New Service Shuurl.com not Playing Fair

by Frank Jovine on 02/19/2009 in Internet, Tech

Shuurl, a new service for truncating URLs is using the WOT widget. We think that’s great and we encourage people to use the widget. The intention of using the WOT widget was to obtain outbound links from blogs and websites.

However, Shuurl is using the WOT widget, icons and ratings and not giving WOT the credit for the ratings. The only thing indicating WOT is the little tool tip. You have to click on it to get to the WOT scorecard, otherwise clicking on the icon next to the truncated URL takes you to the site itself.

This is not a good practice for any new company launching a new service. It’s a form of copyright infringement, but will leave that up to the legal beagles.

If they wish to use the WOT ratings, they should give credit to WOT for supplying the information that they are using.

We tried to contact Shuurl, but the information is private on whois.net. They also have no contact page or email on their website.

See what others are saying about this at http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/2033-website-shuurl-unfair-play.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

http://www.shuurl.com

Update: As of 2/20/2009, Shuurl has updated their site that now credits WOT.

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8 Responses to “New Service Shuurl.com not Playing Fair”

  1. Colin

    Feb 19th, 2009

    Thumbs Up for this one :)
    Will add a redirect from my blog in the morning, should be interesting as owner has responded on WOT that ‘it’s not been launched or in beta’….it seems pretty much live to me!

    • Frank J

      Feb 19th, 2009

      Colin,

      Good to see you! Thank you for all your support at the WOT forums!

  2. cyrano

    Feb 19th, 2009

    They do seem to have a contact form:

    http://www.shuurl.com/contact.php

    Tried that? Or is it new?

    • Frank J

      Feb 19th, 2009

      It’s new as it was not there earlier today.

  3. Deborah

    Feb 20th, 2009

    Thanks Frank, for bring this to everyone’s attention. Because of your activism and insistence that WOT get credit for the ratings, the developer of the program has redesigned their beta site to include “Safety Ratings by WOT.”

    We wish Shuurl the greatest success.

    Safe surfing,
    Deborah
    Web of Trust

    • Frank J

      Feb 20th, 2009

      Deborah,

      I am glad we all could help, but the intention was not to lash out, but to keep people honest.

  4. Colin

    Feb 20th, 2009

    Power to the people Frank :)
    It is good to see that the site has been redesigned and proper credit given to WOT for the use of the API.
    As you say, it’s not lashing out, but righting a wrong and ensuring that the battle to make the internet a safer place continues.

    Regards,
    Colin
    Free PC Security

    • Frank J

      Feb 20th, 2009

      Colin,

      Right on! It takes a few voices to make things happen. Kudos!