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Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

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Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#31

Post by thatthatis »

mik3y wrote: post #11
rkalla wrote: post #8

@judk's comment should be higher... it is the unfortunate cycle of ad-supported startups. imgur grew out of the garden that is reddit; it was suppose to replace all those other crappy hosting services. It's been known for a while that directly navigating to a i.com/direct-link.jpg link costs imgur because they get no ad impressions from those loads. While I think this is the eventual trend of every imgur page load, t…

Semi-OT, but: Considering how much reddit seems to depend on imgur and image hosting in general, how long will it be until reddit handles the image hosting themselves? Sure it would add a ton of new costs and headaches (takedowns, etc), but don't you have to have a plan for this if you're Yishan? Imgur hasn't exactly been subtle about adding reddit-like features (comments, comment ranking, categories, etc)..

By not hosting the images reddit gets double special safe harbor status wrt copyright and dmca complaints.

Reddit gets the traffic, imgur pays for the bandwidth and compliance.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#32

Post by patorjk »

Haywain wrote: post #22
mmahemoff wrote: post #17

I tried linking to a photo I'm hosting in a Pro account: https://twitter.com/mahemoff/status/431487389866139648 Even for a Pro account, the image redirects from Twitter. It doesn't redirect me, but it redirects everyone else (I tested from Incognito mode). Which seems not quite what I thought I was paying for. Also as a paid user, if I click on anyone else's images, they still redirect like they would for a guest/fre…

You may be interested: The first time I clicked the link, it redirected. All subsequent clicks went directly to the image only. (OSX, Firefox Nightly)

Same thing happened for me (Windows, FireFox 26).

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#33

Post by dangrossman »

tantalor wrote: post #20

I think they do this because the "i" subdomain is meant for embedding ( tag), not linking ( tag). Facebook, Twitter, etc. don't embed the image (incorrect behavior), but Reddit does (correct behavior).

Other than text self-posts, Reddit submission titles are all links to external URLs. There's no special case for imgur. They're links, not embeds.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#34

Post by theg2 »

stordoff wrote: post #13
ehutch79 wrote: post #2

I honestly don't see an issue. if you're sharing links to images on imgur, you're denying them ad revenue and just leaching bandwidth. I'm all for adblockers, but complaining you can't direct link images is kinda...

The creator of imgur (MrGrim on Reddit) has said on multiple occasions that hotlinking is acceptable way to use imgur: Four years ago - "I created imgur because the other image hosting sites forced you to see their ad-ridden pages (TinyPIC). I would never do the same to you. If you want to direct link to the image, then by all means do so."[1] Three years ago - "People linking to the page rather than the image is wha…

And '640K is more memory than anyone will ever need.' Business models change and in reality there are no free lunches. Just because they say something in the past doesn't mean it can't and shouldn't change.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#35

Post by thatthatis »

I just can't get upset about this. Perhaps as the article suggests this is the canary in the coal mine that portends the imminent downfall of imgur as a non spammy image host. Perhaps. But I don't think so.

First of all, imgur needs to make money somehow. So far they've exercised extreme restraint and made no short term or short sightef optimizations that I'm aware of.

Second, what legitimate reasons could they have for this behavior?

* get people to re-share the images, as the destination page has share buttons

* ensure search engines follwing the links pick up the canonical page instead of the raw image page.

* get better analytics or tracking data by being able to run JavaScript. -- they are a free service that needs this data to sell ads, if you don't like being tracked, invest the minimal effort to install an anonymizer.

* it could be a workaround from something that fb/twitter is doing that inadvertently grabs the raw link when users intend to share the canonical page.

I'm sure there are a dozen other reasons, and right now we don't have enough information to know why they are doing this.

Given their history of restraint, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#36

Post by rkalla »

mik3y wrote: post #11
rkalla wrote: post #8

@judk's comment should be higher... it is the unfortunate cycle of ad-supported startups. imgur grew out of the garden that is reddit; it was suppose to replace all those other crappy hosting services. It's been known for a while that directly navigating to a i.com/direct-link.jpg link costs imgur because they get no ad impressions from those loads. While I think this is the eventual trend of every imgur page load, t…

Semi-OT, but: Considering how much reddit seems to depend on imgur and image hosting in general, how long will it be until reddit handles the image hosting themselves? Sure it would add a ton of new costs and headaches (takedowns, etc), but don't you have to have a plan for this if you're Yishan? Imgur hasn't exactly been subtle about adding reddit-like features (comments, comment ranking, categories, etc)..

I've actually wondered this for years - why reddit let imgur take that lead and run with it, but to some of the other replies I guess it does come down to cost. Reddit doesn't have a big budget and until last year I think it was just 3 or 4 of them (now I still think it is For what little (nothing?) it is worth, it upsets me that this pattern is repeated over and over and over... for once I'd like to see a startup grow organically over time, never forgetting their roots, not being worth $4 billion after a year of being in business and just acting like a good, solid, mature company that grows into something valuable over a decade.

These overnight-billion-dollar dice rolls are getting exhausting and while really addictive and interesting, they just suck the air out of the room.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#37

Post by maxerickson »

rkalla wrote: post #36
mik3y wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semi-OT, but: Considering how much reddit seems to depend on imgur and image hosting in general, how long will it be until reddit handles the image hosting themselves? Sure it would add a ton of new costs and headaches (takedowns, etc), but don't you have to have a plan for this if you're Yishan? Imgur hasn't exactly been subtle about adding reddit-like features (comments, comment ranking, categories, etc)..

I've actually wondered this for years - why reddit let imgur take that lead and run with it, but to some of the other replies I guess it does come down to cost. Reddit doesn't have a big budget and until last year I think it was just 3 or 4 of them (now I still think it is For what little (nothing?) it is worth, it upsets me that this pattern is repeated over and over and over... for once I'd like to see a startup gr…

They list more than 30 people:

http://www.reddit.com/about/team/

Not sure if those are all full time roles though.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#38

Post by brubaker »

judk wrote: post #4
ehutch79 wrote: post #2

I honestly don't see an issue. if you're sharing links to images on imgur, you're denying them ad revenue and just leaching bandwidth. I'm all for adblockers, but complaining you can't direct link images is kinda...

Imgur was founded as a reddit-friendly image host. "The new site for reddit images, written by a redditor. None of the slow ad-laden crap of imageshack!" Now, it is slow ad-laden crap, to the point that I just hit Back button after hitting a link and seeing the page frame load before the image. It has been fascinating to watch the common startup pattern of "I am one of us, making our life awesome" messaging covering…

Except that it isn't..either of those.

So basically still nothing like imageshack.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#39

Post by Kluny »

skywhopper wrote: post #24

This pattern is inevitable. How is Imgur going to survive if it just serves up naked image links to all comers? The best way around this situation is to develop ways for web users to have their own hosting space for the images they wish to share. So long as we depend on other companies to do it for us for free, this is the pattern we'll keep seeing.

I think they are doing that. Stackexchange has their own imgur subdomain, for example. Here's a blog post about it - I've lost the exact url to the subdomain.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/new-image-upload-suppo...

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#40

Post by danpat »

rkalla wrote: post #36
mik3y wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semi-OT, but: Considering how much reddit seems to depend on imgur and image hosting in general, how long will it be until reddit handles the image hosting themselves? Sure it would add a ton of new costs and headaches (takedowns, etc), but don't you have to have a plan for this if you're Yishan? Imgur hasn't exactly been subtle about adding reddit-like features (comments, comment ranking, categories, etc)..

I've actually wondered this for years - why reddit let imgur take that lead and run with it, but to some of the other replies I guess it does come down to cost. Reddit doesn't have a big budget and until last year I think it was just 3 or 4 of them (now I still think it is For what little (nothing?) it is worth, it upsets me that this pattern is repeated over and over and over... for once I'd like to see a startup gr…

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