WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Internet infrastructure company VeriSign Inc.sued a domain-name oversight body Thursday, saying it had overstepped its authority when it prevented VeriSign from introducing new services.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has no authority to prevent VeriSign from rolling out a search engine for users who mistype Interent addressses, VeriSign said, as well another feature that allows users to sign up for a waiting list for desirable domain names

"This brazen attempt by ICANN to assume 'regulatory power' over VeriSign's business is a serious abuse of ICANN's technical coordination function," said VeriSign in the suit, which was filed in U.S. court in Los Angeles.

Source: Forbes

The balls that Verisign has! I wish they would die. DIE I SAY. I hate Verisign. First their marketing tactics pissed me off. Do you remember the sneeky, misleading mass mailings, trying to get people to move their domains to THEM even though your domain wasn't even close to expiring. I remember, I got one letter for each domain I owned at the time. Verisign did not make many people happy with those mailings, as a matter of fact they got a lot of flak about it.

ICANN, as far as I know, is a regulating body, and can kick Verisign's ass in the court room. And I hope they do. The best thing that VeriSign has done recently is sell Network Solutions (for which it should have never bought) and got out of the registrar business.

SiteFinder can go to hell (I have said that a lot) I have written a lot about this actually. I am adamant about my loathing for this SiteFinder feature.

• VeriSign Reconsiders Site Finder


• Tell ICANN what you think of VeriSign


• Suit filed over VeriSign domain redirect


• ICANN asks VeriSign to pull redirect service


• VeriSign Sued; BIND Patched

Just to make things clear, as if you have not figured out that I am not a fan, the main reasons I cannot stand this SiteFinder thing are:

• When I type a URL incorrectly, I really like the "feature" that lets me correct my mistake in the URL field. With SiteFinder I am forced to retype the entire URL. Does nonone read about usability these days?
• I do not like to be force fed search engine "results" that has sponsored, as in payed for, links. When I want a search engine I type in Google, and when I mistyle that one, I still get there because Google is smart.
• I do not want to be asked if I want to buy a domain name that I obviously mistyped. Hello people! Does that make sense?
• Resolving everything, what SiteFinder does, breaks reverse lookups that anti-spam software uses. Why, oh why, would you want to break something that helps prevent spam.

I wait with baited breath to see how this plays out from here. Lets hope that SiteFinder gets shot down again just like it did the first time.