite missleading to the unsuspecting searcher. Examples from the Yahoo search results on 30th March 2005 look like this: The following links will take you to the appropriate results - use the back button of your browser to return to this page. Ansearch.com.au - Search google google, Search Engine Australia featuring results from user submissions and leading search providers. www.googles.com.au - 21k - Cached - More from this site www smh, search for news and related resources Search Engine Australia featuring results from user submissions and leading search providers. wwwsmh.com.au - 14k - Cached - More from this site Next: Ansearch Case Files: Discovery Spreads >> Discuss this series at Search Engine Forums Relevant links: Definition of Cybersquatting Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ABC News Radio: WebWatch Strange names registered by Ansearch associated entities (chiefly Goodbrook Holdings Ltd.)