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SEO from Mike Banks Valentine
Decloaking Hazards - Why You Should Shun Caching Search Engines
by Ralph Tegtmeier aka fantomaster
and Dirk Brockhausen
While all
search engines use one form of caching or another
to build their indices, some of them make a
point of displaying cached web pages to their
users. The commonly quoted pretext for this
is that it offers searchers fast access to a
page's content, making it easier to check out
whether it's what they are really looking for
in the first place. Of course, what this actually
does is keep visitors on the search engine's
site, making them more susceptible to banner
ads and other means of promotion.
However, the drawbacks this entails are numerous.
- Depending on the search engine's index cycle
the content presented may be quite outdated.
- More often than not, the presented pages will
not be fully functional:
= relative (internal) links tend
to get broken
= JavaScript and external Java applets won't
work anymore
= site design and layout may be massacred
by incorrect or non-existent display of external
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
= banner ads may not be displayed properly,
thus depriving webmasters of revenue
= dynamic content may not be rendered the
way it was originally set up.
- Displaying content within an alien context
(e.g. under the search engine's header, encased
in a frame, etc.) beyond the control of said
content's generators/authors, arguably constitutes
a blatant infringement of intellectual property
and copyrights.
Moreover, for a web site employing IP delivery,
this practice constitutes a prime Decloaking
Hazard: as cloaking works by feeding an optimized
(or, at least, different) page to search engine
spiders not intended for human perusal, caching
such pages and displaying them for the asking
will reveal your cloaking effort, this rendering
it useless - any unscrupulous competitor could
easily steal your cloaked code to optimize their
own pages with it and achieve better rankings
to your detriment.
The most prominent search engine displaying
cached web pages not of their own making is,
of course, Google. In the past Google staff
would promptly comply with any request by webmasters
not to display cached pages. Then, about a year
and some ago, Google introduced a proprietary
meta tag (META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE")
for webmasters to include in the header of those
pages they want to see excluded from this feature.
The Google meta tag actually works. While there
was some indication immediately after their
introduction that sites opting for this exclusion
might be penalized ranking wise, this seems
to have abated. Obviously, should Google really
start a witch hunt on cloaking sites, as their
public announcements are font of stating every
other month or so, it only stands to reason
that web sites making use of this special meta
tag might constitute prime targets. For this
reason we do not recommend cloaking for Google
unless you do it exclusively from a dedicated
shadow domain.
Another company, Germany based brainbot technologies
AG offers search engine technology for portals:
< http://brainbot.com/
>
Brainbot robots are also spidering international
domains:
#UA gigabaz/3.14
(baz@gigabaz.com;
http://gigabaz.com/gigabaz/) mail.brainbot.com
134.93.7.97
#UA gigaBazV11.3
bazbrainbot.com;
http://brainbot.com/gigabaz/
151.189.96.99
One licensee making use of their cached results
is geekbot:
< http://www.geekbot.org
>
On their result pages you will find a "scan"
function - this will display cached pages, albeit
in a different format.
French search engine AntiSearch offers display
of cached web pages, too:
< http://www.antisearch.net/
>
AntiSearch operates the following spiders:
#UA antibot-V1.1/i586-linux-2.2
62.210.155.49
#UA antibot-V1.1/i586-linux-2.2
62.210.155.50
#UA antibot-V1.1/i586-linux-2.2
62.210.155.56
#UA antibot-V1.1/i586-linux-2.2
62.210.155.58
#UA antibot-V1.1/i586-linux-2.2
62.210.155.59
Finally, let's not forget German search engine
Speedfind:
< http://www.speedfind.de
>
Speedfind, too, offers display of cached pages.
Due to the peculiar legal situation in Germany,
which makes webmaster fully liable for links
to third party pages unless they post an explicit
disclaimer prominently on their site, Speedfind
refuses all liability for the pages thus displayed:
"SPEEDFIND DOCUMENT FROM CACHE VIEWER SPEEDFIND
is in no way liable for content displayed below.
All rights belong to the respective page's author.
We are only displaying a copy of said page."
(Translated from German)
So while they do acknowledge authors' full rights,
same authors' permission for display of copyrighted
content is never requested - there is no indication
in their terms of submission how to prevent
page caching.
Speedfind operates the following spiders:
#UA visual ramBot xtreme 7.0
proxy-gate.oberland.net
192.109.251.26
#UA speedfind ramBot xtreme 8.1
new.speedfind.de
194.97.8.162
#UA speedfind ramBot xtreme 8.1
eins.speedfind.de
194.97.8.163
#UA visual ramBot xtreme 7.0
c2.oberland.net
194.221.132.56
#UA visual ramBot xtreme 7.0
io.oberland.net
194.221.132.139
Rather than bother with minor players like Speedfind,
AntiSearch and brainbot by excluding them from
your submission process, you may want to consider
blocking their spiders from access to your web
site altogether (lest your competitors should
submit your site behind your back!).
In this case, we would recommend using our fantomas
multiBlocker(TM) for a professional blocker
solution:
< http://fantomaster.com/famultiblocker0.html
>
------------------------------------------------------
========================================
This text may freely be republished or distributed
provided the following resource box is included
intact either at the beginning or the end of
the article and a complimentary copy or notice
(link) is sent to the author at the address
specified below:
------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Tegtmeier and Dirk Brockhausen are the
co-founders and principals of fantomaster.com
Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster.com GmbH (Belgium),
< http://fantomaster.com/
> a company specializing in webmasters software
development, industrial-strength cloaking and
search engine positioning services.
Together, they are also publishers of fantomNews,
one of the leading newsletters focused on search
engine marketing. < http://fantomaster.com/fantomnews-sub.html
> You can contact him at mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com
-----------------------------------------------------
(c) copyright 2001 by fantomaster.com
All rights reserved. Downloaded at: < http://fantomaster.com/
>
------------------------------------------------------
============================= *** THE ULTIMATE
STEALTH - THE FULL CONTROL ***
< http://fantomaster.com
>
Industrial-strength cloaking and stealth technology
OEM Licensing:
< http://fantomtech.com
>
=============================
fantomas spiderSpy(TM) - spider verification:
< http://spiderscouts.com
>
LinkTopper(TM) upgrades your site to an info
hub:
< http://searchenginebase.com
>
======================================
Phone: +32-80-549.247 * Fax: +32-80-548.731
======================================
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