Do a Google Image search for “Gin and Juice“.

Go ahead! I’ll wait.

The first result? This image:

If you’ve been here for a while you may recognize that as a picture I took with my cameraphone as part of my three part series, “Drinking Gin Like a Civilized Human Being”.

In fact I posted that blog entry exactly one year ago today! I just realized that. Neat.

Anyway. This means I can claim I’m #1 on Google for something!

Being at the top of the charts is not as neat as you’d think! That image gets hotlinked all the time – more than any other single file hosted here.

It gets embedded in MySpace profiles, posted on R&B message boards, and even included in other people’s blog posts!

Now, I don’t mind people using the image. That’s fine – just host it locally.

Using my bandwidth to tell your pre-teen Facebook pals how hardcore you are is not okay!

A little while ago I started fighting back! Having an .htaccess file is a wonderful thing. It lets me swap out that image with another image – automatically – if the referrer isn’t in my whitelist.

I replace any hotlinked images with Goatse and a big “I STEAL BANDWIDTH” orbiting the equator. If you don’t know what Goatse is, consider yourself lucky. (It’s among a trio of infamous ‘Internet grossout pics’.)

One girl posted a MySpace comment that said “Hey girl, I found this and it reminded me of you!” and of course Goatse appeared.

Priceless.