Link functions and search engines.
 

I generate my webpages from a database. A good many of my links are popup
links. For convenience I am using a javascript function to pop up the window
e.g.

popInternalWindow("Home");

popInternalWindow(pagename)
{
popupString = "<%=session("DomainName")%>" = "/" + pagename + ".htm";
pagename = window.open(popupString,pagename,'[parameters]');
}

There is nothing in my code for a search engine to follow and naturally I
would like the search engines to index the entire site. If I was to have a
table with visibility turned off containing all of my lings as regular links
e.g.

<table style="visibility:hidden">
<tr><td>
<a href="[full link name1]">Home</a>
<a href="[full link name2]">Products</a>
..
..
..
</td></tr>
</table>

would the search engines follow those or are they designed to ignore
non-visible html?
If not, is there any other way of doing it other than not using a function
for the popups?

Re: Link functions and search engines.
 

Simon Wigzell wrote:

<snip ugly popup code>

> would the search engines follow those or are they designed to ignore
> non-visible html?

No, no and its not HTML.

To follow window.open functions the bot would have to be designed so it can
process JavaScript. It isn't designed to do so. It isn't designed to ignore
it either, it just can't cope.

> If not, is there any other way of doing it other than not using a function
> for the popups?

Use a sane function for popups[1]
* http://jibbering.com/faq/#FAQ4_24
* http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?Console_window

[1] Better yet - don't use popups, they are almost always a bad design
decision

--
David Dorward <http://dorward.me.uk/>

Re: Link functions and search engines.
 

"David Dorward" <dorward@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bqtfdr$6ks$2$8300dec7@news.demon.co.uk...
> Simon Wigzell wrote:
>
> <snip ugly popup code>
>
> > would the search engines follow those or are they designed to ignore
> > non-visible html?
>
> No, no and its not HTML.
>
> To follow window.open functions the bot would have to be designed so it
can
> process JavaScript. It isn't designed to do so. It isn't designed to
ignore
> it either, it just can't cope.
>
> > If not, is there any other way of doing it other than not using a
function
> > for the popups?
>
> Use a sane function for popups[1]
> * http://jibbering.com/faq/#FAQ4_24
> * http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?Console_window
>
> [1] Better yet - don't use popups, they are almost always a bad design
> decision
>
> --
> David Dorward <http://dorward.me.uk/>

Thanks, but my question was about whether search engines would find links
inside a table with "visible = hidden", I wasn't asking your opinion about
popup links!

Re: Link functions and search engines.
 

Simon Wigzell wrote:

> Thanks, but my question was about whether search engines would find links
> inside a table with "visible = hidden", I wasn't asking your opinion about
> popup links!

What? Oh. <Rereads.> Ah.

Maybe. Maybe not. They might consider it spamming.

Either way - not using broken JavaScript in the first place will fix the
problem for any user agent which can't handle JavaScript (You know that
about half a dozen security flaws were found in the scripting engine in
MSIE last week and that its been recomended that IE users keep scripting
turned off until they are patched?
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34186.html>)

--
David Dorward <http://dorward.me.uk/>

Re: Link functions and search engines.
 

Simon Wigzell wrote:

> Thanks, but my question was about whether search engines would find links
> inside a table with "visible = hidden", I wasn't asking your opinion about
> popup links!

What? Oh. <Rereads.> Ah. You fooled by asking a SEO/CSS question in c.l.j :)

Maybe. Maybe not. They might consider it spamming.

Either way - not using broken JavaScript in the first place will fix the
problem for any user agent which can't handle JavaScript (You know that
about half a dozen security flaws were found in the scripting engine in
MSIE last week and that its been recomended that IE users keep scripting
turned off until they are patched?
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34186.html>), its recomended not to
use JavaScript in a way which can't degrade gracefully.

--
David Dorward <http://dorward.me.uk/>

Re: Link functions and search engines.
 

JRS: In article <uRoAb.577883$6C4.133087@pd7tw1no>, seen in
news:comp.lang.javascript, Simon Wigzell <simonwigzell@shaw.ca> posted
at Sat, 6 Dec 2003 18:03:06 :-
>
> would the search engines follow those or are they designed to ignore
>non-visible html?

If those are in fact real, visible, pages, then you can link to them all
from a new page not intended for humans to see, and link to that page
from a well-known page in an inconspicuous manner that robots will
follow.

Otherwise, will the engines be able to get a meaningful index entry to
display?

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v4.00 IE 4 ©
<URL:http://jibbering.com/faq/> Jim Ley's FAQ for news:comp.lang.javascript
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/js-index.htm> JS maths, dates, sources.
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> TP/BP/Delphi/JS/&c., FAQ topics, links.

Re: Link functions and search engines.
 

Simon Wigzell wrote:

> [OjE borken fullquote crap]

You may want to read http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?How_to_post

> Thanks, but my question was about whether search engines would find links
> inside a table with "visible = hidden",

The Magic Eight Ball says: Unlikely.

> I wasn't asking your opinion about popup links!

This is a discussion group, (paid) support forums are elsewhere.


PointedEars