First of all, many thanks to everyone who looked into my site and made suggestions. One of my friends from ALD just contacted me regarding this, and actaully explained the whole lot to me - prompting me to wonder why the stupid MD didn't do just that in the first place, rather than just tell me it's "causing some confusion".
Anyway, to quote parts of the explanation:- "You are right in that it was prompted by just 1 customer" "A client (or rather potential client), typed our name into Yahoo, and got your site as a match as well as ours. Now, I'm not sure exactly what they typed in, but you know how it is with search engines and indexing. We are improving our registration on the various engines, but we will never be guaranteed to always appear before you in a search result." "We will be shortly be replacing the existing ALD web site with a completely new one. The new site will include our new logo and company image. Have you seen the new logo? It looks nothing like the old one (or the one on your web site). It still incorporates the arrow, but everything else - font, colours, design etc. is very different. Furthermore, the services that we offer are slowly changing, and we may choose to advertise some and not others. In fact, since employing a marketing consultant a few months ago our approach to our image and advertising strategies has also changed. So you see, what the company saw on you web site a few months ago was ignored as you had a link to our site, and it wasn't blatantly misrepresenting ALD to a worrying degree. This is not the case anymore. Within the next few weeks (or so) all remnants of the old image will be gone, so we obviously don't like the idea of your site being mistaken for representing ALD to any degree whatsoever." "The whole thing is a legal nightmare. For example, you don't have obvious disclaimers on every page, and you use the ISO logo and AL Group logo, when you don't have certification, and you are not licensed by AL Group Plc. I'm not being thick, I know that you are not trying to do harm or claim to have anything to do with AL Group or ISO, but that isn't the way they would see it. Above all, as I said above, you are misrepresenting the company, and could easily be sued (or so I have been told by my barrister friend)" "My advice to you is to remove it all. The MD wont drop it, so things could turn nasty if you don't retreat and reconcile your position. If you want to use your web site as a potential CV/Portfolio, then I would personally say that was fair enough. Why don't you simply remove all reference to AL Downloading, and invent some bogus company and new logo. After all the text on the site is not really yours. If you still want to show off your version of the AL Logo, simply stick it in the gallery. This would probably be ignored/tolerated by the MD. Anyway, I think that if anything the ALD bit of your site lets the rest down." ----- Yet again, the bloody MD doesn't let me in on exactly what's going on, doesn't explain about the upcoming changes, leaving me wondering why he's asking me to remove advertising for his company. This whole misinformation/lack of information thing was one of the leading contributing factors to my decision to leave. People, eh? Anyway, the upshot is that I *will* be removing the ALD section, as I have it on my Hard Disk and a CD if I do need it for CV purposes. To be honest - looking at it now - I think I probably *was* wrong to keep the 'Licensed by A.L. Group' logo, and the ISO logo, but then, since it seemed to me that I was merely increasing their exposure, it didn't occur to me that it would be that bad... So, thanks again for your help and suggestions, but my site's gonna get smaller... (hehe... the ALD bit "lets the rest down"... hehehe) Gordon. -- < The HEXdidn't... Homepage: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> < ------ Featuring The U.K. Policenauts Homepage ------ > <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< http://www.hexdidnt.clara.net > \---------- AOL Instant Messenger: 'hexdidnt' ----------/
