VeriSign suspends Site Finder feature after ICANN turns up the heat

Computerworld - The controversial Site Finder service unveiled on the Internet last month by VeriSign Inc. was temporarily suspended by the company late today after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) demanded that the feature be halted immediately because of concerns about its effects on the Internet.
In an announcement late this afternoon, Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign, which oversees the main Internet database of .com and .net domain names, said it will suspend the service to provide time for both sides to discuss and resolve the matter.
The temporary shutdown, however, may not do much to calm tempers between the two sides.
In the statement today following the service suspension, Russell Lewis, the executive vice president of VeriSign's Naming and Directory Services Group, was critical of ICANN for demanding the action without any kind of review.
"Without so much as a hearing, ICANN today formally asked us to shut down the Site Finder service," Lewis said. "We will accede to the request while we explore all of our options."
In a letter earlier today to VeriSign General Manager Russell Lewis, ICANN President and CEO Paul Twomey was just as incredulous that VeriSign had enacted the Site Finder service without asking permission from ICANN.
"VeriSign's unilateral and unannounced changes to the operation of the .com and .net Top Level Domains are not consistent with material provisions" of the agreements that regulate VeriSign's operation of the two domains, Twomey wrote. ICANN had asked VeriSign on Sept. 19 to voluntarily suspend the service, but VeriSign didn't turn it off.
ICANN said the Site Finder service has "had very significant impacts on a wide range of Internet users and applications," whereas VeriSign's Lewis said that "there is no data to indicate that the core operation of the Domain Name System or stability of the Internet has been adversely affected.
"ICANN is using anecdotal and isolated issues to attempt to regulate nonregistry services, but in the interests of further working with the technical community we will temporarily suspend Site Finder," Lewis said in his statement.
ICANN also issued a new advisory early today on the matter.
Mary Hewitt, a spokeswoman for ICANN, said the Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based organization is "pleased that VeriSign has responded to the requests of the Internet community and ICANN to suspend the service. Now a full review can ensue under conditions that do not threaten the stability of the Internet."
In his letter to VeriSign, Twomey said the Site Finder issue can be discussed at next week's public meeting