Next Internet Steals Flock’s Website Design
Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 by MR
My Bloglines feeds just blew up this evening with the finding of a new Valley dotcom incubator that plans to start 15 internet companies in the next 3 years. That company is called Next Internet, and I’d probably be more interested in them if they hadn’t completely, utterly, and unabashedly stolen the look, feel, and code behind Flock.com. The screenshots don’t lie:
Ouch. That’s probably the most blatant rip I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen dozens of lifted designs. And just so we’re clear, they are using the exact same code as well as the look and feel, so this can actually be legally quantified as copyright infringement.
SiliconBeat wrote about Next Internet, saying:
“The “well-funded” company says it is incubating “a next generation Internet Ad Network” and is hiring execs.
I’m assuming they’re using their “well-fundedness” on things other than their own site design, since it probably took them about 30 seconds to copy Flock’s XHTML & CSS and paste it onto their server. My boy Nick Douglas scooped the story at Valleywag as well.
I stuck this entry on Digg just so the people involved can feel the power of the social web ;)
UPDATE: Well it looks like being on the front page of Digg forced these hacks to take down their site and put up a nice table-based “design” in its place. How can a company be a technology incubator and 1) steal one of the most well-known web 2.0 designs out there, and 2) not think that people were going to talk about it in a very public way? Oh well, the site’s been updated but Google’s cache never lies:
Google Cache of Stolen Design
Reader Comments
53 Responses to “Next Internet Steals Flock’s Website Design”
That’s horrible, everyone knows me and flock are like this son. (fingers crossed, in dave chappelle saying..) This won’t stand, hopefully it is resolved as most site rips are, safely.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
I just love it when someone finds a site stealer, because they get pissed and send crazy emails saying they didn’t do it, they were just inspired by that site… Then you get the emails saying sorry, but please take your entry off your site, they wont do it again. I say everyone should boycott ever doing work with these scum bags. They are like a bad case of herpes, and we shouldn’t let them suppress shit. Hang em High!
March 8th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Guys, the hover links in the nav on the Next Internet site are completely different. These sites have nothing in common. Duh.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Pink vs. orange….. fiddlesticks!
March 8th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
It’s funny, they’re even in the same town as Flock. We should send the Messina-tank to rip a hole in their little operation.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
15 sites in 3 years shouldn’t be that hard… they can just head over to Stylegala or WebCreme and copy-and-paste their way all the way to their goal.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Oh please. Does anybody have anything more interesting to worry about?
March 9th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Wow, that’s pretty pathetic to see that happening. You think they’d at least change it a little more.
March 9th, 2006 at 12:35 am
I don’t think that’s anywhere near the most blatant rip. Flock’s site isn’t even that complex: someone could copy and paste the code, change some colours and fonts. There you have it; a different site.
It’s certainly a cheap and lazy rip though. To steal from another over-hyped Web 2.0 company is just asking for trouble. Their website now looks like a Powerpoint template.
March 9th, 2006 at 4:12 am
No, really… Are you joking?
Do you mean that Flock’s design is really a web design? Not just a css dressing?
Well… I think that music is a 7 notes matter… Web design is something similar… specially when the design is so minimalistic.
March 9th, 2006 at 4:25 am
Seems like they’ve changed it to a dull, uninspired, 1996-esque grayscale layout now.
Good choice, all things considered.
March 9th, 2006 at 5:05 am
And lets see if you guess where hAcx soft got their design from.. http://soft.hacx.org
I guess its not stolen after all !
March 9th, 2006 at 5:13 am
Didn’t take them long to change it.
March 9th, 2006 at 5:29 am
They’ve changed the site’s look.
March 9th, 2006 at 5:29 am
And now they’ve changed it to a nice (!) table based layout …
March 9th, 2006 at 5:32 am
looks completely different now (2006-03-09 2:32 AM PST). I wonder if it was a temporary design, or if they fired the web designer and hired a different one.
March 9th, 2006 at 5:32 am
Haha, they’ve already changed the format.
March 9th, 2006 at 5:51 am
Well that was a quick change… quick to cover up their theft!!
Blatant rippppp!
March 9th, 2006 at 6:16 am
looks like they noticed all the fuss ppl are making… they changed their site…
March 9th, 2006 at 6:17 am
Your pressure appears to have worked. The site has changed.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:36 am
Looks like they’ve taken down the design?
March 9th, 2006 at 6:39 am
Stealing CSS was one of the reasons I left myspace. C’mon people, acting like a 16 year old girl is not very professional.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:42 am
Next Internet has apparently changed the layout since the story broke.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:57 am
Looks like they’ve updated their site.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:14 am
Anyone ever think that they’re just using the same template? I’ve seen hundreds of ready-to-use templates available under open source and commerical licenses.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:21 am
Looks like Next Internet changed their design … no longer looks alike.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:24 am
Looks like they have changed their site. Dark gray top bar and a lighter grey left nav bar.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:29 am
I guess they got the message loud and clear! - they’ve dumped their copycat CSS code.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Looks like they’ve taken the pages new and build some very very basic alternatives…
March 9th, 2006 at 7:46 am
I think you made your point. Site has been updated.
