No, they are not learning. At least this is not what their CEO says:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?f=articles/2003/12/14c9995f-5557-4dc4... After reading that article I got curious about who Overture is. A quick search on Google got me this article: http://www.internet-marketing-research.net/overture_click_fraud.php And in case you think that perhaps the Red Herring writer only used Overture's rates as an example, here's another article that confirms that Overture did have a deal with Verisign's Sitefinder project: http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3080071 Verisign and its CEO are looking slimier and slimier... Thankfully, it is highly unlikely that the .com boom will ever make a comeback. Marketing and advertising people and investors are beginning to understand what works and what doesn't on the Internet. I expect that Sitefinder will return but that a lot of browser software and ISPs will divert the misspelled URLs to a local spelling checker. Sitefinder version 2 will die a quick death because it won't get enough clicks and most of the ones that it does get will be nuisance clicks. --Michael Dillon