Netscape URL Search Practice Discriminates

A new anti-big-business, Internet-related lawsuit is brewing. Although not legally begun, the owner of the Web site domain name “NetscapeSucks.com” has brought forth an issue against Netscape Communications and its new Smart Browsing feature. This new feature allows users to enter partial URL names and Netscape Communicator 4.5 will complete the URL name from its internal library and direct the user to that Web site.

The technical issues aside, this new feature is both helpful to the user and harmful to the small business. As URLs proliferate, the similarity in Web site names increases. Though each Web site needs a unique name, those names need only differ by one letter or number. Added to this are the six suffixes required to complete the URL address (.com, .net, .org, .gov, .edu and .mil).

Unfortunately--as the Smart Browsing feature is still in its technical infancy--when users type in “whitehouse,” for example, they are sent directly to https://www.whitehouse.gov. There also exists https://www.whitehouse.com, a Web page that is ignored by Smart Browsing in favor of the one registered Web site in its library.

Yes, Whitehouse.com is a pornography site and, yes, it probably got most of its business over the years from the fact that people just assumed that typing in “whitehouse.com” would direct them to the “house of the people,” not the love shack. But by ignoring the disparity between the subtle name differences, Netscape’s new features bring a bigger issue to light.

By only recognizing names in its internal library, and by building the library list through business negotiations and personal opinion, it risks excluding a great many businesses that have already registered their domain names but are unaware that their pages will be ignored in the new order of things.

Much as Netscape complains about Microsoft’s attempts to control the free flow of information, it suffers from the same big-business mentality by directing users to the “correct” sites. This is nothing short of low-order fascism in an environment already governed by only two Web browsers.

Although I disagree with the persons involved in the disagreement with Netscape, I agree with the intent. Any means to halt the development of controlled information deserves exploration. It all goes back to freedom of speech.

SCOTT CLARK

Via the Internet