'BusinessWeek': Don't link to us
BusinessWeek apparently doesn't need anyone to help it boost its Web traffic.
According to a blog post on Gawker, BusinessWeek not only asks people not to link to its site, it specifically directs them to its user agreement that prohibits the practice of "deep linking."
Gawker points to the example of SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill, who writes in his blog that after being interviewed for a feature story in BusinessWeek, he was expressly told not to link to the story. "Yes, that's right, an ad-driven publication doesn't want us to drive traffic to them," he says in his blog. In addition, he was urged to review the company's user agreement.
According to the user agreement on BusinessWeek's Web site, a user may not:
"use or attempt to use any 'deep-link,' 'scraper,' 'robot,' 'bot,' 'spider,' 'data mining,' 'computer code' or any other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, process or methodology or manual process having similar processes or functionality, to access, acquire, copy, or monitor any portion of BW.com, any data or content found on or accessed through BW.com, or any other BW.com information without prior express written consent of BW."
While some online publications have a policy on deep linking, it's pretty unusual to enforce it. Most sites obviously consider it a boon for page views and look on it favorably, as long as the content is credited to the correct source.
MacAskill speculates that BusinessWeek's stance is the result of corporate red tape, and not something that would be embraced by its reporters and editors. "To spend all of this time and energy on their articles, only to have the crazy business people make it impossible for people to read their work, must be incredibly trying," he says in his blog.
Desiree Everts is an associate editor at CNET News who has focused on the digital media and telecommunications industries. E-mail Desiree. 





http://www.businessweek.com/
Sue me aholes.
According to the World Wide Web Consortium Technical
Architecture Group, "any attempt to forbid the practice of deep
linking is based on a misunderstanding of the technology, and
threatens to undermine the functioning of the Web as a whole".
And while we're on the subject of brains at BW, maybe that's not an accurate term. The revenue of a website like BW increases with the number of visitors. Why would they want to minimize that?
This is why, when I hear people say government should be run like businesses, I have to laugh (or cry). They already are run that way. The only differences is that businesses can't levy taxes or run deficits for too long. But government has no monopoly on incompetence and politics.
But perhaps we should be grateful for the evidence of that and ignore BW henceforth?
Of course, I already do.
Think about it. If BusinessWeek is laid out like most websites, you
have to click through multiple pages before you can get where you
want to go. Multiple clicks equals more ad exposure and more
money!
So basically, design a confusing website, make millions.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2008/01/murdoch_variabl.html
You can also submit any story to digg (deep linking).
It's a shame when management gets so out of touch with their own product.
Oh well. I'm sure their competition says thanks.
http://www.baselinemag.com
- Look at any BW article
- by therealphil January 29, 2008 10:33 AM PST
- They have options for you to email the article (probably a link to it though I haven't tried it), digg it, or save to del.icio.us . . .
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(19 Comments)Kind of odd for a website have those things if you aren't suppose to link to them.