Over the years we have seen quite a few companies copy services and features that were pioneered at Photographers Direct, and we have even seen a case of someone asking on a programmer's forum how much it would cost to 'clone' the entire Photographers Direct website. This can all be seen as flattery, but as is often the case, some people have to take things too far. Today one of our photographer's highlighted a website that is pretending to *be* Photographers Direct!
This is a screenshot of the results of searching for Photographers Direct on www.google.co.uk. The only problem is that the first site that comes up is NOT Photographers Direct (I have scrubbed out the company name and website address to avoid giving them undeserved publicity). Note that the advert will probably only appear on www.google.co.uk, not www.google.com, as it is a UK company.
So, why is it the first result? It is at the top because it is a paid result. This company has set up a Google Adwords account and created an advert, which is clearly designed to look like it is for Photographers Direct. It has the same text and layout as the 'natural' (and genuine) Photographers Direct listing directly below it, and it must be targeted to appear when someone searches for "Photographers Direct".
Anyone clicking on the ad will be taken to another website, which seems to have been designed to imitate our Find a Photographer service. The main difference we can see is that photographers have to pay 156 pounds a year to get listed (our photographers pay us nothing to be listed, just 10% commission on the photography assignments we get for them). Of course, as this company makes money from photographers signing up, they are likely to be more focussed on getting money from photographers than getting jobs for photographers.
Another interesting feature they have for buyers looking to commission a photographer is "50% off the market prices" which we have to take as meaning they discount their photographers' work by 50%. Sounds great for the buyers, but not so good for the photographers.
Anyway, if you want to check them out, do a search on www.google.co.uk for Photographers Direct and you should be able to see their advert at the top.
You could even leave a comment in their 'contact us' section about the credibility of a company trying to get customers by pretending to be another company.
UPDATE: 6th June 2011 - we are not seeing the 'fake' advert for Photographers Direct anymore, so it looks like maybe the publicity has shamed them into dropping it. Thank you for your support.
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