| LED Digest 1945: Toolbars Rewriting Pages |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 16, 2005 Issue #1945 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Google's Toolbar Stealing? ==-- ~ David W. Starr ~ Marsha Kopan ~ Nitin Agarwal --== RSS Feeds, Spam, and The Future of Publishing ==-- ~ Tom Aman ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== PHP, MySQL and Search Engines ==- ~ Michael Martinez ~ Adam Bostock ~ Helen Estlin --== Working with Framed Sites ==-- ~ Veronica Yuill ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Dave Starr Subject: Google toolbar > [With] new beta v3 Google toolbar... users may bypass > your "buy" button in favor of Google's "Provide Book > Information". It also makes your ISBN # a clickable link > to Amazon, without affiliate code. Anyone beside me > opposed to toolbars rewriting web pages? - John Barendrecht, LED 1944 A few weeks ago when I first became aware of the new toolbar beta I D/L'd it immediately because my work is with maps and I was interested in the new Google map service. To say that Google 're-writes' a web site is (I think) a bit over-stated. If (and only if) a user enables the feature. the toolbar searches for an address and if it interprets data on the site as an address it pops that data into the search window for Google maps. I'm not an HTML or Java expert by any means, but I have compared the index.html file on my home page 'before and after' and see not one bit changed. I now have a direct link on my home page to Google maps so that people can find my location without the toolbar, the purpose of having my address listed in the first place was to allow folks to find me, else I would remove the address data. Regarding ISBN numbers, if there is a link (with or without an affiliate code) already associated with the number, the Google toolbar ignores the number. If, and only if there is no existing link, (and I find it rather strange why one _would_ have an ISBN listed without a link) the toolbar will then pass the ISBN to Amazon's search window. I've read a hundred or more strident complaints from web merchandisers on several discussion sites regarding this feature and have yet to visit their sites and find Google re-directing the search to Amazon ... most of the sites I have checked out don't even have any books for sale, but are just railing against Goggle,s 'unfair practices'. Can you set me straight with any real-world examples? >From a personal standpoint, if I see a book advertised and think about purchasing it, I am certainly going to compare prices before I press the 'order' key, regardless if the book is on Amazon or on a third-party site and regardless of the Google toolbar functionality, I would expect that most people price compare before spending their money as well. Best regards David W. Starr www.satviz.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Marsha Kopan Subject: Google toolbar I would drop Google in a heartbeat if it really did stuff like that. I work very hard to optimize my sites so that they are appealing and so that a visitor reads my content and takes action to utilize my services or my client's services. While 99.9% of my sites are service orientated businesses and don't have shopping carts, I'd still be very annoyed if Google tried to give a map to my location. I don't have walk-in clientele and two of my clients are service organizations with PO boxes. I don't like the idea of them pointing someone to a book about my content. That would really p... me off. Its one of the reasons I abandoned banner ads and why, I think MS abandoned smart tags. Why would I want to spend hours creating an enticing site so that visitors will take action about my service just to be wisked away to a competitor or another website. Someone at Google needs to get a life. Marsha Kopan, IVAA CVA Executive Secretarial Services www.execsecsrv.com Delegate, don't stagnate. ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Nitin Agarwal Subject: Google toolbar Since this issue with Google Toolbar is brought up, I would also like to discus that does Google Toolbar read your off-Google activities like what is my affiliate ID (if not password) that I put on CJ etc. I am sure that google has the expertise to read the data that we feed in the Fields of various forms, even without submitting it. This particular feature google offered while giving you search suggestions on Google.com... remember, you all ?? Regards, Nitin Agarwal, Project Manager - Internet Marketing http://www.ishirinc.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: RSS and more Regarding RSS - seems whenever there is a "really good thing" going on the Internet, the commercial exploiters are not far behind. We have all complained at one time or another about some of the annoying ads associated with Web pages. Looks like they are also coming to an RSS feed near you: "Is Ad-Supported RSS the Next Big Thing?" By Janis Mara. From InternetNews.Com (February 03, 2004). -------------------- "The use of RSS technology has been touted as a spam-free alternative to e-newsletters but the concept of has been dogged by certain limitations. Chief among them, for publishers, is an advertising model to support the popular feeds. A new online ad network, RSSAds, is gearing up to help publishers ... "RSSAds has developed technology that will insert ads into relevant content such as news stories and headlines, which can then be seamlessly downloaded by Web users and bloggers and displayed on their desktops and sites. ... "Although the tracking of content and ad viewing has always been one of RSS's weak points, Williams says his company tracks ad views by means of a simple transparent image file. Whenever the RSS reader calls back to the server for the image, it counts as an ad impression ..." -------------------- Does all of that sound familiar??? In any case, a good site with lots of information on RSS, and pointers to lots of good references, including some historical stuff going back to 1999, can be found at http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/rss.html Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Michael Martinez Subject: PHP search > Would anyone know if google and yahoo search engines are > capable of spidering the info in databases of PHP / MySQL? - Super Perez, LED 1944 Your databases will not be crawled, but your generated HTML output (the virtual Web pages your server will create) WILL be crawled. The biggest problem people run into is the use of session IDs. Avoid them if you can. Otherwise, you run the risk of either having duplicate content indexed (not usually a problem, but it alarms some people) or of getting spiders stuck in endless loops (Yahoo!/Inktomi is the most vulnerable to this but Google can get stuck, too). What you need to address is the generated HTML code that is output, and how it appears to the spiders / indexers. It needs to be clean and functional. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Adam Bostock Subject: PHP search Hello Super Perez and fellow LEDers Yes, Google will spider content from Web sites that generate their pages dynamically from a database. The key requirement is that you provide links to every dynamic page, or database record, that you want spidered. In other words, a plain old search form (as the only interface) won't help any spider to know what is in the database. In practical terms, you could create a directory or index page which contains links to all the data/pages that you want the spider to find. (I don't know about Yahoo!) Kind regards Adam Bostock, Innovation Consultant Acro Logic www.acrologic.co.uk ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Helen Estlin Subject: PHP search Greetings Super Perez, When we first converted some of our websites to PHP we were concerned that the GoogleBot and other spiders would not be able to index the info where query strings are involved, but we have since seen proof that indeed they do index them. Spidering search engines seem to have overcome the problem, although query strings should be kept as short as possible in terms of length. Hope this helps! Best Regards, Helen Estlin YellowDawg Web Design www.yellowdawg.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Frames > Try as I did to tell him that frames presented a variety > of usability problems which could hinder his site's > effectiveness, and that the site could get along perfectly > well without frames, he just HAD to have them. - Martha Retallick, LED 1944 Martha is a sensible, level-headed business woman -- and I share the widespread dislike of framed sites. But I think it's just as wrong to be bigoted against frames as it is to insist that you have to have them, no matter what the cost. Take a look at this site, and tell me how it could be more user-friendly without frames: http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ This is one of the few situations where frames work perfectly. You can display a list of terms in the left frame and then browse through definitions in the content frame, without losing the terms list or constantly reloading the whole page. I use this site a lot, and the system works beautifully. But note that this is virtually the only example I can think of where frames improve usability, so maybe there is something in what Martha says ;-) Regards Veronica Yuill Archetype Information Technology Ltd http://www.archetype-it.com/english/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Death is the end of life; ah why Should life all labour be? . . . All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave..." - Alfred Lord Tennyson |
