Ansearch – A New & Innovative Australian Search Engine
or Something More Sinister?
Judge for yourself!
Part Four of a Detailed Seven Part Series.
Prepared by: Melissa Martin, Diane Scott & Peter McNamara with contributions from many industry sources.
Note: Despite emails requesting comments on this article to Ansearch CEO Dean Jones, Ansearch Media relations employee Louisa Williams & Optum CEO Peter Jermyn, neither company has chosen to respond to address the concerns raised.
Ansearch: A Detailed Seven Part Series
- Ansearch Case Files: Background Information & Introduction
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Under Fire
- Ansearch Case Files: Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics
- Ansearch Case Files: Discovery Spreads
- Ansearch Case Files: The Domain Dispute Resolution Process
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch & Associated Domain Names
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Contact Information
The Discovery Spreads
Unsurprisingly, when this discovery began to appear in discussions on well-known industry websites such as Search Engine Forums and Search Engine Watch, Ansearch began to quietly redirect hundreds of domains. As of today, visitors to most of the domains registered to Ansearch associated entities (such as Goodbrook Holdings Ltd., registrant of many of the domains in question) are being redirected to an ‘error page’ presenting a basic search form. This is similar to the Microsoft IE default browser set up for handling misspellings and incorrect domains. A major difference however is that Microsoft has not registered a long list of domains to lure you to their MSN search engine.
Without prior knowledge of Ansearch tactics, it would be difficult for the average user - if not impossible, to determine that these domains originally funnelled traffic back to the Ansearch’s search results pages. These results pages often presented results that had nothing to do with the searchers intentions. Looking at the “Top 100” list in detail it is quite easy to match the search terms up with the domain names registered and driving traffic to Ansearch. Once having arrived accidentally on the Ansearch pages many users would continue to search using the search box provided in the hope of finding that which they seek.
Of course ‘difficult’ is a relative term and redirections to a different page are a band-aid solution at best. At this point, in many cases a simple check of cached results in Google is a clear indicator of past use.
Perhaps it may have seemed laughable at the time for Ansearch to have the ability to register a domain name such as fairtrading.com.au, but registering hundreds of domain names in a “fit of youthful exuberance” during its launch phase last year, as recently stated by Ansearch CEO Dean Jones, is certainly no laughing matter now. News of their activities is beginning to feature in such well known publications as Australian IT (News Interactive, the digital division of News Limited) - “Searcher twists name rules” March 22nd 2005.
It is also interesting to note the careful choice of words attributed to Ansearch founder Dean Jones, which imply that the registrations occurred over a short period of time during the launch phase of the engine last year. Methodically researching popular brands to locate available names is a time consuming process and the growing list indicates this was a process that has been in practice for some time.
Dean Jones of Ansearch was also reported as stating, "They didn't go very well, so we are concentrating on generic names".
Some of these "generic names" include such interesting choices as sluts.com.au, prostitution.com.au, interstate.com.au & fairies.com.au.
(Registering domains to drive traffic is, of course, only one of the strategies used by Ansearch to increase visitor numbers. )
Several weeks ago, Ansearch was a willing participant in online communities, introducing their new Australian search engine and requesting feedback at forums such as Search Engine Watch. However, as evidence and questions about their actions continue to pile up, they have become disturbingly silent.
Next: Ansearch Case Files: The Domain Dispute Resolution Process >>
Discuss this series at Search Engine Forums
Relevant links:
Searcher Twists Name Rules - Australian IT
Search Engine Watch Forums
Strange names registered by Ansearch associated entities (chiefly Goodbrook Holdings Ltd.)
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