• GigaOm, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 2:30 PM

Despite their claims to the contrary, the telecom giants seemingly relish playing the role of the fall guy for net neutrality advocates. Weeks ago Comcast admitted to slowing down the broadband service of P2P network users - and now subscribers to Verizon's fiber-optic Internet service (FiOS) are complaining that the when they mistype a Web site address, they get redirected to Verizon's own search page.

Some may argue that it's a move that actually protects the consumer -- as misspelled URLs are the favored launch pad for phishing scams and domain squatters. But others note that it's a likely way for Verizon to boost revenue from ads (placed by Yahoo and Ask) on its Advanced Web Search pages -- and users may not even have to click on ads for the giant to get paid. The redirect raises the net neutrality warning signs because it overrides a user's default search engine choice.

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