Does this seem ethical?

pcmedicplus's picture

He has: 49 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

Why do some websites hijack reciprocal links? I.e. http://www.lake-link.com/links/.

Click on one of the links and you will see what I’m talking about.

He says it gives his users a way to get back to his site conveniently. Is it just me who thinks this is wrong? But it’s o.k. According to him cause plenty of other websites do actually what he is doing.

DO's and DON'Ts OF LINKING
§ DON'T link to other sites "blindly" or without their knowledge. Regardless of your opinion on the legality, its just not good business.
§ DO request permission to provide a link for your customers. When requesting, you need to do two things: convey your customer's interest in what they have to offer and give them a reason to provide a link to your site as well.
§ HINT - I have put together some sample requests that myself and others have used to request links. Feel free to steal them at
§ http://unlimitedtraffic.com/request.html
§ DON'T link to every website or newsletter that interests you. Your links should not represent your "favorite places."
§ DO look for information, products and services that add value for your customers. Ask your customers what else they look for online. Search the web for keywords that are related to your own.
§ HINT - Use a multi-search tool like http://dogpile.com to search the web for keywords that your customers might be using.
§ DON'T use frames in an attempt to ensure that your visitors remember who sent them there. You won't win a lot of friends with this tactic.
§ DO remember that the web is only as good as the quality of the links that join its vastness together. Without links, it would just be a collection of millions of standalone documents.
§ HINT - A much better solution to this issue is to target a new window with your link. To do this, just change your HTML so that it looks something like this (if you were indeed linking to Yahoo) http://yahoo.com" target="_blank
§ DON'T bury your links deep within your site or include hundreds of one-word links in one area. I have to be honest with you, some of the sites I've seen lately leave me feeling "lost in the land of the links."
§ DO consider grouping links together by subject matter or integrating them within the content of your material. And don't forget, you can link to email addresses, autoresponders and newsgroups, too.
§ HINT - Provide more than the name of the site for the link. Try and describe the link in such a way that your customer doesn't have to waste time guessing where he might be headed or where to go once he gets there.
And remember that the best place to link to is quite often NOT the home page of the other site. Take your customer directly to the information they want ... don't make them try to guess where to go next.
§ DON'T bury your head in the sand and join the 18 percent of Web Masters not willing to invest in links to other sites.
§ DO recognize the value of linking and the increase in traffic it can very cost-effectively provide. In fact, much of the cost in linking to other sites involves only your time and not much money.
§ HINT - Keep an open mind about all links ... free, reciprocal or otherwise. If your goal is to increase traffic at your site, they can be one of the best tools in your marketing arsenal.

http://www.publaw.com/framing.html

http://www.usability.com.au/resources/frames.cfm

http://www.bitlaw.com/internet/linking.html

http://www.htmlhelp.com/design/legal/copyright-borderline.html

http://www.picosearch.com/faqs/faq_end_hijacking.html

http://www.loriswebs.com/hijacking_web_pages.html

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/frames-frame-usage-explained/7

Doe’s anyone else feel the same or am I just over reacting?

timjpriebe's picture

He has: 2,667 posts

Joined: Dec 2004

Personally, I don't see it as a question of ethics. I do see it as being annoying, however, and I'm much less likely to use links off a site like that.

On the other hand, it is in fairly common usage. Maybe it doesn't annoy everyone as much as it annoys you and me.

He has: 688 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Hijack reciprocal links? This isn't hijacking (when a domain (ususally recently expired) is taken over by another company) and it's the opposite of reciprocal (where both sites knowingly agree to link to each other). This is nothing more than the nearly ancient practice of framing.

Yes, it's annoying. Yes, you need to consider legal issues that may or may not exist. But it's been done since IE 4 came out. Immensly popular sites like Hotmail.com and About.com has always done this, having all of their links show underneath a header bar that you can click to remove. The practice alone isn't always illegal but what this company is doing is ripe for an easy lawsuit. The reason why they can be sued and Hotmail and About are safer is because of the ads. This company is stealing content - deliberately profiting off the work of others without their permission (not to mention damage claims from those sites who can say the appearance of their sites (their business) were altered without permission). What I find even worst about this site is, unlike Hotmail or About, this site is framing NEW frames. So it's not like they can claim the frames are simply to help visitors navigate back to their website (which remains in the background window).

So this example of framing is way wrong. Illegal is a tough question, but definitely a target for an easy lawsuit. My company had this happen and we just put some frame-busting code to prevent it.

Roo's picture

She has: 840 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

That's sooooooooooooo rude to trap other sites in a frame like that! I had that happen with a site once and I also used a framebuster.

So nervy, so rude, so wrong.

Roo

pcmedicplus's picture

He has: 49 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

The Do’s and Don’ts were not written by me, It is information I found on the internet to help with the discussion. I am not affiliated with any of these linked websites. The reason I bring this up is another Webmasters forum “Name to be with held” Deleted the same Identical post because they thought I was advertising and refuse to discuss it any more. When I told them I was not affiliated with any of these websites they said, well it’s just SPAM cause the have seen it on other websites. This same identical post was on 3 other Webmasters forums, untill Unnamed Forum deleted it, Now its on 2 other forums not counting this one, and the reason being is to collect multiple opinions. I don’t get my information from one source nor would I expect anyone else to.

That being said I do appreciated everyone’s input and hope to see this discussion continued and debated.

Thnx

He has: 688 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

pcmedicplus wrote: I don’t get my information from one source nor would I expect anyone else to.

TWF is the only source I need. Wink lol

pcmedicplus's picture

He has: 49 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

Smiling This has been the most active out of the 4 so you may be right. Laughing out loud

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

its not MAY it IS Right... LOL!

Anyways in my opinion, frames are bad, no information links, or misleading links are also bad... Ethics means good practice? Those are not, so?....

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.