Nominum Delivers Web Error Redirect Solution

Service providers searching for an answer to Google’s rule of the online advertising roost now can leverage Nominum Inc.’s new Vantio NXR software in an attempt to gain some advantage from DNS redirect.

Computer users input hoards of mistyped or experimental Web addresses, to sites that don’t exist, each day. When that happens, these folks usually are presented with error messages. But some companies are using these mistakes as an opportunity to redirect people to their own Web sites to offer (sometimes advertiser-controlled) suggestions for how to find what they’re looking for and, in the meantime, to target these individuals with advertisements.

Nominum, best known for its DNS, DHCP and ENUM solutions, says its service provider customers have been asking for such a Web error redirect solution. So the company responded by delivering the now-available Vantio solution, for which the company declined to provide pricing. That consists of the Vantio base server, and the Vantio NXR (NXDOMAIN Redirection) Service Delivery Module, which is based on a Nominum technology called SureSurf that decides what gets redirected.

Many service providers have tried to do Web error redirect, but previous solutions have been “prone to missteps,” because they adversely have affected DNS server performance or accidentally redirected other DNS applications, said Gopala Tumuluri, Nominum’s director of product marketing.

However, the potential landmines of implementing a redirect capability go far beyond server performance. At least a couple of communications companies that have tried to gain advantage from mistyped Web addresses have been rebuked by their own users and/or the Internet community at large. For example, some EarthLink Inc. customers took umbrage to being redirected to an ad-filled Web page run by the ISP. And VeriSign Inc., a domain name registrar, among other things, reportedly was called on the carpet several years ago by some in the Internet community for redirecting folks who typed in a nonexistent domain to a portal with information about VeriSign products and partner site links.

Nominum Inc. www.nominum.com

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