Indexing content WAS RE: [thelist] Site check: Staples.com

[Ken Schaefer]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org [mailto:thelist-
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: RE: [thelist] Site check: Staples.com
> 
> On Wed, 2005-09-21 at 02:01 +1000, Ken Schaefer wrote:
>   [Ian Anderson wrote:]
>     [I wrote:]
> > > allowing search engines and users without JavaScript to enter
> > > the site with one extra action.
> >
> > That's a fair enough comment.
> >
> > However Google seems to be able to index the Staples.com site anyway
> 
> Google also indexes a lot of formats that simply aren't appropriate for
> use on the World Wide Web due to their closed, proprietary nature
> ...
> there is the chance Google will, in the future, see the error of 
> their ways

Google's a business. Not some fundamentalist evangelical organization.
They'll keep indexing everything they can get their hands on as long as users
of the service want to be able to find that content, and Google can make
money off it.

> (MSN, given their ownership, knows no better, of course).

MSN is probably indexing all this content because the current market leader
is. If you want to overtake the leader, you're going to have to offer
everything the leader does, and then some.

> in retaining this bit of error recovery (and make no mistake about it,
> that's exactly what it is).

Passing your opinion off as fact again?

I'm not really sure what you do for a living Shawn, but if you ever decide to
take the plunge into the commercial world, I think you'll be in for a bit of
a shock.

Cheers
Ken