Seriously though, I doubt these guys will last long - their doorway spamming is blatant and they have (stupidly) included people's names, phone numbers and email addresses within the stolen text, which are obvious red flags.

They've even got Danny Sullivan's name in there on this page : http://www.tip-top-marketing.com/search-engine-registration-aixp/web-site-promotion-service.html so I can't imagine they will survive long once he finds out.

Keep us informed of any responses to your email!

[This message has been edited by JuniorHarris (edited 09-06-2001).]

Make sure you press "stop" in your browser before the redirect takes effect. Then choose view, source to see what these guys have done.

Now they haven't actually stolen any content that I can see, but they have included invisible links to lots of competing sites, including mine. Is yours in there too? One interesting aspect of this is that they have included a liability clause : [Copyrights, Trademarks, and Servicemarks are the property of their respective holders, which may include (list of competitors here)].

I am guessing they are trying to improve their link popularity "hub factor" by linking to popular sites relating to the same topic. But why have they done this on the sly instead of requesting reciprocal links? Would these links benefit the sites they are linking to more than themselves?

This is just one URL of hundreds on their site linking to competitors. I found it by checking the details of my link popularity at www.linkpopularitycheck.com . After Make Me Top's discovery last month, I now run a check every few days to see just who is linking to me and to monitor any page-jacking going on. Interesting stuff!

Anyone want to set up a shooting gallery

MakeMeTop you sure are having a bad time, if you need any help...

They have promised to call me as soon as this has been done, so hopefully that is the end of this story. Rather than publically pillory this company - I have removed the offending links above and will accept their apology and that it was a bad mistake on their behalf.

Now let's have a look at what Kal found!

From: http://www.bruceclay.com/Promotion/search-engine-ranking-1042.htm

body text: many clients come to me for website hosting at aerohost web systems expecting to do business on the internet by simply putting up a home page on one of our hosting servers, with the expectation that a simple strategy of internet presence is all that is required to start making money on the net.

The original ( i presume )from:
http://www.areohost.net/search-engine-tips.htm

body text: Many clients come to me for website hosting at AeroHOST Web Systems expecting to do business on the Internet by simply putting up a home page on one of our hosting servers, with the expectation that a simple strategy of 'Internet presence' is all that is required to start making money on the 'net.

mmmm......

<rant>
And finally just to really get your goat up... http://www.bruceclay.com/webthief.htm
Are they joking!

I know they quote this at the bottom of every page (and there are lots of them):

Copyrights, Trademarks, and Servicemarks are the property of their respective holders, which may include aerohost . com/search-engine-tips . htm, ourworld . compuserve . com/homepages/heiner_boyn, searchenginewatch . com, searchenginewatch . com/tips . htm, etc, etc

But can they seriously get away with this?
Any legal bods out there?
Cause if that is legal then....well what are we doing...lets all jump on the spam waggon
</rant>

<disclaimer> Now im not saying they are doing anything wrong just thought people might want to see how other people do it </disclaimer>

edited for mad typo's

Mike

[This message has been edited by highman (edited 06-05-2001).]

[This message has been edited by JuniorHarris (edited 09-06-2001).]

Cripes!~ The impending full moon must be bringing all of these out of the woodwork...

body text: many clients come to me for website hosting at aerohost web systems expecting to do business on the internet by simply putting up a home page on one of our hosting servers, with the expectation that a simple strategy of internet presence is all that is required to start making money on the net."

I couldn't find this when I just checked. Has it now been removed from the page?

[This message has been edited by JuniorHarris (edited 09-06-2001).]

Type the following into the address bar to see source of the target page without dealing with redirects.

view-source:full url goes here

[This message has been edited by Ness (edited 06-06-2001).]

[This message has been edited by highman (edited 06-06-2001).]

[This message has been edited by JuniorHarris (edited 09-06-2001).]

Bruce is one of our colleagues and deserves every benefit of doubt. I too have found what seems to be definitive evidence that it is indeed true he is page-jacking and that it appears to extrapolate beyond simply aerohost.

I would be dismayed but not surprised to learn that Bruce has no reasonable sounding explanation but I expect that he will have something to offer and I for one, will hear him out totally.

*cheers*
-detlev

Tons of pretty damning evidence in Google cache. Good luck Bruce.

Don't get fooled by breadcrumbs in the source code. Scroll past them.

-d

MakeMeTop - nice work getting an apology from the original spammers, glad to hear they are willing to take responsibility for their actions.

Ness - love that IE tip, you've saved me lots of clicking time! You get the award for my tip of the month.

Detlev - nice to see you in here again. I too am hoping for a good response from BC. Perhaps if none is forthcoming the general subject of page-jacking should be introduced in I-Search? (as a special topic like the cloaking issue). Page jacking sure seems to be rampant lately...