Browser URL Change

AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
edited February 6, 2012 in SmugMug Support
Can someone explain what the #!i= and &k= is in the browser url? This has come out of left field. Why
has this been added in the link and WHY HAVE WE NOT BEEN NOTIFIED OF THIS CHANGE?

Direct gallery link I've been using
....seshoe-Lake/20581263_fZhhv3

New Gallery link that I just noticed.
....seshoe-Lake/20581263_fZhhv3#!i=1630968498&k=kzPnFmb

direct photo link I've always used
http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-XL.jpg

This is going to be very confusing the those we help when telling them the photo number and key is
after the # sign. (now minus all that garbage and inserting an underline?)

What do we now enter in HTLM image links?
<img src="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-XL.jpg" />
or
<img src="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498&k=kzPnFmb-XL.jpg" />
This one does not work for a direct photo link.

Another problem is copying the photo number and key to paste in links/blogs. Instead of just copying
1630968498_kzPnFmb I now have to take additional steps changing the &k= to an underline? Adds a
bunch of time when doing lots of these. Way to destroy productivity. :clap
Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
My Website index | My Blog
«1

Comments

  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 8, 2012
    Hey Al, the links you use won't change :)

    Go here
    http://www.photosbyat.com/Birds/Birding-2010-July/2010-07-09-Clarence-Cannon-NWR/12867269_62xwcM#!i=928852953&k=vzt5w

    then use share>get a link and you'll see that link hasn't changed
    http://www.photosbyat.com/Birds/Birding-2010-July/2010-07-09-Clarence-Cannon-NWR/IMG3789-7D/928852953_vzt5w-S-1.jpg
    and you can still use the direct photo links you've been constructing on your own.

    You don't have to do any of that extra stuff you mention in your post.

    We'll probably talk about this on our blog soon, it's all to make your images (when you want them to) be found better by Google and search engines.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited January 8, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hey Al, the links you use won't change :)

    Go here
    http://www.photosbyat.com/Birds/Birding-2010-July/2010-07-09-Clarence-Cannon-NWR/12867269_62xwcM#!i=928852953&k=vzt5w

    then use share>get a link and you'll see that link hasn't changed
    http://www.photosbyat.com/Birds/Birding-2010-July/2010-07-09-Clarence-Cannon-NWR/IMG3789-7D/928852953_vzt5w-S-1.jpg
    and you can still use the direct photo links you've been constructing on your own.

    You don't have to do any of that extra stuff you mention in your post.

    We'll probably talk about this on our blog soon, it's all to make your images (when you want them to) be found better by Google and search engines.
    EVERY photo link I get I now have to remove that garbage and add the underline. I am not going to
    use a bunch of additional steps to go thru "get a link" to retrieve a photo link that doesn't even have
    the photo number included and the size twice. This would more than quadruple the time for each
    photo link opening all these additional pages.

    Example: I have a blog template ready to just insert photo link and info.
    <a href="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/-XL.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/-Th.jpg" alt="" title="" /></a>
    <a href="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-XL.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-Th.jpg" alt="Mountain Bluebird" title="Mountain Bluebird" /></a>
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • stlracingstlracing Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
    edited January 9, 2012
    Yep, I always just copied the photo number and key out of the URL to link to an image just like this.. Now I guess it won't be near as quick and easy.
    http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-XL.jpg
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 9, 2012
    stlracing wrote: »
    Yep, I always just copied the photo number and key out of the URL to link to an image just like this.. Now I guess it won't be near as quick and easy.

    The link is always there from Share>Get A Link ...
    We did not make this change to make your life harder - the benefits in Search Engine findability will be significant, we're sure!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited January 9, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    The link is always there from Share>Get A Link ...
    We did not make this change to make your life harder - the benefits in Search Engine findability will be significant, we're sure!
    For every photo link it takes four clicks to get the link and then paste into notepad. This link, as it is,
    can not be used because it exposes the whole path. The photo part then has to be copied and
    pasted into my template.

    I noticed that unlisted galleries get it right.
    .....at.com/photos/714954348_2PrfM-XL-1.jpg
    I can't imagine why anyone would want the whole path exposed on any remotely posted image. All
    the "get a photo" links should be this way whether in an unlisted gallery or not. Especially for
    passworded protected galleries which now EXPOSE the full link.

    The solution I found was after copying all the browser url photo No/Key's was to search/replace &k=
    with _ in my completed template. Just another step slowing me down.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • onethumbonethumb Administrators Posts: 1,269 Major grins
    edited January 9, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    For every photo link it takes four clicks to get the link and then paste into notepad. This link, as it is,
    can not be used because it exposes the whole path. The photo part then has to be copied and
    pasted into my template.

