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You May Not Link This Web Site
Ganon34 sent us a funny story about a company requiring permission to link their website. The company in question is KPMG, a financial and legal advisory company, and the article itself is an entertaining read about the aftermath of them sending demands that someone remove a link to their public web site. It's a pretty funny piece -- especially the part about KPMG's theme song. Also references the old ticketmaster vs ticet.com case that held up deep linking. It's all funny 'cuz its true.
Their page could also use some testing since it doesn't render in my browser.
What do you expect from a company that hires people based on GPA and status of college? All of the major consulting companies, Bain, McKinsey, PWC, et al, they won't even interview you if your SAT scores, GPA, and College aren't "top notch." It is pretty sad, as if this is really a measurement of ability. These companies don't like anyone to be individual or think outside the box and it shows in their draconian policies.
--Jon
The following web link activities are explicitly prohibited by KPMG and may present trademark and copyright infringement issues:
Links that involve unauthorized use of our logo
Framing, inline links or metatags
Hyperlinks or a form of link that disguises the URL and bypass the homepage
For further statements and representations regarding the information provided on this site, please review the "Privacy Statement."
JesusGeeks has this hours ago! :)
KPMG doesn't want us to link to KPMG? That seems absurd! What if I want to link to KPMG? I should be able to link to KPMG if I want to! In fact, I will make use of that privelige right now!
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
The anti-salmon
Here's a link to the company that built the site for Razorfish.
*link via camworld
*** I am the real stylewagon
Most people haven't heard of firms like this because it does them no good to market to the average consumer since their services are of no interest to them. Large corporations pay them millions however, and you can pretty much bet that just about every Fortune 500 firm is one of their clients. A mid-level consultant in one of these firms bills out at about $300-$400 per hour. They make huge sums of money and wield tremendous power in corporate America.
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
This was also reported on FuckedCompany a few days ago. An interesting discussion went along with it.
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
I work at KPMG Consulting; there really is a bizarre lifestyle here. I do LOVE the theme song. It was available on one of our international intranet sites; one of the more hip netherlandic teams had it commissioned as part of their morale-building exercises.
It worked, actually; everyone in the company has laughed about that for the past year. I guess it was only a matter of time before we got publicly ridiculed because of it. I wonder if it was leaked for publicity? Hmmmmm...
It was for a Consultants' Conference in Frankfurt. See The Register.
You will also find the song lyrics is in that article.
It's 11pm, do you know what your deamons are up to?
That would be KPMG Consulting, not KPMG. (Two different companies).
Interesting... It doesn't seem to matter much.
See for yourself
--
Garett
A long, long, time ago I worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. in Atlanta as a CPA at the time of the merger that created KPMG, and we had a lovely little explanation of what KPMG stood for (when the partners/managers/PHBs werent around):
Kiss Peat Marwick Goodbye
It was also the most stuffy, up-tight place I have ever had the single misfortune of working at.
It looks like it hasn't changed a bit in the last 15 years.
I'm not really a CPA, I just play one on TV
here's a simple solution for KPMG.
only 'approved' referrors go into a control list. check the referrer on incoming connections, and if there's no match for the list, show a bad referer page.
so, what's the problem again?
This was painful to transcribe: mostly because I'm at work and trying to not burst out laughing:
KPMG:
We're strong as can be
A dream of power and energy
We go for the goal
Together we hold on to
Our vision of global strategy
We create
We elevate
We pass the ones that are la-ey-ate
A global shield
This is our dream of success
That we create
We'll be number one
#Whenever that comes?# [hard to make out]
Together each of us will run for gold
That shines like the sun in our eyes
Chorus [1st stanza]
The time is now
To lead the way
We share the same idea that may
Win by the end of the day
A friend that's here to stay
Identity
One energy
One strategy
With sypathy
These are the words
That can lead us to a new world
Chorus
Chorus
key-changed chorus
key-changed chorus a'la Gospel
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
Google is doing what they're supposed to. Note that Google doesn't actually contain any quotes from their website, nor do they have a cached page.
However, Google still has kpmg.com in their database, probably because of other sites that link to it.
My employer's Head WebMaster recently released the newly revised web policy manual that all of the various department webmonkeys have to abide by.
In that manual under the section titled "Linking Policy" is this paragraph:
I haven't yet inquired as to exactly what the intent of such an absurd statement is or how that would be enforced or how the world at large would even be aware of a policy that is (AFAIK)only referenced in a purely internal document posted on our intranet.
Just how many companies have such silly policies?
Perhaps I'll start "linkriot.com" whose sole purpose is to collect the URL's of and link to the sites of such misguided entities.
"Any idea why?"
l inkfree
;-D
Did you by any chance try clicking on any of those "not link free" links? Specifically, this one:
http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~APercher/u/faq_e.htm#
DennyK
See Fucked Company for a slightly livelier discussion on this subject. It was posted there few days ago already... And they um, 'slightly dislike' consultants, too, so it's good laugh for everyone involved! (only thing scummier than a consultant appears to be a head hunter...)
A bunch of countries have odd restrictions regarding their TLDs. Such as:
- Only registered companies may purchase a domain name, and it must be a name that the company is known by. (No "beer.pt" for a Portuguese brewery called 'The Tin Whistle', for example, to seize on a country/tld/name out of nowhere.)
- Only companies with their headquarters in this country may purchase a domain.
Just two of the latter is impossible to do.