In our daily journey through the blogosphere, a quick glance at our inlinks brought to our attention a little known blog from a company called MobileShop.com. No need to be embarrassed, I didn’t know they had a blog either!
We couldn’t help but notice a remarkable similarity to our own design template! Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but I can assure you I’m NOT flattered!!
Before we go any further lets examine a few stats to see which blog was created first and which is the authority blog and which is the Johnny come lately.
Date of first blog post:
Dialaphone = 21st Nov 2006
Mobileshop = 1st Nov 2007
Number of blog posts:
Dialaphone = 183 posts
Mobileshop = 39 posts
Feedburner readers:
Dialaphone = 386
Mobileshop = 24
Technorati Authority: (Technorati is the leading monitor of the world of weblogs, the higher the authority the more important the blog is)
Dialaphone = 226
Mobileshop = 2
Technorati ranking: (The ranking systems counts up from one, with one being the most important blog)
Dialaphone = 24,000
Mobileshop = 2,910,025
After all the effort (183 posts vs 39) we put into to making our blog successful, (386 subscribers vs 24), the success we’ve had persuaduing big names and top writers to join us (Jon Tickle’s video blog, Shiny Shiny’s Alex vs the dubious journalistic credentials of ‘Chewie’ and ‘JohntheGooner’), and the hard work we put into creating a stylish design that complements both a popular mobile phone news portal and an online shop, we’d hate to think anyone would confuse us with a lesser being!
Let’s now check out how similar their blog is.
Layout:
Header:
Title, date and author:
Font:
Feed information:
Side bar:
When we showed this to Richard, our excellent Aussie designer, he was almost too angry for words. His response was too explicit to be printed here!
We’re hoping very, very much that in attempt to drag the design of their blog above the mediocrity of their main site, they spent big bucks on some flash designer, with the instruction, “We want the best mobile phone blog around”. Designer responded by locating the current best mobile phone blog around and copied dialaphone’s!
Perhaps we should remind Mobile Shop that there are unfortunate precedents for design based corporate plagiarism such as this.
1. The case of the computer software company Quark that had to make an embarrassing U-turn after it was realised that their expensively designed ‘Q’ logo wasn’t as original as they thought!
2. The clear similarity between the Unilever logo and that of Polish pharmaceutical company Swiat Zdrowia
3. The embarrassing case of the Britney Spears fragrance by Elizabeth Arden which shamefully drew its inspiration from the logo charity organisation Mondonation.
4. And the unmistakeable likeness of the Sun Microsystems logo with that of the Columbia Sportwear Company.
Thanks to logoblog.org for information, and while you’re at it check out Mike Davidson’s excellent piece on originality in logo design.
Note to Mobile shop: We like to credit other people when we’ve used their work!
Note 2: These pages are copyrighted, see below!
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23 Comments
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I stand in Dialaphones court on this one, we have been monitoring MobileShop for some time and the blog is not the only thing they seem to copy.
Even the titles and descriptions of their website pages are VERY close to certain other sites, this is only a recent change so again we guess that they monitor their competition and copy ideas that work for them. I agree that if sites are selling the same products them titles and descriptions can be similar but have a search for yourselves, they are almost identical!
Yes, you’ve guessed it, it is one of my sites hence the rant – just to let Dialaphone know they are not alone.
The deals that they show for other retailers are actually provided by Mobiles4everyone.com, a system that has been used by other ‘affiliates’ for years.
If you search sentances from their article submissions you will find that they have copied an amount of these from other sources, ie: not hand-written.
And finally, well the blog.
It seems that MobileShop have run out of ideas of their own, come on MobileShop – get creative.
S3zcMd Wow, it can be truth
Julian,
You may think your blog is custom, but it looks like hundreds of other blogs out there! Your Aussie designer is telling porkies if he says he came up with it entirely from scratch.
It’s a standard blog layout – what’s the problem?
Any professional company would deal with this privately and involve solicitors if they thought they had a case – not blog about it. My view of Dialaphone has gone down massively following this blog post. Major own goal, DAP!
