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This has a large impact on the usability of a TGP and therefore received a large weighting in our overall rating.
A TGP can either directly hyperlink to its listed pages, or use redirection. If it uses direct hyperlinks it gets a pass mark, if it uses redirection it gets a fail mark.
Click here to read an article on Skimming techniques and Blindlinks
On a redirection based tgp, all hyperlinks point to the tgp itself. When you click on a hyperlink, your browser firstly contacts the tgp's server which then provides a new location for the browser to go to. This usually happens without the surfer noticing, however has numerous disadvantages for the surfer and no advantages.
You can recognize a redirection tgp because all of its links are of the form: http://the-example-tgp.com/script.php?abc=123&url=http://some.com/other/page.html
Technically what usually happens is when you first request the tgp page, a cookie is included in the response. When you follow a hyperlink, a script will answer with a 301 response, taking the opportunity to include another cookie. This cookie changes each time a hyperlink is clicked and is probably used to track how many clicks you have made.
Many redirection tgps use this method to "skim". They can configure the script so that every 3rd/4th etc click, you are redirected to some other page (other than what you would have been redirected to if it was your 1st or 2nd etc click).
This is an advanced form of blindlinking. The webmaster gets some kind of reward from the surfer go to a certain page, and they direct you to that page (or pages) without you intending it.
The other negative is that their cookies do track you to some extent. It is probably simple aggregated tracking, but in any case it is tracking that the surfer is not aware of.
That said, the biggest negative is that it goes against the spirit of the web's hyperlinking model in that you can not be certain where you will navigate to when you click on a hyperlink.
The following icons were used to label each tgp:
... direct hyperlinks (pass)
... redirection (fail)We found the following tgps using redirection; ah-me , bunnyteens.com , madthumbs , pichunter , stickyhole , teeniefiles.com
We found the following tgps using direct hyperlinking; al4a , candylist , elephantlist.com , hanksgalleries.com , hardcore junky , persiankitty.com , pichunter , pinkworld , shemp.com , sleazydream.com , snakesworld , sublime directory , www.thehun.com , thumbnailseries , thumbzilla , worldsex.com
Nici
