How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites • Hacker News Board

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#61

Post by dejanseo » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:07 AM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #22

shruubi wrote: post #18

Honestly, it doesn't shock me in the slightest that someone who markets themselves as an SEO expert would not only do something as unethical as this, but also brag about it, as though they think they've done something they should be proud of.

Is this that different than publicizing bugs? He tested it for a small amount of time, noticed a real security vulnerability (he could collect leads), and publicized his findings knowing Google would likely punish him for it. It's mildly unethical at worse, considering he could have happily done profitable leadgen at scale and it would have likely never been caught if he kept quiet.

That's exactly right. Google has already punished me once for exposing a flaw (which they still haven't fixed): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4748094

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#62

Post by dejanseo » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:08 AM UTC

p1necone wrote: post #17

nsmog767 wrote: post #13

This is easy to hate on, and certainly ethically dubious....but man do I love it.

My thoughts exactly. This guy is an asshole, but man do I love a clever hack.

Hey, that's not very nice.

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#63

Post by dejanseo » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:09 AM UTC

3eto wrote: post #32

> Record actual sessions (mouse movement, clicks, typing) > I gasped when I realised I can actually capture all form submissions and send them to my own email. How many bad actors have been doing the same and for how long? This doesn't sound like something Google should just brush under the carpet and expect no one else is doing it. Although I wish the author had reached out to Google first to see how they would have…

You're welcome.

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#64

Post by dejanseo » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:10 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #48

digitalboss wrote: post #34

Update from site "Google’s team has tracked down my test site, most likely using the source code I shared and de-indexed the whole domain."

They don't up/down ranking individual sites for stuff like this. They've probably implemented back-hijack detection for the whole web

That would be marvellous.

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#65

Post by tnolet » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:12 AM UTC

dejanseo wrote: post #54

Hi everyone! I did this. It was just a random cool idea I wanted to try. It worked a little too well and I quickly moved it to a disposable site to test if the page will get penalised by Google. I got busy with other things and forgot about it. When I bumped into it again I decided to write about it, for two reasons: 1) To me it's hard to believe that Chrome would allow for this to happen in the first place and 2) th…

Yay, you misled users and stole content! Seems like you are actually proud of this. I gather you realize this and did this in the best “white hat” spirit, although that’s not really what I get from your blog.

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#66

Post by konschubert » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:14 AM UTC

everydaypanos wrote: post #41

1 Years years ago when I was learning web development I bought a TLD and just copy-pasted Amazon’s log in page to just check how it works. Amazon somehow found out about this and Google punished that TLD after that incident and it just couldn’t go up in rankings after that. If I remember correctly they had even put that TLD on sites that report/list “phishing” sites so if you Googled about that TLD you would also get…

I think you mean domain, not tld.

Tld is the last part of the domain, the .com, .eu, .in, ...

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#67

Post by lozenge » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:17 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #48

digitalboss wrote: post #34

Update from site "Google’s team has tracked down my test site, most likely using the source code I shared and de-indexed the whole domain."

They don't up/down ranking individual sites for stuff like this. They've probably implemented back-hijack detection for the whole web

They didn't down rank it, they delisted it just like they would delist child porn or copyright material after receiving a dmca notice

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#68

Post by pakitan » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:18 AM UTC

dejanseo wrote: post #54

Hi everyone! I did this. It was just a random cool idea I wanted to try. It worked a little too well and I quickly moved it to a disposable site to test if the page will get penalised by Google. I got busy with other things and forgot about it. When I bumped into it again I decided to write about it, for two reasons: 1) To me it's hard to believe that Chrome would allow for this to happen in the first place and 2) th…

Is Chrome the only browser this trick worked on?

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#69

Post by mosselman » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:19 AM UTC

TekMol wrote: post #58

dejanseo wrote: post #54

Hi everyone! I did this. It was just a random cool idea I wanted to try. It worked a little too well and I quickly moved it to a disposable site to test if the page will get penalised by Google. I got busy with other things and forgot about it. When I bumped into it again I decided to write about it, for two reasons: 1) To me it's hard to believe that Chrome would allow for this to happen in the first place and 2) th…

Copying someone elses site and tricking their users to use your copy is a copyright violation and fraud. Nothing cool about it.

Your statement is far too broad and lacks context. Where is this a violation and where is it considered fraud? There must be some countries where this isn't the case or at least where the article and non-commercial use of the technique are considered to be mitigating circumstances.

Also, who doesn't find it cool? You don't seem to be saying that what is described in the article isn't cool, you seem to be making a broader claim that copyright violation and fraud aren't cool.

Lets assume you find what is described in this article copyright violation and fraud, because after all, you said it is. Apparently some people on HN find what the author has done cool, judging by the comments. Ergo, some things that you, specifically, consider 'copyright violation and fraud' are in fact cool.

Re: How I recorded user behaviour on my competitor’s websites

#70

Post by wiether » Thu, Aug 23, 2018, 7:20 AM UTC

mrob wrote: post #4

lukestevens wrote: post #2

This is an interesting yet disturbing case of blackhat SEO and phishing, where the site owner hijacks the back button and sends visitors to fake sites where he can observe their behaviour. FTA: Here’s what I did: 1. User lands on my page (referrer: google) 2. When they hit “back” button in Chrome, JS sends them to my copy of SERP 3. Click on any competitor takes them to my mirror of competitor’s site (noindex) 4. Now…

Yet another reason to browse with JS disabled by default.

In that case, just not using useless thing like "back" button will be perfectly fine.

A good website don't need using this button.

And to navigate between websites, using a tab for each website is fine. Especially when comparing results from Google.