Or in this case spell that myschef.
There is a web site I developed that sells chef apparel, aprons, chef hats etc... I am proud of how it turned out and maintain it regularly as it is one of the busiest sites I am responsible for, and we are growing into a culinary portal of updated, useful information for the target audience. Keeping the site going strong has resulted in increased sales so I check in often.
The web logs on the server allow me to see several facts and statistics - including hijacked images.
The term "hijacked images" doesn't mean they're held hostage somewhere or being threatened. It refers to other web sites using your images on their web pages, but drawing them from your server rather than saving the images to their own. This allows them to utilize the images that you are paying to store and bandwidth.
It is generally frowned upon to do that.
The logs have been reporting that a competitors web site has been hijacking images from the culinary site, and appears to be selling the same products. A few months ago I wrote a well mannered e-mail to them, asking nicely that they save the images to their servers rather than load them from ours. In short time I received a kind response saying they would oblige, yet I haven't seen that happen.
So, I stew on it for several weeks. I can always change the names of the files, but that takes work. I have to change the names, re-upload the files, change the filenames in each products specs, change the images in my Froogle feed and upload that... The list goes on. Additionally, the failed image requests would fill up the error logs and to my knowledge, still draw resources from the site.
Plus, I just haven't had the time to piddle with it.
The week came however when I did find myself with extra time to handle some tasks from the back burner. While plowing through these things, I decided I had the time to change the filenames of the images and see how that went. I changed the names, uploaded the images, uploaded my Froogle feed etc... and started awaiting the confirmation email that the new feed had been activated.
Then things got entertaining.
What if I left the hijacked images on the server the same, but changed the ones being hijacked. I could change them to say "shouldnt you really be shopping at mychefcoat.com?" - something to that effect.
The thought of getting someone angry in the e-commerce area of things drove me away from that thought. So off I went to Google to research other possible avenues.
Staying up waaaaay too late one evening, I found my solution to the issue.
Have fun with it!
Below you will see the changed images that will be appearing on the hijackers web site.
Until they see it and change their web pages that is.
Click on the links to view the slide show. Scroll below the pics for the results.
Pic 5 :: Pic 6 :: Pic 7 :: Pic 8 :: Pic 9
