OpenDNS Answers over 1 Billion Questions in First Month

By Derek Iwasiuk
DomainInformer.com
August 09, 2006

OpenDNS, launched in July 2006, announced that it has answered over 1 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 Web sites.

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)."