Hi All, Loving The "YOU should NOT start a web directory" List lol Any way. . . I would like to know if I am ok to search for business listings using search engines and adding them to my directory my self, without permission from the business's there self. Now I know people do it, but well I don't want to take any risk's, I have read through terms and conditions from other business directories, but can't find an answer. One directory I know of who are very popular use a bot to collect information, so there obviously not asking for permission, but I could not find any information in there terms about it, maybe I am missing something? If worse comes to worse I will have to just let people do it there self, but who is going to want to use a directory that is currently empty! lol The way I see it, google crawls sites and collects content without permission? Does it not? If any one has some information on this matter, that would be great. Thank you Rick
Its better if you contact website owners and ask them to place a free link in your web directory instead of putting yourself. This way you can start gaining real listings over the time.
I Agree, after not finding any information on this, I have decided its safer to contact company's and ask for permission.
Yes go ahead and populate your categories, if somebody doesn't like it they can ask you to remove it.
you give a good review for they site, why they don't like? maybe about terms they refer to content (can't copy) also you can try ask http://www.alexa.com , how they doing?
There is nothing legal or otherwise that prohibits you from linking to another site. I have had one rescue agency ask to be removed from my pet directory but other than that I've not had any issues in adding sites in the years I've been running my directories. Be mindful of copyright though. If you simply copy text from their site or their site's meta description without permission, you are violating their copyright. Also, it's my understanding that a screenshot is actually protected by copyright. I doubt, though, that you would have issues even with that. When I add sites to my own directories, I usually shoot them an email. Sites I find are displayed at the end of the listings without a photo (photo usage definitely requires permission). I tell them a bit about my site, invite them to see their listing and ask their permission to use one of their photos for their listing. Other than the rescue organization, my email is generally ignored or enthusiastically responded to. Some of the folks have even gone on to blog about the experience and in turn advertise my site.