Why framejacking is bad

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by CoreyTaratuta on April 2, 2010 at 2:50pm

Framejacking makes my list of pet peeves.

Confession, I've been known to RT with a link pointing to the original, non-framejacked source instead of the one in the Tweet. Not sure if that breaks any RT etiquette, but I want people to find good content... not get frustrated. If someone thinks that messes up their plans for Stumble domination - they'll have to settle for the alternative is NO RETWEET.

Permalink Reply by Josh on April 2, 2010 at 3:48pm

Framejacking breaks basic Web etiquette so changing it to bit.ly before retweeting is the polite thing to do.

Permalink Reply by kimba on April 2, 2010 at 4:03pm

I don't think in these cases, although I'm not sure about ow.ly because I haven't used it, but in the case of su.pr, it's not breaking web "etiquette". I wouldn't care one way or the other if someone changed the su.pr address to the original url in a RT.

What makes someone a web outlaw is if they frame someone else's web site or content into their own site and claim it as their own.

Permalink Reply by Josh on April 2, 2010 at 4:15pm

Many users are not tech savvy enough to understand what happened to their URL. For example, if you visit framejacked URL on ow.ly or su.pr and then visit a different page, the framejacked URL will never change. If you want to send the current page to someone (after navigating under the ow.ly or su.pr frame), you can't do it unless you know how to break out of the frame.

Here's a link that I copied while reading a page about "Grain free Lemony Pancakes", but clicking on that link won't lead to the page that I intended to link to because HTML frames hijack the address bar and mask the true location. The copied link will go to the page that I was originally viewing when clicking on the su.pr link, not the page I intended to link to.

IMHO it breaks Web etiquette when the link hijacks the address bar and takes control of the browser away from the user. Users who are not tech savvy are going to get confused and frustrated, while users who are tech savvy are going to get annoyed because of the extra step required to break out of the frame. If you search around the Web, there are many people complaining about ow.ly and su.pr links... (example)

Permalink Reply by kimba on April 2, 2010 at 2:59pm

The only reason why I use su.pr (besides the fact that I work in webdev and QA and just need to know how things work and I learn by using) is just to get my site's pages into SU. I feel that it's a more honest way to get pages into their database than spamming my SU contacts to give the page/s a thumbs up. I get more annoyed at thumbs up requests than I do with clicking on someone's su.pr address. And with su.pr, they've added a Close X. If the user clicks it the SU bar and URL go away.

The one "framejacking" system that really bugs me though is the longstanding one at About.com. I don't click links within About.com pages.

Permalink Reply by Josh on April 2, 2010 at 3:57pm

I think StumbleUpon used to be one of the best social networking tools. They made a huge mistake when they moved from the downloadable browser toolbar to the HTML framejacking toolbar. Many websites break out of HTML frames. The number of websites that break out of HTML frames is going to increase as more webmasters get annoyed by the practice. That will make SU's framejacking toolbar even less relevant.

Also, the law has not caught up with technology. It is not inconceivable that HTML framejacking could become illegal in the future. Framejacking is the unauthorized display of a website's copyrighted content under another site's URL, and it is misrepresentation of the content, especially when viewed by non-tech savvy visitors.

SU is good for traffic, but does the traffic convert? It can be a mass amount of traffic, but it's typically low quality. IMHO, it's not worth annoying followers, and it's not the only way to get into SU's database...

The best thing StumbleUpon could do is get rid of all of their HTML framejacking, and go back to just the downloadable browser toolbar.

Permalink Reply by kimba on April 2, 2010 at 4:16pm

I don't think of the SU bar as a "framejack". And I've worked on the web for a long long time (all things being relative). If I thought it broke any "laws" I wouldn't use it.

Traffic doesn't always convert, but who knows really?. The reason I use it is to initially get the page into the database for the long term. I have no idea how many people discover the site through SU and then come back at a later date on their own to visit.

Permalink Reply by Josh on April 2, 2010 at 4:30pm

Sorry, I might not have worded that well. :)
I mean that framejacking itself could conceivably become illegal in the future due to copyright. It wouldn't be you who was breaking the law, but the domain that was creating HTML frame and displaying another site's copyrighted content under the wrong domain. (su.pr, about.com, ow.ly)

In the past, framing other websites (framejacking) has been ruled legal, but I don't think the law has caught up with technology yet. :)

In the case of my blog post above, I'm only arguing that many people don't like being sent framejacked links, not that it is illegal. (Unfortunately, it is legal)