Hugh Winkler holding forth on computing and the Web

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Self-appointed Guardians of Truth

SiteTruth has given my company's web site a big red do not enter sign.

Even though we don't sell products electronically, they wish we had a certificate. And we've never put our office address on that site -- an oversight when we moved, not a scam. So they give us a big red "Do Not Enter" sign, indicating our site is dangerous to enter. From their "about" page:

Every on-line commerce web site must display the name and address of the business behind the site. That's the law in much of the developed world. SiteTruth tries to identify that business, then find information about it. That check is used to influence search rankings. That's SiteTruth. (emphasis mine)


We're not an "on-line commerce web site", but their system can't detect that, so they're selling technology that will lower our search rankings?

We'll fix our site to please them, of course; why not? But their technology doesn't seem to increase the safety of the web. And is likely to piss off other legit site owners, some of whom may even feel litigious. Could you blame them?