Inventory protection Idea that doesn't work

[Carluminati]

THIS IDEA SUCKED. Nobody gives a shit. Fuck it.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Sounds extremely time consuming for something that won't really help me sell any additional cars. Is the juice worth the squeeze...?

 

[Jason@nabthat]

I think the best bet would be to place some language in your Privacy Policy regarding scrapping content off your site.

A copyright is usually used to protect works of art and may not be bullet proof in stopping companies from scrapping inventory off your site.

 

[marcelus]

Have fun with that. How about instead of whining about the world changing, you try and provide a better service for your customers so they don't need to go through a third party?

 

[Rick Buffkin]

@marcelus Really?!?!?! This has nothing to do with customer service. Have you even been to the 3rd party website in question???? They are scraping the dealers website pulling inventory from it and:

1. Not keeping the 3rd party site current
2. The pricing is incorrect (misleading customers)
3. Doesn't have any permission to do so
4. Pitching it to visitors that dealers can't be trusted and that you'll get a better bargain by going through them, which is false

 

[AdamMurray]

A copyright is usually used to protect works of art and may not be bullet proof in stopping companies from scrapping inventory off your site.

My VDP's ARE a work of art! Just kidding...they actually suck right now but I'm working on that. They will be a work of art when I'm done, though!

This does seem like a lot of extraneous work but I think you might be on the right track here with your idea, @Carluminati. As I've stated many times in the recent past, the unauthorized scraping of data from our sites must be stopped and many of our third-party vendors need to be put on a very short leash with a very tight choke collar.

 

[Rick Buffkin]

I think you could copyright your photos. That doesn't solve the problem though. All the 3rd party site has to do is form a partnership and get your data from another 3rd party source like DMI, Dealer Specialties or homenet. Or, another 3rd party that has agreements with you like edmunds, AT or Cars or some other 3rd party site that your syndicating to that you don't even know your sending inventory to. If your looking to stop scraping from your website, I think your best line of defense would be adding a captcha somewhere in the mix. That would probably stop them in their tracks but, your user experience on the site would be hindered as well. Adding a one time captcha as soon as you get to an inventory page would fix this issue.

 

[Chris Leslie]

This is not a war worth fighting.

 

[AdamMurray]

If your looking to stop scraping from your website, I think your best line of defense would be adding a captcha somewhere in the mix. That would probably stop them in their tracks but, your user experience on the site would be hindered as well. Adding a one time captcha as soon as you get to an inventory page would fix this issue.

Another interesting idea. The UX would be a bit clunky, but if everyone did it then the experience would be consistent and, eventually, accepted. I have noticed that several sites offering employment listings have gone the captcha route...I'm assuming to ward off the scrapers as well.

This is not a war worth fighting.

You may be correct and the genie is out of the bottle on this one. I just wish we would have had a different attitude 10-15 years ago and protected our assets then instead of trying to fulfill our wanton lust for leads, regardless of their quality.

 

[craigh]

I think your best line of defense would be adding a captcha somewhere in the mix. That would probably stop them in their tracks but, your user experience on the site would be hindered as well. Adding a one time captcha as soon as you get to an inventory page would fix this issue.

There are a few easier ways to do it.
You can setup lazy loading images that only load if the user has javascript capabilities - this will stop your images from being visible to most bots.
You can also simply avoid sharing images for anything without a valid and common User Agent that says it's a browser.
Either option requires full control over your web presence to execute, but would be much better than interrupting UX with a captcha.

That said, I don't know if it's worth the effort at all. I know there are some issues, but I've seen dealers turn these problematic lead sources into profits before.