I was trapsing around the web tonight, checking on some referals and came across a food blog directory at chefblogs.com.
What was notable on this directory is that every blog listing has a thumbnail (a lot of them really crappy screenshoots with the food blog site overlapping a different site).
Actually, that wasn't the really notable part... each blog listing has a set of links at the bottom that give each blog's popularity stats (Technorati listing, Google links, etc). One of these links is called AlexaInfo.
The AlexaInfo link goes to an Amazon.com listing of blogs. I urge everyone to check out their blog's listing as I was quite surprised at the explicit contact info listed for mine. I think this info is editable, though when I tried to edit mine, the system coughed a hair ball and now my entry isn't in the system at all. While I know that smart people can deduce my home phone number and home address, I don't want it to be posted so blantantly.
Here's a sample listing for IMBB.
This post was written by McAuliflower
15 comments:
Thanks for the heads up! Thankfully, me and the other blogspot-blogs just have contact info for blogger... and I can live with that. :)
thanks for the headsup.
That is very worrying and something to keep an eye on.
They obviously haven't heard that Ronald moved to Sicily, huh??
That's very interesting. I use Blogger and am also thankful that only the Blogger contact info is listed. The info they list can be very worrisome for those whose personal contact info is listed. Thanks for letting us know.
fascinating. they had my home address and phone number listed from more than a year ago. the photo of the site and the rest of the site info was completely wrong as well!
Yeah, the thumbnails are crap :)
Some of them look like they have questionable content lurking behind the actual blog's window.
I have a friend who works web admin for Amazon who is getting an email about this...
Another annoying feature I found out is that you can't edit your displayed information unless the email address you give matches your blog url. For example, they won't listen to me unless I go create xxx@browniepointsblog.com and use that as my contact email. :P
I'm grateful I have a great web-liason (aka Sweets) to do my bidding!
Thanks for the heads up, Brownie! I'm assuming it's Blogger contact info for me, and it wouldn't let me change it. OK by me -- better that than my home addy! Like McAuliflower, wouldn't let me put in my e-mail address either. Interesting stats though - something I obsess about unfortunately. ;)
This is very helpful. My info links to some tech/web company that has nothing to do with me. But I've discovered something else with this--by checking my Technorati links--someone (a non-food blog) has lifted one of my photos without credit. Sigh. I've got to do something about copywriting my site--after I get over my shock. Should I write this person and let her know I know?
Hey jennifer. Check out this this previous discussion on the same subject. Paul from Kiplog has a very funny story about it.
Thanks Sam--Paul's story provided a great laugh. I think I'll investigate watermarking as a next step.
Extremely out of date as it points to my original Blogger blog rather than my own CheapCooking site! Hmmm...I think I moved it a year and a half ago.
I am so very over these sites that take other peoples blogs and include their content (even with links) to make up their own. What a bore.
This place for instance.
http://www.49media.com
They are scraping old contact info from the domain registrar for your site - for blogspot people that gives you Blogger anonymity. Luckily for me my Singapore based hosting service doesn't seem interested in passing the information along. I liked the chefblogs directory but was miffed to be uncategorized and only findable via search. Anyway anybody can find out the domain info by searching whois
What's weird about the domain name info they give is that it isn't the most up to date. My address informatin in Alexa is where I lived 7 years ago. I've moved twice since then. I have since bought the "privacy" service with my domain names and even yesterday bought a local PO box to make keeping my personal address information for everything.
to their credit, I correct the info on my site, and eliminated stuff i didn't want there (like my phone number) and they updated it within two days.
I didn't have an experience to give them credit with. Even after 'updating' my info they didn't take it down for 72hrs, and then they didn't correct what my form told them to correct.
Also, the update thumbnail feature didn't technically work.
Maybe that's what I get for sending the company a critical comment email about this service :P
Post a Comment