Words, words, words

I learned a new word today on my way to work. I knew the definition, by experience, but hadn't heard of the term. I switched from my station to 90.1, the local public radio station and listened to NPR's Morning Edition. They were talking about typo-squatting. This is when people create domain names that are misspellings of popular sites, and earn money through advertising or directing you to other sites than your intended destination when you misspell or mistype the URL. Apparently the big news was that someone bought a misspelled version of MySpace for $30,000. I commonly mistype www.hotmsl.com, and I blamed the disconnect between my rapid thoughts and fingers. I just find the idea of typo-squatting intriguing, but it's not unlike the crap I find at the dollar store that's made to look like the real thing but is a cheap imitation. Like Evergoing batteries, for example.

Another word I knew the meaning of but never knew the correct term is doppelganger. It's the same as my mother's saying that "everyone has a twin," except this is a nastier version of the real thing.