Site Finder, says ICANN, has had "a substantial adverse effect on the core operation" of the domain name system.
VeriSign launched Site Finder in mid-September, redirecting surfers to its Site Finder search engine when they enter a web address that is not registered on the internet or is inactive. The unilateral change was made, according to VeriSign, to improve "the user web-browsing experience."
The alteration provoked a barrage of criticism. Network administrators accused the registry of seeking not to aid the misguided web user, but rather to generate more advertising revenue from its search engine partners. Others criticised the effect that the changes have had on the working practices of the internet.
According to an advisory issued by ICANN on Friday:
"VeriSign's change appears to have considerably weakened the stability of the internet, introduced ambiguous and inaccurate responses in the DNS, and has caused an escalating chain reaction of measures and countermeasures that contribute to further instability."
It added:
"VeriSign's change has substantially interfered with some number of existing services which depend on the accurate, stable, and reliable operation of the domain name system."
Three companies have now taken court action against VeriSign, and on 21st September ICANN asked the registry to voluntarily suspend the service until its experts had worked out what effects the change would have on the running of the internet. VeriSign refused, although it did announce the setting up of a "Technical Review Panel", to investigate the complaints.
On Friday ICANN went further, instructing the registry to suspend the Site Finder site by 6 pm on Saturday, or face court action.
In a letter to Russell Lewis, the Executive Vice President of VeriSign Naming and Directory Services, Paul Twomey, ICANN's President said, "that these changes have had a substantial adverse effect on the core operation of the DNS, on the stability of the internet, and on the relevant domains, and may have additional adverse effects in the future."
Twomey remarked that the actions taken by VeriSign were not consistent with the agreements between the two organisations over the running of the .com and .net registries.
In particular, said Twomey, "These inconsistencies include violation of the Code of Conduct and equal access provisions, failure to comply with the obligation to act as a neutral registry service provider, failure to comply with the Registry Registrar Protocol, failure to comply with domain registration provisions, and provision of an unauthorized Registry Service."
VeriSign announced on Friday that it would be temporarily suspending the Site Finder service. Russell Lewis explained, "Without so much as a hearing, ICANN today formally asked us to shut down the Site Finder service. We will accede to the request while we explore all of our options".