Report makes some lofty estimates for typosquatting.

Fairwinds Partners, the group behind Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse, released a study today suggesting that typosquatting costs the 250 most visited web sites $327 million per year.

Like the creators of many studies, Fairwinds has something to sell — services to the very brands that are affected by typosquatting. There are a number of assumptions in Fairwinds’ report, and also a lot of references to its on research on click-through rates and such. But there’s one number used in the report that grossly overstates the final number.

To calculate the average pay-per-click costs charged to advertisers receiving clicks from typos of their domains, the company used a whopping $2.74 per click. It cites VeriSign’s June 2008 domain name industry brief as the source of this amount. I looked through that report and didn’t find any mention of PPC prices. But ask anyone who owns parked domains and they’ll tell you this is a far cry from what is being earned, and advertisers will tell you it’s a lot more than what they’re paying. Back around the time of VeriSign’s June 2008 report, Efficient Frontier reported its clients were paying an average CPC of 32 cents for content and 65 cents for search (January 2008). With “smart pricing”, domain clicks can be even lower. I’ve found a number of estimates of PPC prices, and none of them come anywhere close to $2.74.

If you assume that the average CPC is actually 35 cents, that lops over $150 million off of Fairwinds’ estimates.

And the average click price is probably lower for the domains in the study when you consider which sites Fairwinds says get the most traffic. Typos of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and Google, result in pennies clicks at best.

I’ve reached out to Fairwinds to ask them about the $2.74 click price. But regardless of how they justify it, just keep in mind that studies like this are usually undertaken by people with an agenda, and they’ll make estimates that help their cause. Yes, typosquatting is a problem, but not nearly as big as Fairwinds is making it out to be.

Registration open for August’s domain name conference.

Registration for The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain name conference taking place in Dublin, August 24-26, is now open. Early pricing until July 15 is €695, although there’s also a link for a lower $730 USD price at the time of writing. Hotel rooms are available for only 159 EUR per night.

In a blog post today, show organizer Rick Latona noted:

You can’t talk about Dublin without mentioning beers. Folks, the parties will be back at this show. We have two sponsors and the Guinness will be flowing regularly.

Latona was referring to the last TRAFFIC in Vancouver, which did not have any official parties. Pricing for that conference was cheaper at $395, though.

Regardless, both conferences are cheaper than October’s TRAFFIC show in Miami, which is being organized by show founders Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu. Early bird tickets to that show start at $995.

Domain registrar gives domain to estate of Freddie Mercury.

Tucows’ Yummy Names has donated the domain name FreddieMercury.com to the estate of the late lead singer of rock group Queen. An announcement on QueenOnline.com reads:

In a recent act of fantastic generosity, domain registrar company Tucows Inc. secured the domain name FreddieMercury.com and donated it free of charge to Freddie’s estate.

We would openly like to thank Bill Sweetman and his team for their gift and allowing us to have the use of the best domain name for Freddie’s musical legacy.

The domain currently points to www.loveroflifesingerofsongs.com, the site set up to celebrate the CD and DVD of the same name released in 2006. At this site you can also ‘Sponsor A Star’ for Freddie and donate to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

The domain name was previously owned by a Tucows’ customer who let the domain name expire earlier this year.

Trademark examiner refuses Ad.com trademark again.

AOL’s continued battle to trademark a domain name it doesn’t even own has hit another roadblock. On June 21, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner refused the trademark for Ad.com on the grounds that it’s generic.

The USPTO previously refused the mark because Ad.com was merely descriptive of AOL’s services. In response, AOL amended the application to add a claim of acquired distinctiveness.

In refusing the application on the basis of its generic nature, the examiner noted:

Generic terms are terms that the relevant purchasing public understands primarily as the common or class name for the goods and/or services…Generic terms are by definition incapable of indicating a particular source of the goods and/or services, and cannot be registered as trademarks and/or service marks; doing so “would grant the owner of the mark a monopoly, since a competitor could not describe his goods as what they are…Thus, applicant’s claim of acquired distinctiveness under 15 U.S.C. §1052(f) is insufficient to overcome the refusal because no amount of purported proof that a generic mark has acquired secondary meaning can transform it into a registrable trademark.

The addition of .com is generally considered just an internet address and is often disregarded. This is a similar problem that 1-800-Mattress had trying to trademark Mattress.com. But at least in that case it actually owned the domain name it was trying to trademark.

New book gets a laugh out of unfortunate domain names.

I first became amused by domain names with double meanings when a now-defunct domain name blog put together a list several years ago. One example on that blog was TherapistFinder.com, which, when not capitalized, looks like TheRapistFinder.com.

This sort of double-meaning domain name is what computer programmer Andy Geldman calls a Slurl. And he’s taken Slurls to the next level in his book Slurls: They Called Their Website WHAT?

My first thought when I read the preview for this book was “how do you create a 185 page book out of a handful of slurls?” Geldman manages to do it using his own commentary and humor on each domain name. And, aside from some British humor (is that humour?) that I don’t understand, his book is an enjoyable read.

To be sure, it’s light reading. And you need to put yourself in the mindset of a middle school boy before you read it, since most slurls are quite juvenile in nature (fredshatblocks.com or speedofart.com, anyone?).

Slurls breaks new slurl ground in domain hacks and country codes. What URL did Swiss chip manufacturer choose for its web site? Swissbit.ch, of course. There’s also the Cook Island’s .ck. Like many countries, Cook Islands decided to go with three second level domains for its TLD: .edu.ck, .gov.ck, and .co.ck. The latter one created some problems, so they stopped registering domains under .co.

Even some of the new TLDs are chastised. Consider Research In Motion’s (RIM) .jobs site. I’ll let you look that one up.

So if you’re in a fun mood or looking for some beach reading, pick up a copy of Slurls. Just be aware that the content isn’t for kids, especially those at Dallas-based Children’s Laughter Foundation. You can find them online at childrenslaughter.com.