Score another one for the corporate overlords who unilaterally dictate the terms of the minutiae of our daily existence.
Seems that Comcast, Verizon and apparently a host of other ISPs have decided to embark on an altruistic crusade to save us from the tyranny of misspelled urls. Incorrectly type in an address in your browser and get a bland message saying that the site doesn't exist? That's so 2003. Do the same thing as a Verizon or Comcast subscriber and up pops an ISP branded search page with some suggestions as to sites similar to the address for which you were looking. And by the way, you may also be interested in these "sponsored" results related to your search.
What's that you say? You weren't actually doing a search? You just mistyped something? Silly customer you are. We know what you REALLY want. Irrelevant suggestions with only the vaguest connection to your incorrectly entered address. Advertising for sites, products and services that bear not the slightest connection to what your clumsy, Cheetos encrusted fingers pounded out on the keyboard. Sure we might make some revenue by breaking the way the internet was designed to work, but who needs the pesky tenets of Net Neutrality anyway?
Bonus points to Verizon for making the procedure to opt out of this service suitably arcane enough that your average MIT grad might find it challenging. Further credit to the marketing arms of these benevolent giants for the wonderful terms "Domain Helper" (Comcast) and "Domain Assistance" (Verizon) used to describe this marvelous new service. The more friendly the misnomer, the more hostile the underlying intent. Welcome to the pantheon of linguistic flavored corporate savagery, you're worthy entrants to these hallowed halls.
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