Subj : Re: sur.ly
To   : Ed Vance
From : Ky Moffet
Date : Wed Jan 22 2025 00:07:00

ED VANCE wrote:
> One of my searches had an article at sur.ly .
> Just thought I would mention the website here on the BBS.
> 
> Anyone reading already know of sur.ly ?
> It was new to me.
> It said something about a feature on the page being free but I didn't jump in.
> I hafta read up about that site to learn more.

Never heard of it, but.... <goes off, reads sur.ly site, and a couple 
random discussions> Sur.ly is not a site, it's a a site utility meant to 
keep you on the site that uses it.

We used to call what it does link hijacking, and would be annoyed when 
some site rewrote links or forced you into an iframe instead of letting 
you go where you wanted to be. It probably achieves this via some PHP 
rewrite function, but the effect is the same.

It also hacks a toolbar into the browser window (unclear how persistent 
that is).

It's free to site owners because you're the product (they don't say, but 
clearly they are making money from selling user-behavior data). It 
tracks you even AFTER you leave the site where you tripped over it, and 
it actually says that.

If I saw a site using it, they'd immediately go on my never-return list. 
In fact I would block them in HOSTS so I didn't go there accidentally. 
(And I just added sur.ly to my block list.)

Apparently they're based in Moscow, and have been running an aggressive 
marketing campaign trying to get every business site everywhere to sign 
up. The phrasing in the marketing email is remarkably similar to other 
website scams.

Verdict: avoid.

My base HOSTS file, tho I've added a few sites over the years, and had 
to remove one or two.

https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
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