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Unwanted Linking

Posted by michael on from the somebody-needs-a-cluestick dept.

parvati writes: "The weekly "cyber law journal" column in the NYTimes examines a case in which the Better Business Bureau requested that a for-profit site not associated with the BBB remove links to it (the BBB). Although the BBB did not threaten a lawsuit, a spokesperson did mention that they were developing software to prevent unwanted hyperlinking (in the name of 'consumer confusion')." We resisted running this story when it first hit, because it seemed like just another case of lack-of-clue-itis at the BBB. But at least they're getting a clue about how to stop people from linking with technology rather than threats.

2 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Re:We already have software to prevent linking by Kris_J · · Score: 4
    But if every link to your site takes a visitor to the front door that's where most of them will stay. I don't wan to have to wade through who-knows how many levels of bad HTML just to find the one interesting bit of data my friend found the day before. You'd better hope that your in-site navigation is nothing less than superb.

    --

  2. We already have software to prevent linking by satch89450 · · Score: 4

    I'm sorry, but I'm surprised that no one has already pointed out the obvious: if you don't want linking, there are several methods of preventing linking.

    I am writing an active-server Web site using PHP (nothing special about PHP, it could be as easily done in PERL or C or, I suspect, Visual Basic) that does not carry state information in the URL. No state information in the URL, no deep linking or even "shallow" linking. Any link goes to the "front door".

    When I first heard about the BBB demanding that people bring down links, I was under the impression that the BBB didn't want any links to their site at all. The example that was cited in the report, though, did deep linking into the BBB side, but did it in such a manner that there could be some confusion about the association between the site in question and the BBB.

    A footnote: not all links are "bad" in the eyes of the BBB. If you are a member of the Better Business Bureau, you are allowed to have a link from your Web site to the BBB in the context of "we support the principles of the BBB" or some such.