“The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has asked VeriSign to suspend its new SiteFinder service while it conducts an investigation into the system.
“SiteFinder is a Web service that appears when users attempt to reach a Web site whose domain name does not exist. This mostly happens as a result of mistyping and SiteFinder offers users a search engine, a list of existing domains with related spellings and a directory of Web sites. To enable the service, VeriSign has had to create a wildcard address record so that all attempts to reach sites in the .com and .net address space, except those with valid domain names, results in redirection to SiteFinder.”

I had wondered why I was getting a search page instead of a 404 on mistyped domains. It was annoying me, in fact, as I thought something had installed itself into my computer.

Here’s a more detailed article on the issue:VeriSign move ignites uproar