[ic] Removing '?' and '&' from the URL for search engine submission, Generate Static

interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com
Fri Apr 26 14:38:03 2002


On Fri, Apr 26, 2002 at 11:00:59AM -0700, Dan Browning wrote:
> At 09:17 PM 4/25/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 03:45:08PM -0700, Dan Browning wrote:
> >> Fellow Interchangers,
> >>
> >> I recently filed a bug for the Generate Static feature (
> >> http://interchange.redhat.com/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=419 ).  (It is also
> >> pasted below).  Please comment on that if you would like.  Otherwise, I
> >> would like to ask what you are doing to submit sites to search engines 
> >that
> >> require that '?' and '&' are not in the URL.  Are you using Static
> >> generation?
> >
> >I'm not convinced it's an issue.  Google doesn't seem to care, at least
> >for top level pages.  If you get static pages indexed, you then lose
> >the referer and that seems more of an issue.  We use web server
> >rewrites and include minivend in ssi where a client gets really
> >concerned about bcentral reports.  :-)
> >--
> >Christopher F. Miller, Publisher                               
> >cfm@maine.com
> 
> Thanks, Christopher.  According to 
> http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/01/23/index1a_page3.html?tw=e-business 
> , Google and Inktomi are the *only* search engines that can handle ? and &.


How quaint.  Hell, I was just comparing what was in a antigen database
with a catalog; it was all robot generated.  But maybe this is true of
the big general engines.  Must be right, it was written by someone
from Maine.  :-)

Anyway, you will probably get more out of web server rewrites over the
long haul.

  

> 
> So the way I see it, one has two choices:
>  1. Static pages
>  2. Change the URLs.
> 
> Amazon does #2, in this fashion:
> 
> amazon.com/store?shop=cd&sku= B00004WFIZ&ref=p_ir_m&sessionID= 
> 107-6571839-6268523
> ... become ...
> amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ref= B00004WFIZ/ref=pd_ir_m/107-6571839-6268523
> 
> So an Interchange-like similarity would be:
> 
> http://site/checkout?id=AevUaQQ7&mv_pc=27
> ...becomes...
> http://site/checkout/SPECIAL_URL/name=id/value=AevUaQQ7/name=mv_pc/value=27
> 
> Or something of the like.  Would anyone care to comment on it?  I've only 
> had one contribution to the thread so far, and I think this is a big issue 
> (especially considering the static generation is in a state of limbo for 
> now).
> 
> Also, does anybody remember the time when the "&" was called into question 
> because of some new 4.04 (or thereabouts) HTML spec?  I couldn't seem to 
> find it in my knowledge base, but it seems like it might be related to this 
> thread.
> 
> Anyway, thanks.
> 
> 
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> | Dan Browning, Kavod Technologies <db@kavod.com>
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Have you noticed the way people's intelligence capabilities decline
> sharply the minute they start waving guns around?
>                 -- Dr. Who
> 
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-- 

Christopher F. Miller, Publisher                               cfm@maine.com
MaineStreet Communications, Inc           208 Portland Road, Gray, ME  04039
1.207.657.5078                                         http://www.maine.com/
Content/site management, online commerce, internet integration, Debian linux