It never ceases to amaze me that some web newbies (pronounced... "lawyers") really believe that "deep" linking is a concept based in reality. Every web page address is unique and directly addressable by design. I can hear Yoda's voice as he says "There is no 'deep', only linking."

Do these same lawyers get upset when someone calls their direct corporate phone number without first calling the main switchboard? Is this a "deep link" into their corporate phone system, bypassing the "home page" of the main corporate phone number?

Do these same lawyers get upset when someone addresses snail mail directly to their building and mailstop instead of sending it to corporate headquarters? Is this a "deep link" into their corporate snail mail system?

Do lawyers get upset when someone drives directly to their home instead of first stopping at the visitor center of their gated community? Is this a "deep link" to their house, bypassing the "home page" of the visitor center?

I know some lawyers might claim that "bypassing the home page" (a concept not based on fact) might deprive the site owner of some advertising revenue. Maybe the lawyers, and their whining marketing and/or sales people, could purchase a clue by meeting with their web analytics people.

Take a look at your own, and industry-wide, stats on the percentage of visitors entering via the home page. In the neighborhood of 50%? Surprised? Have you heard of search engines and bookmarks and landing pages, oh my!

Direct page-to-page linking is one of the core concepts on which the web was founded. If you and your lawyers don't understand, then close down your web site. Go sell your widgets from a brick storefront, as done last century.

If you really want to prevent "deep" linking, why not simply have your web people disable it via their .htaccess file? (Don't start whining when your site traffic declines.) Web developers are a lot less costly than lawyers. Your web people will probably do this in exchange for a free lunch. Oh... but then the lawyers lose all those nice billable hours. Maybe they aren't as clueless as I thought? [grin]

Deep Linking: Not Settled Yet. Ernst Poulsen, who writes for this weblog periodically, has been busy lately in his role as chairman of the Danish Online News Association fighting another "deep linking" case. (No, that issue hasn't gone away yet.) This one involves the newspaper Politiken, which a month ago began insisting that weblogger Thomas Dyhr refrain from linking directly to Politiken articles. When Dyhr included (deep) links to newspaper articles in a 900-word article on his blog -- about an Iraq hearing in the Danish parliament, which he attended -- he received an e-mail from a Politiken attorney telling him to refrain (...)

Entry continued... By steve@poynter.org (Steve Outing). [Poynter E-Media Tidbits]

Turn OneNote into RSS Aggregator.

Omar's been busy. Here he blogs about a new OneNote PowerToy. It turns OneNote into an RSS News Aggregator.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

7:01:00 PM

categories: Radio Fun