[ga-roots] What keywords actually does

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <harald@alvestrand.no>]

OK, here is a brief analysis of where RealNames is involved when typing 
strange characters into Internet Explorer 5.00.

Test: Type "ÆØÅ.alvestrand.no" into the command line of your browser.
What happens on the backside:

1) TCP session to auto.search.msn.com, asking for

GET /response.asp?MT=%C3%A6%C3%B8%C3%A5.alvestrand.no&srch=0&prov=&utf8

(this is presumably an UTF-8 encoding of ÆØÅ)

2) Reply (200 OK) from auto.search.msn.com, bearing a script redirecting 
the browser to 
http://204.29.171.40/resolver.dll?realname=%C3%A6%C3%B8%C3%A5%2Ealvestrand%2Eno 
(and more stuff on the query)

3) Browser goes to "mli.realnames.com" (as ordered)

4) mli.realnames.com returns a redirect to a browser error document
(res://shdoclc.dll/dnserror.html)

5) browser displays the error - amusingly, using the wrong character set 
for the URL display:
http://æøå.alvestrand.no

Conclusions, tentative:

- The browser knows nothing about RealNames. When something is strange 
about the URL given, it sends it to Microsoft, which then chooses to 
redirect the URL to whatever service it finds most reasonable.

- RealNames uses simple JavaScript mechanisms to redirect the browser.

Just for fun, some other results:

- Typing "keywords" gives an error, because the browser tries to resolve 
this as a local hostname through NetBios - Microsoft is not asked at all.
- Typing "blåbærsyltetøy" (Norwegian for blueberry jam) redirects the query 
to ie.search.msn.com, NOT to RealNames
- Typing "real.names" redirects to RealNames (and misses).

Anyone who sees the deep logic of when to give a name to RealNames here is 
welcome to explain...

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