    I noticed that unlisted galleries get it right.
    .....at.com/photos/714954348_2PrfM-XL-1.jpg
    I can't imagine why anyone would want the whole path exposed on any remotely posted image. All
    the "get a photo" links should be this way whether in an unlisted gallery or not. Especially for
    passworded protected galleries which now EXPOSE the full link.

    The solution I found was after copying all the browser url photo No/Key's was to search/replace &k=
    with _ in my completed template. Just another step slowing me down.

    Actually, most people prefer the full link in their URLs, because search engines like Google and Bing use it to correctly identify what the photo contains, which results in a lot more exposure for the photographer.

    Without the path, they're left guessing, which is a huge deal to the vast majority of our customers, especially working Pros.

    I'm not sure how it takes 4 clicks? Just right-click on a photo and save the URL... ?
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 9, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    For every photo link it takes four clicks to get the link and then paste into notepad. This link, as it is,
    can not be used because it exposes the whole path. The photo part then has to be copied and
    pasted into my template.

    I noticed that unlisted galleries get it right.
    .....at.com/photos/714954348_2PrfM-XL-1.jpg
    I can't imagine why anyone would want the whole path exposed on any remotely posted image. All
    the "get a photo" links should be this way whether in an unlisted gallery or not. Especially for
    passworded protected galleries which now EXPOSE the full link.

    The solution I found was after copying all the browser url photo No/Key's was to search/replace &k=
    with _ in my completed template. Just another step slowing me down.

    Hi Al, I'm sorry for this :( You get links via a different method than far and away most of our customers. I'm really sorry and hope that the improvements in the url structure for Google and other search engines will make up for it!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 10, 2012
    More info on why we did this, here:
    http://news.smugmug.com/2012/01/10/hash-bang-how-we-beef-up-your-google-juice/

    Thanks!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited January 10, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    More info on why we did this, here:
    http://news.smugmug.com/2012/01/10/hash-bang-how-we-beef-up-your-google-juice/

    Thanks!
    Great write-up, thanks clap.gif
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • SamirDSamirD Registered Users Posts: 3,474 Major grins
    edited January 10, 2012
    Wow, looks like I missed this one. As Allen figured out, this doesn't affect unlisted galleries. Will this always be the behavior? What happens when an unlisted gallery is made public? Will it resort to the new format?
    Pictures and Videos of the Huntsville Car Scene: www.huntsvillecarscene.com
    Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 10, 2012
    SamirD wrote: »
    Wow, looks like I missed this one. As Allen figured out, this doesn't affect unlisted galleries. Will this always be the behavior? What happens when an unlisted gallery is made public? Will it resort to the new format?

    It affects all Galleries, Samir. But it won't change embedded links from the past :)
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • SamirDSamirD Registered Users Posts: 3,474 Major grins
    edited January 10, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    It affects all Galleries, Samir. But it won't change embedded links from the past :)
    Bummer. Looks like I'm going to have to redo my random image widget again. I haven't even fixed it from the last two changes. rolleyes1.gif It's been a busy year at SM!
    Pictures and Videos of the Huntsville Car Scene: www.huntsvillecarscene.com
    Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2012
    Seymore wrote: »
    Yea, I also saw this when it happened. So, SM is more concerned with how Google sees things than how hard it will be for their paying customers to addapt? SAD! So, who's this improvement(BUG) for? Did SM forget who's paying the bills? It's not Google, the last time I checked.

    Seymore I do not understand why you are upset. We didn't do this for "Google" we did it so SmugMug photos on Google will be found better - we did it for SmugMug customers. I'm so sorry you're upset about that, and what is it exactly that is "broken" for you? Are you manufacturing your own photo links somehow? Old links should not be broken at all - if you have some that are, please show me so we can look into it.

    We've received overwhelming support and praise for this, from a very wide range of customers.

    Standing by to understand you better...
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2012
    SamirD wrote: »
    Bummer. Looks like I'm going to have to redo my random image widget again. I haven't even fixed it from the last two changes. rolleyes1.gif It's been a busy year at SM!

    If you are using our API I'm not sure why you'd need to 'redo' it? But I'm not a coder and not sure what you've done.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • SamirDSamirD Registered Users Posts: 3,474 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    If you are using our API I'm not sure why you'd need to 'redo' it? But I'm not a coder and not sure what you've done.
    I only used the API to retrieve the list of galleries. Then I feed one of them to random.mg and then parse off the resulting image id and key to create a linkable random image. It works quite well unless there's hard changes at SM like key size or image uri.