Now my question is: How could you produce so many errors with so little code?
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fnextinternet.com%2F
That Sr. Web Developer should be their top priority.
March 9th, 2006 at 8:31 am
Holy crap! They use a similar font and layout! They must be stealing!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m drafting my cease and desist letter to you for stealing my page layout, navigation bar, and color scheme. You meanie!
March 9th, 2006 at 8:49 am
I would understand a post like this if it were your own site. Or if it was some complex hard-to-make site that would actually take time and skill to rip.
But Flock? It was never great design in the first place. Does it even qualify as “design”? Just about anybody can put together a page with bright contrasting colors and oversized font.
I’ve seen way better and more respectable posts from you guys. This type of post makes me not want to admit I read you.
March 9th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Other than the fact that most web developers who whack out web design templates have a difficult task because its like creating an original work of art, its obvious here that a similar template design was used or even copied. So the f**k what, all you self righteous plebs and proles probably couldn’t design a decent looking website let alone an original to save your lives so don’t be soo quick to criticise.
March 9th, 2006 at 9:23 am
its cease and assist. dumb ass
March 9th, 2006 at 9:23 am
I wouldn’t be too surprised if they did this on purpose. Bad publicity is better than no publicity. They’re getting more visitors to their site than if they hadn’t ripped a well-known design.
March 9th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Hey “God”:
“its cease and assist. dumb ass”
No, it isn’t. Wrong and insulting, with poor punctuation.
No wonder I bailed out on you.
Yours truly,
Lucifer
March 9th, 2006 at 11:09 am
“its cease and assist. dumb ass”
NO. It IS cease and desist.
Dumbass.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Who gives a shit? THis is a dumb story
March 9th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
You guys need to get a grip. First off, this site isn’t doing anything remotely close to what Flock does - it’s not as if they are stealing their site and features.
Second, they have 4 fucking pages up, not a whole site with AJAX embedded in it - that does crazy things on the backend when you clicky on stuff.
Third, who the hell is going to visit their site anyway? Not us, that’s for damn sure - until you posted some silly BS to Digg about it.
I want my 5 minutes back.
March 9th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Don’t see the big deal, Flocks design is hideous, why would anyone wanna rip that crap?
March 9th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Is Digg the new DMCA?
March 9th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
What percentage of businesses use internal web designers? It seems like it makes sense to hold your venom until you know who designed it.
For all we know, the business in question could also be a victim…
Virtual lynch mobs are scary.
March 9th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Of all the web sites in the world to copy, why would they copy such an ugly layout? It’s hideous.
Heck, I only charge $250 for an original design and layout. It’s not like it’s expensive or anything.
March 9th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
“Heck, I only charge $250 for an original design and layout. It’s not like it’s expensive or anything.”
Either your designs are of amateur quality or your a very generous person.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Sounds like a quick way to get alot of bad press
March 9th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
1. How can you guys even call Flock’s crappy look a DESIGN. You’re insulting me as a web designer. IT’s one ugly ASS looking “text on a coloured” background.
2. You’d think that after 5 people posted “hey they changed their site” all you other idiots would stop posting the obvious
3. STOP CALLING THESE UGLY ASS SITES “DESIGN”. This isn’t design, this isn’t art, this is ugly ass piece of shit look at me i’m 10 years old and put it together with frontpage…but no waaaaaaaaaatch out, it’s web 2.0 LOL fucking loser.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Gotta agree… Flock’s so-called ‘design’ sucks and looks like it was thrown up in a minute or two. Not exactly Earth-shaking news that someone copied & pasted their HTML/CSS for a placeholder site — probably the crudest HTML/CSS they could find.
March 10th, 2006 at 12:50 am
Hey, I thought I’d mention that the site design has changed. The other 30 people who mentioned it weren’t clear enough on that point.
March 10th, 2006 at 8:05 am
To all you folk saying “Flock’s so-called ‘design’”: Can simple not be beautiful? Next Internet’s new design has a more complex design now, does that make it better?
What about logo’s? Do you have to have an icon to constitute a logo? Can’t a simple font treatment get the job done?
I don’t understand all the bashing. Flock’s design (yes, a css treatment can constitute a design) was good! Was it pleasing to the eye? Yes. Sure, it wasn’t an awesome, revolutionary, earth-shattering design, but does every design need to be?
March 10th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Ditto, with Alex #32 / next.
March 11th, 2006 at 2:33 am
I did not realize that using generic shapes and type would be considered “stealing”.
You guys must seriously have too much time on your hands to even bother pointing something like this out.
Think about it. Horizontal navigation bar with some colored type.
… tell you the truth, if I had something better to do right now I’d be ashamed of even posting a comment about this. ;)
March 17th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
oh puhleaze..you guys are a bunch of css zealots or what? It’s not rocket science, what’s all the hubblah about anyway? Btw, I don’t consider css and html “CODE”, so it’s like stealing rebate forms from a store.
April 27th, 2006 at 5:30 am
lol you are all ameteurs, grow up and get proper jobs you idiots. Your all little kids who think you know alot about html, css, php etc when really in reality you don’t. You have alot to learn so give up you idiots
May 24th, 2006 at 2:33 am
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