Ok I'm curious now

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

Looking at the members and guests online now I see a listing of a "Google spider" what is that? Do they bite or make people itch?

Best to all

R. from Pa

[Chet]

Randy

Not only is there a google spider, but it has been joined by a Yahoo! Slurp Spider and an MSNBot Spider!

These are automated searchers (not the right word but it's all I can think of at the moment) sent out by search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN to seek and index web sites and web pages. It's how the search engines build up their databases, so then when we search something, they are able to give us the answers.

[AceOn6]

To add to Chet's post, we'll see lots of spider and bot activity in the next 24 hours. They recognized that we were "new" and are latching on to index us. Once we've been around for a while on the new server, they'll visit once a day or once a week, ususally in the wee small hours of the server's morning.

[John L]

Now I can make the spiders identify themselves.

Which is better than a spell checker!

[SongDragon]

*imagines JohnL standing at the top of a wall near a draw bridge, in magnificent silhouette, yelling down*

"Identify yourselves!"

*and the spiders do so, holding up four of their eight legs and quivering*

~Song

[marjan]

Is that a good sign if there is a Google spy, does that mean this site will be on top when you Google for Janis Ian??

[SongDragon]

Good question, but no. janisian.com is still at the top, while I didn't even see this one on the first page. It will take a while for people to recognize this as a site to click on, for I believe Google is governed by traffic to each site. The more traffic to this site, the farther up on the list it will be (I think).

~Song

[Chet]

Is that a good sign if there is a Google spy, does that mean this site will be on top when you Google for Janis Ian??
Spyder!

Let's see, so far we've identified spyders from Google, MSN and Yahoo! What other search engines are there? Alta Vista? Are they still in business?

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

This is the third time today I've had to spray my monitor with insect repellent!!

Best to all

a very itchy R. from Pa

[paularoid]

Now I can make the spiders identify themselves.

Which is better than a spell checker!
Does this mean that if I block the referrer in my browser of choice, I won't be able to get in anymore? Guess I'll try it and find out. :rolleyes:

[janisian]

Song, very funny!
We like these spiders, because they keep the main site on top.
Google don't reveal exactly how they arrive at their listing order; after all, that's a prime cause of their success. Great article in Time or Newsweek a few months back about them; cover story. You can probably find it by... of course... Googling
time + google + cover story
or something like that.

[Agnes]

Spyder!

Let's see, so far we've identified spyders from Google, MSN and Yahoo! What other search engines are there? Alta Vista? Are they still in business?

Yes, AltaVista is still running, though badly injured :eek:

[Chet]

Yes, AltaVista is still running, though badly injured :eek:
I use it to get to their free online translation service. That's where I translated margay's review of FINB.

[DaveM]

Ah yes, Babelfish. A very fun toy in the hands of people with time to kill--try translating a passage of your choice from one language into another, then translate the result back.

Hey, if we have spiders around, there won't be any flies....