Indiatimes is the most popular Internet and mobile value-added services destination for the global Indian.Covering everything from art to airlines, Indiatimes is taking the digital age into people's lives, influencing the way they live and respond to changing times, work and transact. In a short span, we have created multiple relationships with millions of users.
That's great - but I am not one of those millions of users... and hence see no reason why my last post on Ford Fiesta is linked from Indiatimes Broadband's homepage, under the "Community" section.
Click on the screenshot to enlarge pic
Now you might say I am being sticky here... Indiatimes may argue I should be happy they are sending additional traffic my way - an attitude shared by most large media houses.
DNA also does something similar although they only provide links to blog headlines. Here too, I think they should clearly label the section as 'What bloggers feel or have to say' about current issues. In the way Mumbai Mirror specifies w.r.t.'Blogger's park': a 'daily column on what the worldwide web is talking about'.
The bottomline is - link to stuff I write. That's fine by me. Coz I link to stuff published by your journalists every now and then - credit it to them and comment on it.
Accord me the same privilege. But don't co-opt me into your community without my knowledge or consent.
That's borderline unethical - same as Fiesta's advertising strategy. In a world of global Indians, it won't be seen as a value add. Trust me!
And I know you will soon yank the link off.. but this is not a one-off complaint but a policy issue. Please take it seriously!
NO.. I don't think you are over reacting. In today's environment of IP paranoia, I believe that some responsibility by top media houses will go a long way.
ReplyDeleteEverytime an unknown call center employee in Gurgaon does an IP violation, the Infosys and TCSs of this country are called by their clients to review their IP security policy.
If any content is lifted from a source, it is definitely expected that some kind of permission is sought from the IP owner. In this case a simple email would have done the trick... Act your age guys !!! Be responsible.
Why does Times have to act like the mafia don of media? It's sickening.
ReplyDeleteIndiatimes' claims are as fragile as those of TOIlet. India's most popular eh?
ReplyDeleteJust take a look :
http://www.google.com/trends?q=rediff%2C+indiatimes
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?compare_sites=indiatimes.com&range=6m&size=medium&y=r&url=rediff.com
Indiatimes' claims are as fragile as those of TOIlet. India's most popular eh?
ReplyDeleteJust take a look :
http://www.google.com/trends?q=rediff%2C+indiatimes
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?compare_sites=indiatimes.com&range=6m&size=medium&y=r&url=rediff.com
what's worse is that the headline has been changed so that it seems like a wholescale endorsement for Ford !
ReplyDeleteRashmi you and Abhishek Bachchan are in the same bracket (as far as Indiatimes is concerned) !
;)