Filed under: Developer, Internet, Kids, Security, Text, Utilities, News, Windows, Web services, Microsoft, Freeware
URL Tracer from Microsoft prevents typo-squatting
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Apr 7th 2006
Ever type in a URL incorrectly and wind up on some
crazy pop-up ridden landscape of porn and sundries? Those "search" sites are bad enough, but try going to
neoppets.com and see what Santa has for you... Microsoft has been tracking "typo-squatters" through its Strider Typo-Patrol Project. And they now have a tool so that you
can track the worst offenders. The tool looks at a number of common typos: misspellings, missing dots and so forth.
These common errors wind up making big bucks for the offenders, as they have an elaborate scheme of grabbing clicks,
which can result in AdSense money (or other clickthrough payments). Hey, they're not scamming you for fun... Microsoft
is being a good corporate citizen by throwing some of its research money at this problem, and the Strider tool is one
of the first tools of its kind I've seen come out of the lab. Between this and the already-good anti-phishing tools
from MS, Vista could really be chock full of consumer protection devices...[Via eWeek]
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
