# Web programming trick **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 16, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-programming-trick/72387 "2006-10-16T23:15:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![James\_Toomey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@James\_Toomey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/James_Toomey)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-programming-trick/72387/1 "2006-10-16T23:15:32Z")
A bit off-topic, but my fellow Rubyists are pretty web-savvy, so I figured I’d post it: Has anyone else been tricked by these websites which frequently come up at the top of Google searches? They always appear to have the exact subject matter you need, until you actually click on them. In this case, it involved a pumpkin patch called Forneris Farms that my wife wanted to visit. She found this link while searching the web: [http://www.fornerisfarm.com/](http://www.fornerisfarm.com/) but it should be the plural > **[Forneris Farms](https://fornerisfarms.com/)** > > OPEN 9 am to 6 pm Daily > It's Tomato Time! It's Corn Time! The first link works, but it goes to a spammer/ad page. These kinds of pages are all over the web but I don’t know what you call them. Anybody know what they’re called and and how they work? And more importantly, why isn’t even Google aka the King of Search able to stop them? ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toomey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@James\_Toomey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/James_Toomey)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-programming-trick/72387/2 "2006-10-17T06:01:02Z")
> > Has anyone else been tricked by these websites which frequently come up > > at the top of Google searches? > > No. I always get just the porn I am looking for. It’s sad that Firefox’s > > popup blocker prevents me from seeing some of it, though… And what’s this Google of which you speak? I’ve been to [goooogle.com](http://goooogle.com) and [gopgle.com](http://gopgle.com) but never google… Devin ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toomey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@James\_Toomey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/James_Toomey)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-programming-trick/72387/3 "2006-10-17T03:36:49Z")
James Toomey wrote: > [http://www.fornerisfarms.com/](http://www.fornerisfarms.com/) > The first link works, but it goes to a spammer/ad page. These kinds of > pages are all over the web but I don’t know what you call them. Anybody > know what they’re called and and how they work? And more importantly, > why isn’t even Google aka the King of Search able to stop them? This is a very well-known trick, and hundreds of thousands of words have been written on this topic over the years. It turns out it is not illegal to acquire a domain name that is similar to a well-known one, even if the intent is to exploit typographical errors. All one can do is warn people away from them. For example, people who want to exploit the popularity of my site have registered “[www.arachnoid.org](http://www.arachnoid.org)”, “[www.arachnophilia.com](http://www.arachnophilia.com)”, and many other variants, and I would have to register a lot of domain names similar to my own, at personal expense, to prevent this. Further, I would have to pay a ransom for the names already registered to others. The perpetrators are known as “typo squatters”. Here’s a news story about this topic: [http://news.com.com/Microsoft+tool+hunts+down+typo+squatters/2100-1029\_3-6060935.html](http://news.com.com/Microsoft+tool+hunts+down+typo+squatters/2100-1029_3-6060935.html) These people are either the lowest form of life on earth, or are candidates for that exalted position.