<div dir="ltr">I'm thinking that they exist solely for the click-thru profits from Google Ads.<div><br></div><div>If a particular (piano tech's) site has many links to it, Google and other search engines rate it more favorably than one that has few or no links to it. Ergo, the piano tech who is listed on this site and other similar sites will potentially see some benefit. However, the big winner by far is (in this case) <a href="http://onlinepianoguide.com">onlinepianoguide.com</a>, because they ask for a link TO them from YOUR site, so they wind up (they hope) with hundreds of links to them, thus attracting piano owners to the Google Ads, thus making some cash.</div>
<div><br></div><div>When I get an unsolicited email stating I've been "approved" for something I did not "apply" for, I choose to ignore it. I received an email a couple days ago "from" a friend asking me to sign up on <a href="http://reunion.com">reunion.com</a> so we could stay in touch. I asked her what was up with that and how will it improve our communications. She said <a href="http://reunion.com">reunion.com</a> automatically sent it to everyone in her address book (including her own work email address!) when she was trying to connect only to a couple long lost family members. Sleazy. Makes me wonder how much garbage-ware they would have tried to install on my computer.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Paul Bruesch</div><div>Stillwater, MN<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 6:24 AM, Scott Jackson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ScottWayneJackson@hotmail.com">ScottWayneJackson@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">David,<br>
<a href="http://onlinepianoguide.com" target="_blank">onlinepianoguide.com</a> has been registered by "Domains by Proxy, Inc." which<br>
is a company set up with the sole intention of hiding the identity of the<br>
web-master. So you have to wonder why they don't wish to be known.<br>
<a href="http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=onlinepianoguide&tld=com" target="_blank">http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=onlinepianoguide&tld=com</a><br>
<br>
>From the look of the site, it has been set up to host as many advertisements<br>
as possible. Every time that someone clicks on a Google Ad, they collect a<br>
cent or two.<br>
<br>
They may have simply collected all the addresses from the PTG. I see that<br>
yours shows up in a search like the following:<br>
<a href="http://ptg.org/findATechnician-showRPT.php?Last=&zip=&Sort=Last&Phone=&City=&State=&Country=&B1=Search" target="_blank">http://ptg.org/findATechnician-showRPT.php?Last=&zip=&Sort=Last&Phone=&City=<br>
&State=&Country=&B1=Search</a><br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Scott Jackson<br>
Mt Keira, NSW, Australia.<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div>