If you try to visit the URL for wine review website Corkd, you’ll automatically get rerouted to porn site Adult Friend Finder (obviously NSFW). We’re not sure how long this has been the case, but we’re not the only ones noticing.
What’s weird about the redirect is that there’s a delay, so you’ll actually see the Corkd website for a second before it switches to the adult website. If the domain name would just be pointed to the Adult Friend Finder site, that wouldn’t happen. We’re trying to find out if there is malicious intent at play here, or that the site owners configured the redirect intentionally for whatever reason.
Update: the site now reads a message that they’ll be back shortly, so it was definitely a malicious act. We’re confirming this with the owners of the site right now.
We’ve had incoming tips before about Corkd going the way of the dinosaur, but apart from the fact that it’s been quite some time since the site received an update, we didn’t really see any reason for us to deadpool them, also considering the fact that the company never responded to our requests for information.
Update 2: Web celeb Gary Vaynerchuk’s WineLibrary actually acquired Corkd back in May 2007, we’ve contacted him to see if he can tell us more about what happened. This Twitter message of Gary Vee kind of says it all, though.
Update 3: see Gary Vaynerchuk’s video comment below.
Update 4: