What *are* they smoking?

VeriSign stands to gain financially, take a look at this excerpt from an AP
news blurb published yesterday:

Ben Turner, VeriSign's vice president for naming services, described the

service

as a way to "improve overall usability of the Internet."

People mistype ".com" and ".net" names some 20 million times daily, Turner

said,

and internal studies show "the vast majority of users prefer a page like this
than what they are getting today."
...
Currently, Site Finder sends lost Web surfers to both regular search results

and

pay-for-placement listings, which are marked as such. Turner said VeriSign was
partnering with two search companies he would not name.

He would not disclose how much VeriSign would earn from those companies, with
which it has revenue-sharing arrangements.

Anyone find out any details of the contracts which VeriSign has apparently
signed to profit from this little venture?

-rich

It looks like Overture is doing the paid listings:
                                                                                
Compare http://sitefinder.verisign.com/spc?kw=Travel
with http://www.overture.com/d/search/?Keywords=travel
                                                                                
You can also see this by looking at the links on the results page.
"www.expedia.com" is actually http://www3.overture.com/d/sr/?.
                                                                                
And Inktomi is the provider of non-paid listings:
                                                                                
Compare http://sitefinder.verisign.com/spc?sb=verisign+sucks
with http://www.hotbot.com/default.asp?query=verisign+sucks
                                                                                
Both Overture and Inktomi are now owned by Yahoo.
                                                                                
Anyone with an Overture account can see what the high bids on the keywords
Travel, Entertainment, Gambling, Shopping, Gifts, Computers, Autos,
Insurance, Small Business, and Investing are now. From a SEC filing a while
ago, I seem to recall that something near half of the money from each click
goes back to the "search engine" in question, in this case Verisign.

                                    -- Aaron

VeriSign stands to gain financially, take a look at this excerpt from an AP
news blurb published yesterday:

...

Anyone find out any details of the contracts which VeriSign has apparently
signed to profit from this little venture?

No, but check this out:

http://sitefinder.verisign.com/spc?sb=bulk+email&searchboxtype=2
http://sitefinder.verisign.com/spc?sb=bulk+mailers&searchboxtype=2

Not that I am shocked.

~Ben