OT: Fight the dirty directories (Bedriftsguiden and buddies)

Sort of out of topic and mostly of interest to those that can read norwegian or know Jarle from when he did Flash. My buddy Jarle Bergersen got tired of all those dorks that have started their own web directory and think they have a business idea that they can force onto other people. These companies sell listings though phone and they won’t take no for an answer - if you answer the phone, they will send you a bill no matter if you agree or not.

The company in question - Bedriftsguiden - is especially bad. What I find most amazing about this comany is that it clearly consists of people that cannot do even simple math. They claim to have 162.622 unique users a month but an amazing 2.498.610 page views for that same period. This means that the average visitor reads more than 15 unique pages when visiting a directory site like that. They have more ads than relevant content (approx 2:1 ratio on a random page I tested) and your ads will drown if you put them there. The average reader will not read 15 pages on such a site. Everything I know about usability tells me that the average user will leave such a poorly organized site quite quickly, maybe after 2-3 pages. I strongly suspect that they don’t know the difference beween visitors, hits and spiders gathering content in those numbers. They refuse to use professional aditing of their visitors, probably since they fear they’ll get lower numbers than the unprofessional software they use at the moment.

I love that somebody kicks those idiots in the nuts. Jarle got coverage in a national newspaper and now it keeps popping up negative stories all over the web about Bedriftsguiden. If you Google for their name, all you’ll find is negative stories about the company. Funny since this is a company that also claims to know how to do Search Engine Optimization… They’re so unprofessional and clueless that they also comment anonomusly on blogs that mention the story and try to say negative things about my buddy Jarle. Funny - most bloggers know that to have any kind of credibility you should post with Full name or nick + a working URL. Those that comment negatively without disclosing who they are usually have something they need to hide… lol

Anyway - Best of luck fighting them. If they ever sue you, I’ll chip in on the trial 😉