We’re big fans of telling our story here on the company website and blog. But sometimes it’s useful to spread the word beyond our own boundaries. Below is our first press release, which went over the wires ~8am ET / 5am PT today. I’ve taken the liberty of adding a few links which are not in the wire service version as it appears on Yahoo Finance and Google, among others.

OpenDNS Answers Over One Billion Questions in First Month

Users Choose New DNS Platform for a Safer, Faster, Reliable Internet Experience

August 8, 2006 — OpenDNS, launched in July 2006, has announced that it has answered over one billion requests for its domain name lookup services. The company provides a free platform of reliable DNS (Domain Name System) service via its distributed network, with additional features that increase the speed and security of DNS. DNS is a fundamental piece of the Internet architecture which maps names to IP addresses. Provided as an alternative to the DNS services offered by ISPs, OpenDNS puts control of the DNS in the user’s hands by providing features that include phishing protection and typo correction for websites. The OpenDNS service automatically knows that the user who typed craigslist.og really meant to go to craigslist.org and directs them to the correct site. OpenDNS is also engineered to help prevent phishing, alerting the end-user when a site is known to be malicious.

“I started OpenDNS with the goal of building a company that would develop products that make the Internet a better place,” said David Ulevitch, founder and CEO of OpenDNS. “As an active and extremely dedicated member of the Internet and DNS community, I came to realize that many of the problems on the Internet exploit weaknesses of the DNS. We have figured out how to work with the current DNS to provide a solution that makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter. We are proud to be the first service in this category that puts choice in the hands of the user.”

Before OpenDNS, DNS was not an individual choice — it was either on or off, with no customization available. OpenDNS delivers a service which gives the user control through intelligence added to the DNS. And it’s available, by choice, in two minutes following brief step-by-step instructions. “OpenDNS is a great idea, well-executed,” said Matt Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress, the popular blogging platform. “They took something basic and ubiquitous, DNS, and improved it by adding spell-checking and phishing protection (usability enhancements).” [full post]

About OpenDNS
OpenDNS — www.opendns.com — was founded in San Francisco by David Ulevitch in 2005 to deliver a vastly improved Internet experience through a new DNS (Domain Name System) service that provides all Internet users with increased security, reliability and performance. In 2005, the company received funding from Minor Ventures, the fund created by Halsey Minor, founder of CNET, for start-ups delivering the on-demand software model pioneered by Salesforce.com. Open DNS is a free service, with revenues coming from the advertising-driven model developed by Yahoo! and Google. For expert opinions on DNS and the Internet infrastructure, as well as company news, read the OpenDNS blog at blog.opendns.com.

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Also, two links which don’t fit in the release, but are of interest:

• Stats (yes, we’re over 1.2 Billion already; hit 1 Billion last Thursday, San Francisco time)
• System Status (we put the link at the top right a while ago, but haven’t mentioned it here; part of being reliable is letting you see for yourself)

David Ulevitch will be presenting OpenDNS as part of STIRR 1.5 on Wednesday, August 9. He has 60 seconds to describe what we do. If there’s a recording/podcast, we’ll link to it.

Sorry… the event is invitation only, in Palo Alto, California, USA. But if you want to attend, drop us a note and we’ll see what we can do about an intro to the STIRR folks.

Update: Here’s a short (four minute) interview with David from HotFromSiliconValley.com, recorded after the presentation.

Let me introduce goggle.com (no link — they are a malware source and a domain typosquatter to boot)!

So what if this happens: My sister Annie (super smart girl) is out surfing the net and she types in or clicks a link for http://www.goggle.com/ — a one-letter typo of http://www.google.com/ (“squatting” on the typo). Easy mistake, could happen to anyone. Unfortunately for Annie she doesn’t get the OpenDNS automatic redirection to google.com or even our search results page[1]. Instead, she is taken to a site, purporting to be an anti-spyware site, which starts to try and destroy her computer and create hours of tech support work for her brother (me). It has popups, automatic downloads and is just generally representative of the lamest parts of the Internet.

Here’s a screenshot:

Right now, even with OpenDNS, my sister still gets to goggle.com — this bothers me. My goal at OpenDNS is to give you choice, not to be a censor. So I don’t want to block goggle.com outright, nor do I want to try and decide what you want. Instead, I want to give you choices. That’s what OpenDNS is: a rock-solid reliable DNS platform with the tools on top to let you manage your network how you want. If you don’t want to manage your DNS, I want our defaults to be the best they can be, which is why I need your input.

I want to know what you think we should do.

1. Should we silently redirect to google.com?
2. Should we take you to a page that says: “This site is lame, click here to Google” so you know what’s happening?
3. Should we just send you off to goggle.com ignoring the consequences?

No matter what we do, we’ll leave the choice in your hands, but I’m curious what our users think the best way to handle cases like this are.

How would you want it to work? How would you want it to work for your sister?

Leave your comments below.

1: Just a sidenote here. While OpenDNS corrects a lot of typos we don’t (yet) correct typos of domains which can legitimately be registered.

Update: Oops, I forgot to mention a thanks to OpenDNS user Danny for emailing in about goggle.com. Thanks Danny!

We have a few confirmed reports of ISPs which do not allow their customers to use external DNS services, such as OpenDNS. These reports are from customers, not the companies. You can change your settings all you like on your end (computer, router, etc.), but they will be ignored/overridden.

We are trying to confirm these reports with the companies so our information is accurate and up-to-date. Inquiries via their websites and support lines have gotten no response, so I am making a more public request, both to the companies themselves and to their customers. I’d rather tell potential OpenDNS customers to avoid frustration than try and help them to no avail after they’ve wasted time trying to choose their own DNS.

NTL customers have been the most persistent in their attempts, to no avail. If you work for NTL (very large ISP in the UK), please get in touch.

If you work for a satellite broadband ISP, such as HughesNet (previously known as DirecWay), StarBand, or SkyWay USA, I’d love to hear from you. Satellite providers: if I didn’t mention your name, I’m still curious and interested…just haven’t heard from your customers yet. I know there are some peculiarities regarding latency for satellite access which probably are the reasons for the policy. Would love to brainstorm about technical solutions all the same.

If you are a customer of any of these companies, and you have better information, I’m listening.

My goal? Provide accurate information and instructions to potential OpenDNS customers on the Get Started page. As our FAQ notes, OpenDNS does not host websites, register domains, or act as an ISP.

How to contact us

Use the contact form or call us at +1-415-344-3166.