Here's a pair of head-shakers for you. Verizon is starting to test a service where mis-typed domain names will instead present search results, much like Verisign's SiteFinder service that caused angry mobs to all but go to the company's offices with torches and pitchforks. The service works at the DNS level meaning that Verizon customers would not be able to bypass it. The biggest problem with this is the impact on tools that look for non-existent DNS records as a way to combat spam and could break other search tools you have on your computer. The obvious motivation is to sell ads on the new "Did you mean…?" screens to make a quick buck. (See full article here.)
And speaking of making a quick buck from ads, Texas ISP Redmoon has found a way to insert ads into web pages that never originally had them at the ISP level. You wouldn't be able to bypass this and it would be a wholesale violation of the intellectual property rights of website owners who spend countless hours building content and arranging it just so. These aren't pop-ups: they're displayed right in the page, modifying the source to insert them. It's also worth noting that this is a paid ISP, not a freebie like Juno or Netzero. (See full article here.)
Hopefully both Verizon and Redmoon will realize that they're on the verge of summoning angry mobs and angrier hackers.