I can see the similarities but it’s a standard blog design used by many.
I did think someone would could back with ‘Orange’ but thats a completely different kettle of fish and would take far too long to go into here
Ive covered that topic before 
It is however a completely different story but Orange dont actually copyright the colour orange.
I did post a list of websites that were very similar in layout/ideas but I dont think its been posted up.
To spin it a different way though I do know where Dialaphone are coming from but I think they are fighting a lost cause and one which is pointless. However had they left the styling of the whole Dialaphone site ie menu tabs, footer etc id go after them but they havent.
The quality of the Dialaphone design is better in anycase. But if you do have a nice design you are always going to get those who come along and are heavily inspired by it and some that can overstep the mark and just swipe all you graphics.
Sam K,
I wouldn’t ask them to do anything, but I would have thought they would want to establish a clear identity for themselves, not one that is so easily confusable with a rival. How would they react? Well, if they didn’t copy us, I’d expect them to post a reply claiming so, but acknowledging the clear similarities between the two. If they did, I’d expect them to keep quiet about it.
Hi Jimbob,
I think if you have a read of the mobileshop blog (i only knew this existed cos Nick posted about them), they do in fact have a post about t-mobile and orange copywrighting colours.. do DAP have the same copyright in place?
Sean
Nick,
If that’s the case, what would you have MobileShop.com change on their blog to make it less similar? How do you think they’d react to the accusation that they’d copied you?
Well, this certainly caused some friction didn’t it! Appreciated all your comments guys, even if I have to say I disagree with some of them. Of course I understand that there are restrictions as to what you can do with a wordpress blog and there will be many blogs out there that are similar, but in my opinion its different when the blog in question is run by a direct competitor, and the similarities are as glaring as they are.
Nick/Julian,
I’m not sure I’m with you on this one. Firstly, the design is different enough that the accusation of copying (e.g. RSS links, right panels) can be easily dismissed.
Secondly, Wordpress is intended to be a simple blogging application which is easy to theme. And there are only so many variations you can employ with regards to a blog – there are only a finite set of components you can show on a page. There are also only a limited number of fonts that you can realistically use on a website for text, and just because I’ve copied text styles I’ve liked in the past, it doesn’t mean I’ve copied an entire design.
Thirdly, having worked with a few graphic designers in my time, some really do love their gradients. Saying that because two designers have come up with gradient colours for banners is a little like accusing two photographers of taking a picture of the same (newsworthy) incident.
Seriously, though, is this anything more than a pretty poor attempt at one-up-man-ship, or are you genuinely attempting to highlight what you feel is a plaigarism?
Certainly not a Mobileshop employee. If you post stuff like this you shouldnt alienate your customers who are prepared to post a message. What I am giving is a valid point. If you visit web design forums such as Ultrashock (http://www.ultrashock.com) it is always an issue. Many sites use 2 columns. Many sites not just blog sites use the smaller right hand column to push top products. Its common practice and increases conversions of sales. It cannot be copyrighted by Dialaphone. Many of the biggest web design companies in the world get copied day in day out such as http://www.2advanced.com who are always copied it gets beyond a joke. There is a fine line though. There is inspired which is fine which as far as I can see Mobileshop have done and blatent lifting of the graphics and code. You are using a public piece of software in Wordpress which has its restrictions/limitations in layout etc which I myself face quite often.
As for the comment of using blue for a link that is ridiculous? a). how can you copyright a colour? b). blue is the most common link colour on the internet due to disabilities/usability reasons. Blue is a trusting colour as well namely the police.
Categories on the right are common to all blogs. Naturally if you want to push subscriptions to get users back on a site you would want them above the fold of the page but not quite before the content so top right will always be the main place.
Overall I will always prefer the Dialaphone blog because the content is better and the design of the site full stop across Dialaphone is better. Its my type of styling – personal preference. BUT I think Dialaphone made a mistake even posting this post and opened themselves up to looking mature. Business is business your best response would have been to get on with things and make sure your content gets even richer and unique. Things always change and people will look at the competition of what works for them and try to mimic the rules. Thats business.
One note if you open a posting up like this you can’t expect everyone to agree and if they dont then flame them? Blogs are all about personal opinions as they are personal weblogs of people and business and will always have that personal touch.
Hi David,
The vast majority of the Mobile Shop blogs have the 1st Nov as the published day, which is a mistake. So I don’t think you can conclude that they are “working harder”, in fact we are clearly working harder becuase we have posted over 300% more blog posts than them and since they posted their last post, which is based upon one of my posts, we have posted 11 blog posts.
Julian.
Sean,
Your comment “I think that if you put something out there, then its fair game to be copied” is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever heard. I can only assume you are a Mobile Shop employee.
Regarding Mobile Express, it is owned by Dialaphone and designed by the same team so the similar design is understandable and our right. Clearly Mobile Shop don’t have the same right to copy our design.
Julian.
I think that if you put something out there, then its fair game to be copied.
In fact.. lets talk about dialaphones commitment to being unique and one of a kind..
cough… http://www.mobileexpress.co.uk/
How similar does this look?
if you want even more proof that your not really that bothered about who copies you, then have a look at the blog on this other site…
Come on guys.. were not stupid.. you even link to mobile epress on your homepage..
Some good points, well made.
However, perhaps you shouldn’t be shouting about the fact that the Dialaphone blog has done 183 posts in 366 days, 1 post every 2 days, and Mobileshop have done 39 in 22 days, 1 post every 13 hours…..who is working harder at it?
You should be proud that someone else has used your design as an influence, as I’m sure all the blogs you used as influences are also proud…..
Hi Jimbob,
Thanks for the comment.
You say its a “common layout” can you provide a few links to other blogs which have this common layout? Which include a similar subscribe box in the top right, a large title for each post in blue font, 3 phones on the right hand side, a header of the blog in text just below the top tabs, and a right nav with category dividers in blue bars.
Many thanks,
Julian.
Taken with a pinch of salt. Being a web designer/graphic designer myself its common layout and to be honest I cannot see what you can do about a layout being similar. Newspapers and magazines have similar layouts. They have not pulled your styling colours or graphics so I am sorry to say I think Mobileshop are fine in that respect. If they want a blog they can have a blog.
Its on the text where it links to Dialaphone. In face on their post they have even mentioned Dialaphone which is fair play to them. Where Dialaphone have to be better than Mobileshop is in the quality of the content. If its good you’ll be picked above them to read. Choice is a good thing for consumers even when it comes to content.
I like Dialaphone and think that the quality of the site is way way ahead of the muppets at Mobileshop as I dont rate them one bit with many aspects of their business but I think Dialaphone have seriously lowered themselves by spitting their dummy out publicly on their blog. I think it has lowered you guys by rising to it. Competition is competition and you have to accept. It is similar but they have done more than enough for it to be different and the blogging world is all about opinions.
Dialaphone shouldnt rant but should focus on making the blog EVEN better.
Hi David Blyth,
I assume your comment was a joke. The Dialaphone blog has a custom theme, it is clearly not a standard template.
Julian.
Well, it’s a Wordpress blog innit? And you’re both attached to Mobile Phone retailers so it’s not 100% surprising that there are a few similarities.
At least Dialaphone’s stuff is different from all the other blogs. Doncha just hate blogs that report what’s on other blogs ad infinitum.
(Hmmm… that *is* a nice subscribe box though!)
I’m so disgusted that you would dare accuse their blog of stealing your design when it’s a STANDARD TEMPLATE! What on earth are you thinking? You think no one would know that?
What losers Mobileshop are!!
I’ve been reading the Dialaphone blog for a few months now and love it.
Mobileshop you are wasting your time copying someone else, you need to create your own style.
I’m gonna stick to the Real Thing and only read the Dialaphone Blog.