Hotlinking Fun
One of the downsides of having images on your site is that it is very easy for other people to link to them instead of hosting it on their own website.
I have found time after time, a referrer that keeps popping up in my logs. Today I had a look who they were and what they were doing.
It turns out that some company/blog where hotlinking one of my Twitter images, not even bothering to host it on their free Blogger site. So, seeing as I can change the image to whatever I want and it reflects on their site, I had some fun:
Before
After
You can see the site by clicking here. I wonder how long it will take them to notice.
View Comments
Post a comment
haha that is awesome!
that is funny
In the 2004 Presidential election on of the candidates was actually hotlinking one of our images. Boy was it tempting to replace the graphic with their competitors
I resisted the urge but did send the webmaster a note. It baffles me as to why people would try to save on bandwidth by hotlinking when they lose control.
That's made my day!
haha Matt,
I am always weary of hotlinking, I basically do it only with Wikipedia pictures and Flickr. But these guys just got pwned! And the best part is that they still didn't notice
I don't even think they will notice! What gets me is that Blogger accounts allow photo storage using Picasa.
That is very, very funny.
I think I would have made it clearer to the average reader what had been done, and that the image was a replacement for the one they were linking to, and added a date so the longer was there the more stupid they would seem.
But then again, I should learn from you. Nice one!
Hi Matt,
I suppose this falls under the parameters of “Don't get mad, get even.” Let's hope the other webmaster does notice if only to fully learn the lesson and refrain from “borrowing” images in the future.
At least in this situation, you have some quick recourse. I'm still uncertain about what to do when webmasters 'borrow” content from my articles.
that's real smart!
Data.
Applause for you, You're very bright!
It's still there. Awesome.
Hahaa.. that's looks nice. I wonder how could you do that? I guess you did that by manually replace the original Twitter image with the other image with the same filename. Or is there any technique which is automated? Thanks
that is funny
Why don't you make the image an advertisement for your own blog or website.
Instead of a “pay back” it could be a “pay day” for you.
lol, great going. I used to hotlink some images in my blog – I wont be risking that now….:P
” ……niiiicccceeee 
btw- “Phew! That's the other respectful disclaimer done!
i like this site , and more are visit this site!