New domain names may include .MP3

NEW YORK -- Internet addresses ending in ".pdf" or ".mp3" could appear under a new proposal, while domain name suffixes consisting entirely of numbers would likely be rejected.

Hints about such do's and don'ts appeared in a new report issued by the Internet's key oversight agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The organization is looking for feedback on security and operational issues that may arise from the introduction of new domain names as early as this year.

ICANN said it considered prohibiting suffixes that match common extensions for file names, such as ".exe" for Windows-based executable programs, ".doc" for documents using Microsoft Corp.'s Word software, ".jpg" for photos in the popular JPEG format, ".pdf" for Adobe Systems Inc.'s ubiquitous Portable Document Format and ".mp3" for music files.

But the organization concluded it would be too difficult to keep track of which extensions are popular enough to prohibit, and allowing them shouldn't confuse major Web browsers, which already assume that an address refers to a Web page rather than a computer file.

ICANN, however, said it would likely bar all-numeric suffixes, such as ".123."

ICANN has yet to determine how many new names it will accept to join ".com" and more than 250 others already in place.

Amazon ads steer users to competitors

SEATTLE -- Amazon.com Inc. is testing a new paid advertising program that will drive shoppers away from products on its own Web site.

On some Amazon product detail pages, competing or complementary items and their prices now appear in a list of text-link ads under headings such as "Available at these other Web sites."

When shoppers click, Amazon makes money and the advertiser's site opens in a new window.

Razor-thin retail margins have prompted Amazon to look beyond directly selling and shipping merchandise to customers. To stay profitable despite money-losing promotions like its unlimited free shipping program, the company opened Amazon.com to other merchants, letting them peddle their wares alongside its own. The ads offer a more attractive cut than the margin Amazon ultimately clears on sales of its own goods.

Amazon has sold sponsored links based on keywords and general product categories for some time, which also link to non-Amazon sites. But advertising competitors' prices and linking directly to the products is a new trick -- one that pits Amazon against search sites like Google, which aggregate prices from all over the Web.

Hackers now using rogue DNS servers

SAN FRANCISCO -- They're called "servers that lie." Deceptive machines controlled by hackers that reroute Internet traffic from infected computers to fraudulent Web sites are increasingly being used to launch attacks, according to a paper published last week by researchers with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Google Inc.

The paper estimates roughly 68,000 servers on the Internet are returning malicious Domain Name System results, which means people with compromised computers are sometimes being directed to the wrong Web sites -- and often have no idea.

The fraud works like this: When a user with an affected computer tries to go to, for example, Google's Web site, they are redirected to a spoof site loaded with malicious code or to a wall of ads whose profits flow back to the hackers.

The DNS system is a critical part of the Internet's infrastructure, used to make sure computers know how to contact each other. People usually automatically use the DNS servers of their Internet providers, but the recent wave of attacks modify the settings on victims' computers to send traffic to rogue DNS servers.

The hackers who hijack DNS queries are looking to steal personal information, from e-mail login credentials to credit data, and take over infected machines.

The spoof sites run the gamut. Some are stunningly convincing, others amusingly bogus with spelling errors and typos.

Most up-to-date antivirus software will catch and banish the viruses used to change DNS settings. Once a computer's been infected, users need to run a new scan with the latest software and change their DNS settings back -- which is easy.

Study: Web shoppers split by generation

NEW YORK -- Convenience and bargain-hunting tend to drive younger Americans to online shopping, while all adults share concerns about security and other drawbacks, a new study finds.

According to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 62 percent of Web users under age 30 consider the Internet to best place to find good deals, while only 32 percent of users age 65 and older do.

Likewise, younger Internet users are far more likely to find online shopping convenient.

John Horrigan, the study's author, attributed the generational gap to the force of habits.

"Older Americans have for a long time been doing shopping the old-fashioned way," Horrigan said. "They've adopted subtle patterns of shopping that are sensible to them and therefore fairly convenient for them. Younger folks never had to learn those tricks like getting to the mall early to avoid crowds or knowing when the sales are."

The generational gap is less pronounced when it comes to giving credit and other personal information online. Seventy-one percent of younger users do not like doing so, almost as high as the 82 percent of older users.