Captions and Privacy / Search Engines

shiffy

Does anyone know whether using captions for photos on a password-protected site will allow the site to be picked up by search engines or to become searchable through smugmug? (My goal is to avoid having it indexed or searchable.) I know that in the past, using keywords opened up a backdoor allowing password-protected sites to be indexed by search engines. I believe this has been fixed, but wanted to make sure that there I would not be doing anything to jeopardize the privacy of the photos on my site if I started to use captions.

Thanks.

Steve

Andy

shiffy wrote:

Does anyone know whether using captions for photos on a password-protected site will allow the site to be picked up by search engines or to become searchable through smugmug? (My goal is to avoid having it indexed or searchable.) I know that in the past, using keywords opened up a backdoor allowing password-protected sites to be indexed by search engines. I believe this has been fixed, but wanted to make sure that there I would not be doing anything to jeopardize the privacy of the photos on my site if I started to use captions.

Thanks.

Steve

HI Steve,
Captions in public galleries are googleable, for sure.

papajay

Is that the result of policy? or technology?

Andy wrote:

HI Steve,
Captions in public galleries are googleable, for sure.

Andy:
They are (googleable), but do-they/did-they have to be from the get-go? Was that a design criteria Smugmug designers had to decide upon in the beginning? In other words, was there ever a software design decision to be made about it (googleable- or not-googleable captions)??... or is it just the nature of internet technology itself that makes captions googleable whether you want them to be or not?

Personally, I wish captions were not googleable. I'm sure others want them googleable, which begs the question...Will it ever be possible to have the choice, as a smugmug gallery owner, between captions-googleable or not-googleable?

Andy

papajay wrote:

Andy:
They are (googleable), but do-they/did-they have to be from the get-go? Was that a design criteria Smugmug designers had to decide upon in the beginning? In other words, was there ever a software design decision to be made about it (googleable- or not-googleable captions)??... or is it just the nature of internet technology itself that makes captions googleable whether you want them to be or not?

Personally, I wish captions were not googleable. I'm sure others want them googleable, which begs the question...Will it ever be possible to have the choice, as a smugmug gallery owner, between captions-googleable or not-googleable?

Thanks for posting, papajay. For now, Captions, titles, keywords in public galleries are indexed by google. If we come up with a way to offer a choice, we'll sure let you know - and we know it's important to you.

papajay

Andy..Do you ever sleep?

Andy wrote:

Thanks for posting, papajay. For now, Captions, titles, keywords in public galleries are indexed by google. If we come up with a way to offer a choice, we'll sure let you know - and we know it's important to you.

It's fine, Andy...really! Just because I want it doesn't make it do-able. I'd still be interested to know if it was something where software designers for sites like Smugmug even had a choice to begin with...or does google's search/indexing technology trump any/all attempts to thwart it? A "technical description" would be over my head...I see it as a "yes" or "no" question, that's all.

Dna

papajay wrote:

It's fine, Andy...really! Just because I want it doesn't make it do-able. I'd still be interested to know if it was something where software designers for sites like Smugmug even had a choice to begin with...or does google's search/indexing technology trump any/all attempts to thwart it? A "technical description" would be over my head...I see it as a "yes" or "no" question, that's all.

This can't be implemented on Smugmug by users but yes there is a way to stop Google (and other search engines).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt



Dna

shiffy

Andy wrote:

Thanks for posting, papajay. For now, Captions, titles, keywords in public galleries are indexed by google. If we come up with a way to offer a choice, we'll sure let you know - and we know it's important to you.

Andy,

Thanks for the response. Are you sure that that is correct if the whole site is password-protected? I know using password protection means giving up on keywords, and possibly captions (although I thought it wouldn't), but I thought that using site-wide password protection would at least stop google from indexing things like titles (which I thought were akin to gallery names). Smugmug's help page on using passwords for an account provides at the end of the FAQ:

Q: Does this foil Google?
A: Yes. Your name, bio, gallery names, etc., should not appear in Google's search unless you place them on non-SmugMug pages.



Could you confirm if this is accurate and, if the use of any features - captions, titles, etc. makes a password-protected account's public galleries searchable, could you let us know specifically which ones have this effect?

As always, thanks for your assistance. It is much appreciated.




Steve

Andy

shiffy wrote:

Andy,

Thanks for the response. Are you sure that that is correct if the whole site is password-protected? I know using password protection means giving up on keywords, and possibly captions (although I thought it wouldn't), but I thought that using site-wide password protection would at least stop google from indexing things like titles (which I thought were akin to gallery names). Smugmug's help page on using passwords for an account provides at the end of the FAQ:

Q: Does this foil Google?
A: Yes. Your name, bio, gallery names, etc., should not appear in Google's search unless you place them on non-SmugMug pages.



Could you confirm if this is accurate and, if the use of any features - captions, titles, etc. makes a password-protected account's public galleries searchable, could you let us know specifically which ones have this effect?

As always, thanks for your assistance. It is much appreciated.




Steve

Hi Steve, sure - my answer was for publick galleries - having a site password will stop the google crawl for those captions.

shiffy

Andy wrote:

Hi Steve, sure - my answer was for publick galleries - having a site password will stop the google crawl for those captions.

Cool. Thanks Andy. That makes me feel better.

(I guess the confusion was that even with a site password, there are public and private galleries. )

papajay

Thwarting Google

Dna wrote:

This can't be implemented on Smugmug by users but yes there is a way to stop Google (and other search engines).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt



Dna

Thanks for the reference, Dna. I knew the technical aspects would be over my head, but I followed the link you provided anyway and poked around a bit to get a sense of what it all meant.

Two sentences caught my attention right away..."Many web site administrators have been caught trying to use the robots file to make private parts of a website invisible to the rest of the world. However, the file is necessarily publicly available and is easily checked by anyone with a web browser.", which I took to mean my "quest" is next to impossible with the current construct.

I've made a point in the past of saying I did not want to require my family/friends to use a password to see my galleries..."Fine, public galleries are the way to go."

But then I put a restriction on it. I did not want my galleries searchable by google...."Fine, private galleries are the way to go (as long as your galleries don't contain keywords)."

There's the rub, of course, since I "have to have" keyword functionality.

I don't believe I've clearly articulated something that might make a difference in terms of satisfying my "need" as a smugmug user. I want keyword functionality for myself (within my own site), not for visitors to my site.

I do not consider actually "logging-in" to my own site an inconvenience, so if access to keywords and the ability to search on them could somehow be protected behind the "log-in" screen, I'd be very happy.

I fully understand that others (many, but not all, pro's for example) want/need keyword functionality available to all visitors to their site (afterall, they are trying to make a living selling their photos, so keyword functionality make good sense).

Obviously, a single "solution" approach would not work without providing a gallery owner the ability to "select" which keyword handling protocol fits his/her need.

Giving gallery owners the option (if it can be done) to:

a.)put keyword functionality behind the user "log-in" screen or
b.) leave it accessible 24x7 to site visitors (and google)

...would be a good thing, IMHO.

Done Rambling (for now, at least).

Thanks, PapaJay