No, they are not learning. At least this is not what their CEO says:
After reading that article I got curious about who
Overture is. A quick search on Google got me this
article:
http://www.internet-marketing-research.net/overture_click_fraud.php
And in case you think that perhaps the Red Herring writer
only used Overture's rates as an example, here's another
article that confirms that Overture did have a deal with
Verisign's Sitefinder project:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3080071
Verisign and its CEO are looking slimier and slimier...
Thankfully, it is highly unlikely that the .com boom will
ever make a comeback. Marketing and advertising people
and investors are beginning to understand what works and what
doesn't on the Internet.
I expect that Sitefinder will return but that a lot of browser
software and ISPs will divert the misspelled URLs to a local
spelling checker. Sitefinder version 2 will die a quick death
because it won't get enough clicks and most of the ones
that it does get will be nuisance clicks.
--Michael Dillon