And you thought nofollow was the solution to all your linking woes! Not so! The new Link Condom helps to "Stop the spread of Viral Link Skank today!!"

For the humor impaired, this is a joke making fun of the common complaints against the nofollow attribute.

Yes, it's Friday. :-)

Posted by jzawodn at January 21, 2005 08:56 AM

Reader Comments
# Brad Choate said:

I would place a "nofollow" attribute on the link to that site if I were you... whois for more information.

on January 21, 2005 09:22 AM
# Jeremy Zawodny said:

Whoops. I meant to do that.

Heh. Fixed. :-)

on January 21, 2005 09:26 AM
# Anon said:

And there's the finest bit of proof that the silly nofollow attribute is going to be massively abused to the extent that it will be useless in no time at all. You are using it to disassociate yourself from a site linked [i]in your own friggin post[/i], not in a comment, apparently because you like the joke but don't like the author. Jeez.

on January 21, 2005 10:23 AM
# Brad Choate said:

Anon, that's the point of it all... to give publishers the ability to link with association or without.

on January 21, 2005 10:28 AM
# Danny Sullivan said:

Disassociate from the site? Why would you do that? Site's owned by Todd Friesen, or Oilman to use his handle on various search forums. He's having a fun-hearted poke at some of the actual weaknesses and issues with nofollow. Yahoo gets along just fine with Todd -- heck, Tim Mayer invited him, me and several others to dinner at SES Chicago -- and Todd's moderated panels Tim's been on.

on January 21, 2005 01:48 PM
# Jeremy Zawodny said:

Danny: Because it's all in good fun.

on January 21, 2005 02:14 PM
# Vaughn said:

I'm going to predict that nofollow is going to ruin something in the future-not sure what, but it's going to open up spam to yet another new level.

*gulp*

on January 21, 2005 07:38 PM
# Shelley said:

Ha, even people who don't agree on this issue can have fun. Using nofollow in the link to a site spoofing nofollow is nicely twisty humor -- now that I can get behind.

on January 21, 2005 08:36 PM
# oilman said:

I was reading the big thread on nofollow at Search Engine Watch Forums and Robert Charlton actually coined the term Link Condom and I nearly passed out from the flash of inspiration :)

Danny's absolutely right - Yahoo and I get along just fine. I'm sure Tim and I will have a good chuckle about the 3 days one of my sites got lots of real traffic over a beer in New York.

Jeremy's not disassociated himself with my site - he's got the link right there for all mankind to see and click on. He's just not voting for it. Hell, I wouldn't vote for it either - what value does it really add to the web? not to mention that 3 days from now it will be long forgotten as we react to the next big thing...

In fact - I hearby demand that anybody linking to the site use the nofollow tag - it seems appropriate don't ya think? ;)

on January 21, 2005 11:00 PM
# Xscott said:

Todd,

Nice of this guy to point others to your site. I did it too, but I feel the web is made of links and I will continue to ignore that this LinkCondom even exists except for the levity you have brought with your site.

Tell Tim hi for me when your having having a few drinks with him, of course if I am not there to do it my self.

on January 21, 2005 11:27 PM
# miles said:

I don't get it. Why put a nofollow around links in your blog text? I understand why it should go in any links commenters put in, but your text shouldn't be considered spam.

on January 22, 2005 09:58 AM
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. My current, past, or previous employers are not responsible for what I write here, the comments left by others, or the photos I may share. If you have questions, please contact me. Also, I am not a journalist or reporter. Don't "pitch" me.

 

Privacy: I do not share or publish the email addresses or IP addresses of anyone posting a comment here without consent. However, I do reserve the right to remove comments that are spammy, off-topic, or otherwise unsuitable based on my comment policy. In a few cases, I may leave spammy comments but remove any URLs they contain.