[Python-Dev] What google will let you do (original) (raw)

Skip Montanaro skip@pobox.com
Fri, 5 Apr 2002 12:17:02 -0600 

>> Correct.  I think they want to avoid automated systems that tweak a
>> webpage, see how placement is affected, tweak it again, etc.

Guido> That would take forever (you'd have to wait for a second visit
Guido> from their crawler).

Not necessarily, and of course, it depends on your definition of "forever". I suspect they probably have their crawler coded to visit files more often that change frequently (like freshmeat.net or slashdot.org). It's not practical to input change frequency info by humans, so the crawler probably realizes that a page changed since the last time it was crawled and decides on its own to shorten up the interval before the next check. (They would probably have it lengthen the interval if the file didn't change as well.) They can thus adjust their visit frequency to keep track of pages that change rapidly, but not waste time crawling static pages. The click frequency may also figure into this. A page that is visited more often probably warrants closer attention by the googlebot.

I suspect a person wanting to manipulate his site's google ranking could twiddle his page and get feedback on the results within a few days. Over the course of a month or two, he could probably make substantial progress on raising his Google quotient.

Guido> I think they want to avoid added-value websites that don't
Guido> mention the Google brand -- it would be like redistributing
Guido> Python but claiming you wrote it yourself.

That too. They explicitly deny meta-search access and even say "don't even ask - your request will be denied", or words to that effect.

So, we've concluded nothing, but have given our frontal cortex its speculative workout for the day... ;-)

Skip