    I guess I could do this via the API, but I'm not sure if it would take longer to get a list of the images and pick a random one. I may want to experiement with that. Back-to-back requests could hammer the api harder than random.mg and slow down the display of the image.
    Pictures and Videos of the Huntsville Car Scene: www.huntsvillecarscene.com
    Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Seymore wrote: »

    But thanks for the NON-ANNOUNCMENT of this broken-URL situation many of us use. Nice to be blind-sided every once in a while and have more work to do with the simple things on SM!

    http://news.smugmug.com/2012/01/10/hash-bang-how-we-beef-up-your-google-juice/

    I'd still love to know how the URL change is adversely affecting you. Can you please tell us?
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • SamirDSamirD Registered Users Posts: 3,474 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    Example: I have a blog template ready to just insert photo link and info.
    <a href="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/-XL.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/-Th.jpg" alt="" title="" /></a>
    <a href="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-XL.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/1630968498_kzPnFmb-Th.jpg" alt="Mountain Bluebird" title="Mountain Bluebird" /></a>
    I have a template like this too, but for embedding slideshow html. It still needs revision for the increased characters in the gallery id and key, but I'm okay with manually fixing that for now.

    What broke for me a while back (may be a year ago now--bad memory), was that a new slideshow script started pulling slideshows from a cdn and it broke the old way of directly going to sm. So all my slideshows broke--a couple of hundred of them. Once SM realized this broke every slideshow out there that was not running through the cdn, they made it possible for the slideshow to work using either method, albeit it's still faster using the cdn code. The cdn solved a major problem with the slideshow loading slow, but there's a cost to the fix which requires some changes to existing code. This is normal in the world of coding. I only discovered this issue when someone called me and couldn't see the slideshow on my site.

    The template you're using above has its days numbered. It's using the old image id and key format to link directly to images. While this works, I think there's going to a be a point where it may not with newer galleries and images. It's best to change the template to use the new image format using all those slashes.

    And this same principle applies to the new format used on the browser url. It's change, and it happens all the time. :cry I realize how hard it is to create a stable architecture in the midst of everything constantly changing--believe me, I really do. And sometimes these changes are a royal pain the behind, but they are inevitable.

    I agree that some sort of announcement beforehand would have been useful to prep you for such a change, but that's not SM's policy. And while it's bothersome at times, it's nowhere near as bad as facebook's policy of changing and breaking things constantly, and yet they've still got a steady userbase. (It's actually kinda scary how much abuse the customer will take when something's free.)

    Believe me, I can completely understand your frustration. But the most constructive thing right now is to figure out exactly what the root of the change is, and how it will affect all of your implementations so you can get to work on minimizing the damage. Punching soft things and screaming obscenities at home will probably help too, just not around the wife and/or kids. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/rolleyes1.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

    I see that you make some small scripts that help you do things faster at SM. You're not the only one, so I understand your pain. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/thumb.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" > Just remember that we're on the outside of that bell curve that most of SM's users fall into.
    Pictures and Videos of the Huntsville Car Scene: www.huntsvillecarscene.com
    Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
  • mbradymbrady Registered Users Posts: 321 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Seymore wrote: »
    As a member of TMF (The Motley Fool) since 1999, I can tell you that when their forums went pay in ~2004, the forum membership dropped by more than 50%. (in my estimation) After ~5 years of decline they made their forums free again, but the damage was already done and membership/participation has never recovered. This is just one of many examples I've seen that show my concern for the many changes SM thinks the users want.

    I'm not sure that comparison fits though. Charging for TMF forum impacted everyone in a very noticeable way. This URL change has not impacted my site whatsoever. I don't ever even pay attention to the URL of images, everything just works as it always has before. I realize that you and others have been impacted by this change, but I suspect that the vast majority of Smugmug customers and users will be unaware that anything has changed - essentially making it transparent.

    However I do agree that they should have given a heads up in advance.
  • forestlitterforestlitter Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Put me in the camp that sees this change as an obstacle to using my photos in the way I want. It's still possible, but requires more steps to do it.

    I don't want my urls to disclose my site/category/album info. I don't want my photos posted in public forums to lead back to my site. I don't want to make it easy for Google to find my photos.

    This may be the minority opinion, but SmugMug needs to know that some customers feel this way.
  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    forestlitter wrote: »
    Put me in the camp that sees this change as an obstacle to using my photos in the way I want. It's still possible, but requires more steps to do it.

    I don't want my urls to disclose my site/category/album info. I don't want my photos posted in public forums to lead back to my site. I don't want to make it easy for Google to find my photos.

