Are framed redirects illegal or unethical?

[EbookLover]

Just in case you don't know what a framed redirect is, it's when you have a site that links to another site but instead of just letting the the surfer go to the site you've linked to and possible lose him, you redirect him using a framed page on your own site. Most of the page displays the site you are linking to but there would be one little frame accross the top or bottom of the page (or on the side if you want) that would have a link back to your site.

And example I know of is Half.com, or at least they did this about 2 years ago. If you visit half.com and click on a link ot go to ebay, they use a framed redirect so that at the top of the page you'd always see the half.com logo and link back to half.com. (Ebay, of course, owns half.com).

I have heard that this is unethical (if you do not own the site you are linking to) and I have also heard that it is a legal issue and that some companies pursue it legally and have done so in the past.

Anyone know anything about it?

Even if you don't know what are your thoughts about having it done to your own site? I mean, someone using a framed redirect when linking to your site.

 

[slaughterbeck]

Illegal or unethical? No, as long as your frame is not intended to appear as part of the redirected site but it is annoying. Have you ever been to about.com?

 

[EbookLover]

Yeah, I have been to About.com. I knew they did this but I wasn't sure if they have agreements to do this with the sites they do a framed redirect to. I have heard that it's a legal issue with companies that choose to pursure it and not with those that don't care oir don't have the resources to do so. So in other words, the big boys will be the most likely to pursue it legally since they always see a branding issue with things like this (even if you are not intending to appear affilaited with them).

It's very possible that About.com has permissions to do what they do. No?

It just seems to me that if it's not a legal issue and not considered widely unethical, then more people would do it seeing how there is great benefit to you because you greatly increase your chances of that visitor coming back to your site as opposed to when you use a regular, non-framed redirect. I know you can jsu tmake a link popup in a new window, bu tthere are disadvantages to that.

 

[slaughterbeck]

I think if any website didn’t want to be framed they could easily use a frame breaking script, that way they would redirect to their current page even if Google framed them, which they do in their index cache pages.

 

[Fleege]

if i am not mistaken Business.com also does that when you click on psonsored links. Maybe they think that it is more cool for that little company to still be within the Business.com frame...

Where this comes handy though is for domain parking. some compnaies let you host your content framed or unframed on your on pages. This takes optimization to a whole new level.

 

[Xyzer]

If i think i know what you are on about, ask jeeves does this or google image search.

 

[dweeb]

i think most search engines do this. Like yahoo, when you search for images. And ask jeeves. But they do give you the option to close the frame, but I agree that it's annoying.

 

[Xyzer]

I wonder why the search engines do this, maybe to promote there sites, does anyone else know?

 

[markkk]

NO, Webmasters just avoid frames because its not SE friendly.

 

[EbookLover]

Yeah but SEO is not an issue because the frames are just used for the links to outbound sites. The pages on your site do not have to be framed at all as far as I know.

if i am not mistaken Business.com also does that when you click on psonsored links. Maybe they think that it is more cool for that little company to still be within the Business.com frame...

Honestly, I don't think that "cool" has anything to do with it. It's is done in an effort to get the surfer to remember them and come back to their site.

I can see how this may be beneficial to a search engine because they are saying "Hey, you found this site you are viewing via our search engine so please remember to go back to our site if you're gonna search some more, please".

Obviously a company like Google does not need to do this for it's search results because most people will remmeber Google anyway. They probably have their toolbar installed anyway.

NO, Webmasters just avoid frames because its not SE friendly.

See above.

I wonder why the search engines do this, maybe to promote there sites, does anyone else know?

It's is done in an effort to get the surfer to remember them and come back to their site.

I agree that it can be annoying depending on what you a re redirecting to and I think that one should definitely give the option to remove the little fram if they wish.

 

[Fleege]

I was going to list on business.com but I did not want my visitors to be left hanging in a business.com frame.

I think its ok if it s a free listing or a search but when you pay for a listing I think its really bad.

 

[EbookLover]

I think its ok if it s a free listing or a search but when you pay for a listing I think its really bad.

I agree with that, and seeing how some people tend to dislike frame redirects, that is why I am asking this question about it. It seems to me that there may be some issues in linking to other sites with a redirect and could possibly be a legal issue, too. At least if you pay, it's proibably in the TOS of busines.com that you agree to let them link to your site in a frame.