OwnThisDomain.co.uk

Hi Everyone,

I noticed it once a few months ago and thought it was just a one-off and didn't look in to it further.

However, I just hand-regged a .co.uk domain and typed in to see if something existed at the uk.com address.

As happened a couple of months ago, it redirected to a sedo page displaying the .co.uk address I just registered (not the uk.com)!

Having now tested it further, it seems that any unregistered uk.com domain displays a sedo search results page appearing to be search results for the .co.uk domain.

http://www.acorndomainsisreallyreallygreat.uk.com
http://www.itsveryearlyinthemorningnow.uk.com

I've used silly names to make the point that unregistered domains redirect in this way but what if you type in www.acorndomains.uk.com.

Sure enough, it comes to a search results page making it look like acorndomains.CO.UK is at sedo!

Of course, it's easy enough not to type in uk.com but, still, it's certainly a script error.

URL string says registrar=taudomuk

Ok, so acorndomains.co.uk has a really high alexa rank. Because the address bar for acorndomains.uk.com redirects to http://www.sedoparking.com/search/re...ndomains.CO.UK and the sedo/ad serving database must surely read it as a click from acorndomains.CO.UK, would the .co.uk element in the address bar be generating a better CPC than if it were listed as the uk.com??

Because that would make it quite a serious error!

Wondered if anyone else had noticed - even though we rarely go near uk.com domains!

Best wishes, Richard

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OwnThisDomain.co.uk | AppraiseMyDomain.co.uk
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tifosi

hmmm. Pretty naughty. I don't appreciate my business name in .uk.com format redirecting to a sedo page showing MY business name as the domain, and then having related searches including 'webcam girls, hardcore'

S

doodlebug

Bl**dy good job it's not the other way around, I had to point out some serious error to them when they upgraded the site, I've got to say though some things are a lot better on Sedo and remember it's only 10 years old

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No links for me thanks !

OwnThisDomain.co.uk

So someone - registrar or Sedo - has taken note of this post.

BUT
The domain typed in still redirects in exactly the same way as mentioned earlier. The only difference now is the redirect address is hidden in a frame mask so we don't actually see where it's going. But it is still going to the same redirect even though the visitor can no longer see it.

=
frame src='http://www.sedoparking.com/search/registrar.php?registrar=taudomuk
&domain=acorndomains.co.uk'
=

Because the url string has now been hidden yet not corrected, it's surely grounds for us to ask questions - especially because Sedo or the uk.com registrar have made no comment here yet.

Not accusing anyone of anything but would there be any CPC benefit at all in accidentally doing something like this?
Does Google / doubleclick etc. give a lesser or greater amount of adsense revenue depending on the rank of extension - uk.com versus .co.uk / .com etc.

I'm fairly new in the world of Adsense / CPC etc. so just don't know.

It does seem very strange, though. Because any $domain include script would also call up the uk.com as default - because that's what's actually typed in by the surfer.

Maybe someone with expertise in coding could clarify?

Best wishes, Richard

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OwnThisDomain.co.uk | AppraiseMyDomain.co.uk
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Edwin

I don't think they necessarily have - I emailed Joanna at Sedo about the issue directly and she forwarded my email to the tech team.

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aZooZa

This is outrageous. One of my main business domains is taken in uk.com but the other forwards as above. Looking forward to seeing this resolved.

JMOT

I know they have...depends on who "they" is

OwnThisDomain.co.uk

Thanks Edwin, the tech team certainly did work on it.

They frame-masked the address bar - so we couldn't see the redirect page - but, on viewing the page source, we could still see that they kept the same redirect: i.e. redirecting all unregistered uk.com addresses to a domain=domain.co.uk address. The usual printed red text on the page also displayed typedindomain.CO.UK

Then they fixed the issue completely. So acorndomains.uk.com finally displayed acorndomains.uk.com in red text and domain=acorndomain.uk.com was the redirect when viewing the page source.

Problem solved...
So everybody forgets about it for a week or longer. Just happened to check it out again.

What happens now??

Type in acorndomains.uk.com and you are taken to a parking page - this time, no red text - hmm, why would that be, it was finally working a week ago displaying acorndomains.uk.com and domain=acorndomains.uk.com.

Ok, so no red text at all displaying what you typed in, what about the page source??

Ah ha;
<META NAME='DESCRIPTION' CONTENT="http://www.sedoparking.com/search/registrar.php?registrar=taudomuk
&domain=ACORNDOMAINS.CO.UK">
<frameset><frame src='http://www.sedoparking.com/search/registrar.php?registrar=taudomuk
&domain=ACORNDOMAINS.CO.UK' frameborder='0' frameborder='no'></frameset>

That's in Firefox.
Do it in Internet Explore, view page source, you get the full source of the generated page but a look at the page source title header confirms it is showing the page source for registrar=taudomuk&domain=ACORNDOMAINS.CO.UK

So we are back to the original situation before my thread - only, this time, everything is done to hide the redirection unless one delves beneath the surface.

Nobody in this thread has answered whether there is a CPC benefit having the click to appear to come from a co.uk versus a uk.com domain.

But why fix an error only to recreate the 'error' as soon as people stop looking??

If I tried to do this on Sedo, I'd get warned, would not receive money, have my account blocked.

Joanna @ Sedo - I await your reply...

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OwnThisDomain.co.uk | AppraiseMyDomain.co.uk
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OwnThisDomain.co.uk

The above issue seems to have been re-corrected again.

Let's hope it stays that way this time...

Best wishes, Richard

__________________
OwnThisDomain.co.uk | AppraiseMyDomain.co.uk
Other sites: University Tuition Fees | Hotels in Westminster | Thai Rooms | Edinburgh Broadband | DMX Controller | Carrot Oil | Bari Flights