One Step Ahead

You'd think that a Web site would be happy to get as much site visitor traffic as it can, especially from a well-respected source like the Google search engine, but that's not always the case. CMP Media, which reports on technology news, is actively blocking traffic from Google News, claiming that Google has "has chosen to reproduce a significant amount of our content in a manner that we deem to be outside the bounds of fair use". But, by all accounts, Google News only takes a small portion of a news article, and then links to CMP Media for the full article.

Two points here:

• As a general rule, blocking incoming traffic is dumb. Sure, you might do this in exceptional circumstances - for example, if some other site that's highly critical of you is linking to your Web site. But even then, you're better off approaching that site directly.
  
• From the other side of the coin, be very, very careful about copying anything from somebody else's Web site without their permission. If in doubt, ask. And if they say no, accept graciously.