Google & our posts

[Mensch1351]

I put a message in the celebrity endowments section asking about Jason Chambers. I then did a Google search on him and lo and behold --- MY MESSAGE to this site was listed on Google --- I was a little stunned to say the least....................does anyone else know about this???
I thought this was a private site!

 

[burns1de]

I put a message in the celebrity endowments section asking about Jason Chambers. I then did a Google search on him and lo and behold --- MY MESSAGE to this site was listed on Google --- I was a little stunned to say the least....................does anyone else know about this???
I thought this was a private site!

Google's crawlers cache everything (or, at least, as much as they can) on the web. There's is no such thing as privacy on the Internet.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

There have been numerous posts about this, Mensch1351.
We're leaving tracks for the whole world to see.

 

[whatireallywant]

I knew that our posts could be seen if we put the right search criteria in Google. That is one reason why I would never put my real name here. (That and I have no idea who all is reading this. I think most of the frequent posters are ok but some of the lurkers may not be).

 

[mindseye]

Any part of the site that a guest can access, Google can access. Your private messages, and your gallery pictures, are some of the things that are off-limits to Google. (This is one reason we don't allow nudity in avatars, but we allow it in the galleries.)

 

[Principessa]

(This is one reason we don't allow nudity in avatars, but we allow it in the galleries.)

Oh, okay! I always wondered why that rule was in place. Thanks for explaining. :smile:

 

[B_big dirigible]

I thought this was a private site!

Seriously, what gave you that idea?

Even if the bulk of the site was inaccessible - hidden behind passwords, say - the 'bots still crawl around inside. That's why the search engines give you links to all sorts of things non-subscribers can't actaully get to, like the JSTOR archives.

There is a simple text file one can put in the site's directory which instructs the crawlers about which pages you wish to have indexed and which you want them to stay away from. Unfortunately those instructions are optional, and the googlebot is one of the ones which ignores them.

 

[dong20]

There is a simple text file one can put in the site's directory which instructs the crawlers about which pages you wish to have indexed and which you want them to stay away from. Unfortunately those instructions are optional, and the googlebot is one of the ones which ignores them.

Indeed. The bots can (in theory) be blocked by trapping the user agent but Google being the devious lot they are (and others, to be fair) will then simply fake the 'user agent' to appear as say Internet Explorer. Using IP to the same end is equally easily got around.

I work on the assumption that anything and everything I post here and anywhere else is fair game. It's safer that way.

P.S. How did you get on with the err tractor forum access controls..?

 

[agnslz]

Eek! I did not know about this. I shall never post in confidence to this board again.

No really, since a Google search listing content from this site is what brought me to LPSG I pretty well figured that anything I wrote here would be searchable as well. Also, after about three other threads on the subject in the last six months, it's pretty hard not to know.:tongue: