In a post a few weeks backÂ? I talked about how changes on the net can lead to huge backlash from users. One of the examples I used was Yahoo!’s The 9, and how I went to the site one day and found the quality of the vlog to be horrible. My comment was that users have certain expectationsÂ? from their websites, and if these expectationsÂ? are not met, users willÂ? quickly find another source that meets their expectations. An off-hand remark I made in the post was about the host and my net-girlfriend, Maria Sandstone (it’s even better since I’m not positive what her name is).

The 9 was started in July of this year and features links to nine different things on the net, from sites, to articles, to videos. It ends with the comment “Now get back to work!,” which is probably a fair statement to make. The rundown is a nice quick way to take a break from the day, and I imagine that many people, like myself, visit the site while at work. As an attractive young woman, the host obviously is attracting attention on the net, but it’s quite difficult to tell what her name actually is, despite the fact that she says it every day in the vlog.

It turns out that her name is actually Maria Sansone, not Maria Sandstone. What’s interesting is theÂ? incorrect spelling has actually generated quite a bit of traffic toÂ? our site. There are many different examples of this phenomenon on the Internet, where sites have sprung up with alterred spellings or typosÂ? of common websites, names, shows, or anything else related to popular culture. These sites then offer advertising related to those errors, and suddenly have an effective business model. Although I have no stats to back up the statement, I wouldn’t be suprised if almost half the registered URL’s would fall into this category of website.

What happened with our site wasn’t on purpose, but it illustrates an important aspect of the web. If a quick mention of the mispelled name can provide us with so much traffic, an ambitious individual could quickly create a website that targets this traffic. This is just another reason the Internet is so taboo, because it’s so easy for people to prey on these types of innocent mistakes. The average person would be unsuspecting and could quickly be turned off the Internet, because they were mislead.

Click here for a real link to Maria Sansone.

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