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Behind The Firm List Blog
Cleaning Up The Firm List
I've been working the last 6+ months to clean up the listings on this site. Over the 3+ years this site has been around,
many firms have come and gone and they don't always let me know. So it's been necessary for me to go through the site
and check each and every link to make sure that 1) the firm still exists and 2) that they are still located in the same
town/city. If they do not exist (and I have to go by obvious signs such as no website, a broken website, etc.) I remove
their listing from the site. If they have moved, I will move their listing to the new location.
As of this moment, I have "cleaned up" the listings of 88 countries. That leaves 5 more countries to go. Of course, 4
of those countries have the most listings on the site (including the US). I have tackled parts of the US, in many cases
with the help of wonderful volunteers. I will continue this cleaning up process and tackle these remaining 5 countries.
And then, as the process of firms moving & closing their doors never ends, I will circle round and review all of the listings
again.
I could just employ an automated bot of some sort, but bots can only recognize URLs that no longer work or are redirected.
They can't understand whether the site is still for a web design firm, where they are located, etc. Just as with most things
on this site, I don't rely on automated solutions because they inevitably leave a lot of junk behind them. In my continued
efforts to make this the best site of it's kind, I can't have any junk left behind.
When you're looking through the listings, if you mouseover the firm's name (the text link to their website) you may see
some information that might at first be cryptic, but is informative upon decoding. On the test link below, mouseover and
you may see a little pop-up dialog box (works in recent versions of IE, not sure in what other browsers). In this test case,
it should read: Added: Mar 21, 2000 Last Verified: Jan 16, 2002. The date after "Added" will indicate when the firm was
first listed on The Firm List (if known) and the "Last Verified" date indicates when I last personally reviewed the link.
Please note: When I indicate a firm's link was verified, it does not mean that I have verified that the firm is still
in business, but rather I indicate that the firm's website appears to exist and seems to indicate the firm still exists.
Ghost sites undoubtably exist, and I have no way of verifying that the firm itself is still in business.
In order to keep track of when I have "verified" a region's listings, I have created a listing which I will keep up to date.
You may find it useful, you may not. You can see it here.