    This may be the minority opinion, but SmugMug needs to know that some customers feel this way.
    How did this change make it harder to do what you do? I routinely post images in public forums in a way that they don't lead back to my site and I find no more/no less steps required to do that as before.
    --John
    Homepage • Popular
    JFriend's javascript customizations • Secrets for getting fast answers on Dgrin
     Always include a link to your site when posting a question
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    I just answered a post where multi-word category links in a navbar with %20 for spaces quit working. Looks like
    Smug might be forcing us to use the category niceName with dashes.
    But how would something like that get changed in the first place? Until I removed that one initial line, I hadn't made any changes for probably over a year to my customization. And I'm sure I'd remember going in and putting weird things like that in there!
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    I just answered a post where multi-word category links in a navbar with %20 for spaces quit working. Looks like
    Smug might be forcing us to use the category niceName with dashes.

    Pretty sure this is a bug we're fixing right now.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • forestlitterforestlitter Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    jfriend wrote: »
    I routinely post images in public forums in a way that they don't lead back to my site and I find no more/no less steps required to do that as before.

    Enlighten me. What is this simple process you use that did not change as a result of the new urls?
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    forestlitter wrote: »
    I don't want my urls to disclose my site/category/album info. I don't want my photos posted in public forums to lead back to my site. I don't want to make it easy for Google to find my photos

    Hi, we've had options for years that accomplish all of this. You can use Hide Owner, you can use SmugIslands to tell Google to stay away from a gallery or galleries or your whole site. You can use get a link to get photo urls that won't lead back to your site.

    If you want/need any help with any of these options just holler.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    forestlitter wrote: »
    Enlighten me. What is this simple process you use that did not change as a result of the new urls?
    Looks like this is the only way of hiding your site. Insert the photo number and key in this.
    http://cdn.smugmug.com/photos/1668754268_JLhxDHZ-M.jpg

    All other links I tried and Smug redirects and inserts the full path or site url.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • forestlitterforestlitter Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hi, we've had options for years that accomplish all of this. You can use Hide Owner, you can use SmugIslands to tell Google to stay away from a gallery or galleries or your whole site. You can use get a link to get photo urls that won't lead back to your site.

    I am aware of this. I would not be a customer if you did not provide these options. I just wanted to take this opportunity to speak up for those of us who require this.

    But this recent change has added complexity to my process for getting a url that will not lead back to my site.

    Please share what you feel is the most simple process for creating this kind of url. Thank you.
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    forestlitter wrote: »
    I am aware of this. I would not be a customer if you did not provide these options. I just wanted to take this opportunity to speak up for those of us who require this.

    But this recent change has added complexity to my process for getting a url that will not lead back to my site.

    Please share what you feel is the most simple process for creating this kind of url. Thank you.

    Hide owner gallery, and use share>get a link that's how I'd do it.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • forestlitterforestlitter Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hide owner gallery, and use share>get a link that's how I'd do it.

    If I hide owner, then the folks who I do invite to see my site/photos cannot easily navigate using breadcrumbs. All my customization is removed. And my custom domain name is not used.

    http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93131-hide-owner

    I know, I want it both ways. I want all these features for the folks I invite in and I don't want people I dont invite to be able to snoop around.

    Or am I missing something? Thanks for your help.
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    forestlitter wrote: »
    If I hide owner, then the folks who I do invite to see my site/photos cannot easily navigate using breadcrumbs. All my customization is removed. And my custom domain name is not used.

    http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93131-hide-owner

    I know, I want it both ways. I want all these features for the folks I invite in and I don't want people I dont invite to be able to snoop around.

    Or am I missing something? Thanks for your help.

    Use share>get a link on a non hide owner gallery. Replace your nickname with photos.smugmug

    http://photos.smugmug.com/Galleries/African-Safari/i-KBnqGxP/0/L/IMG6534-L.jpg
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited January 12, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Use share>get a link on a non hide owner gallery. Replace your nickname with photos.smugmug

    http://photos.smugmug.com/Galleries/African-Safari/i-KBnqGxP/0/L/IMG6534-L.jpg
    I go even further. Not only do I change the domain to photos.smugmug.com, but I take the category/sub-category/gallery names out and replace it with /photos like this:

    http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-KBnqGxP/0/L/IMG6534-L.jpg

    Now, it's just a generic photo link on Smugmug with no association with any account, gallery name, category name, etc... Been doing this for years. It works with either the old imageID and imageKey method or this newer fangled way.
    --John
    Homepage • Popular
    JFriend's javascript customizations • Secrets for getting fast answers on Dgrin
     Always include a link to your site when posting a question
Sign In or Register to comment.