SM search & weirdos
dogwood
Registered Users Posts: 2,572 Major grins
Just checking my stats and I see someone came to my site after searching smugmug for "no clothes". Well of course I don't post nudie shots and it appears none of the other results are nudie shots. I'm still kind of creeped out though seeing all the pics of kids that came up for this search.
Earlier today someone did a search for "thigh" and somehow ended up on my site-- though I can guarantee none of my keywords involve this word.
Is there a way to opt out of smugmug search and still have searching enabled just on my site? Or is it like google-- ya' just gotta take the good apples with the bad apples?
Earlier today someone did a search for "thigh" and somehow ended up on my site-- though I can guarantee none of my keywords involve this word.
Is there a way to opt out of smugmug search and still have searching enabled just on my site? Or is it like google-- ya' just gotta take the good apples with the bad apples?
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www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
And honestly, with the abundance of other places on the web to find photos featuring "no clothes", you'd sure think smugmug would not be worth the trouble to search. Seems a little like offering to pay a stranger for it in an Amsterdam grocery store when the red-light district is right down the street.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
We want to keep smugmug family friendly, and we do a pretty good job at this i think. But if you, or anyone sees anything that's not, we would love to hear it
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=365605#post365605
:soapboxLet us 'opt out' of Smugmug's public search and browse!
I'll second that request. It's never really bothered me until today-- and I couldn't care less what people look at on their computers. But getting two visitors to my site from the smugmug search in one day looking for nudie stuff-- well, that's just odd. I know it doesn't violate any smugmug policy but it would still be nice to opt out of these searches. Just my two-cents.
And Ivar, I've been to Amsterdam a couple of times in my younger days. Oddly, two things struck me the most (and they're probably not what most people are thinking)-- I was amazed at the sheer number of bicycles and also the great selection of fresh pea pods in the grocery stores in the middle of winter! Told you it wasn't what most people were thinking...
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
And what's wrong with nudie stuff? This country is so sexually repressed and paranoid it's insane. If this weren't true, you likely wouldn't have people searching for something as obscure as "thigh" on your page.
It probably wouldn't be impossible to make your galleries private, then link them with sharegroups, then make up a vanity URL to access it. Sounds like a good compromise to me. You will never, ever get away from Google and crawlers in a public gallery.
Steve
http://www.downriverphotography.com
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
close... but... it is more like standing in my living room naked in front of my window, in the house I rent from smugmug, and Smugmug is bringing busloads of people by to look at me.
My problem is Smugmug is the one bringing people (and pervs) to any smugmug site that mentions the word "beach" or "spa" or "boys" or whatever... My statcounter shows 10 to 1 hits coming from smugmug "searchers/browsers" over google.
private galleries stop the keywording feature, and sharegroups stop me from organizing my site by categories, subcategories, etc... just let me opt out of the public search stuff, what's the big deal?
I've explained this all before here...
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=30938&page=2
You can limit it somewhat.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=33581&topic=8460
-Scott
scwalter.smugmug.com
Great tip! Now we just need one for every other search engine and 3rd party crawler app! :cry
Steve
http://www.downriverphotography.com
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
From time to time, we get some questionable material on smugmug. So occasionally I use smugmug search to weed out any offense content that people have been stupid enough to keyword. But I can't say that it was me on this occasion.
Cheers,
David
SmugMug API Developer
My Photos
-Anne
Steve
http://www.downriverphotography.com
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
I just follow the links back that people take to my site. Do a search here for "statcounter"-- statcounter is free and invisible on your site and a fantastic tool to see how people get to your site and what they look at. There are directions somewhere here about installing the code on your site.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
Somewhere = here: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092684
-Anne
The vast majority of search traffic to most SmugMug galleries comes from Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Ask, etc.
Turning off SmugMug's search wouldn't really solve the problem. It's like taking an eyedropper to an ocean and trying to drain it.
If you Private or Password your galleries, that kills both birds with one stone. We may, in the future, offer a "try to help me not be searchable by Google & Co" but we've got a lot of higher priorities.
Our statistics and our customer service records show us that a massive number of your friends and families come to your site not via typing in smugmug in their browser or using a bookmark, but typing your name into Google. So if we made a "don't let Google crawl me" feature, we'd end up pissing off a lot of people who don't totally understand the implications, too. Tough situation.
Don
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
Don,
First -- I love the site.
But, I don't think you'll piss off anyone (who wouldn't already be pissed off) if you allow a don't let Google crawl me feature, at least if it's not a default feature. I currently have a password-protected site and am (I hope) not searchable by Google -- anyone trying to find me needs the password and needs to know my account name (since they can't find it with google). No additional people would be frustrated if I was able to exempt my site from Google searches (and Smugmug searches too) -- if I could do both those things, I would be able to feel comfortable not having a site password, which would make all my friends and family very happy (as they often forget it, mis-spell it, use the wrong case, etc.).
How about at least letting power users modify the code to tell crawlers not to index the site -- we can put in that code now, but it conflicts with the code put in by smugmug and (I believe) probably won't work. But, wouldn't just a check box, with a little explanation that your friends and family won't be able to find you if it's checked suffice. True, some people may not be able to find your site that way if the box is checked, but if your customers affirmatively decide (by checking the box after a warning message) that they don't want their photos to be found with Google (or even smumgug search), why shouldn't their decision prevail over the possibility of pissing off their friends and family (who, in any event, probably would not be pissed off once they discussed the issue with the friend or family member whose photos they were looking for).
Thanks.
Steve
The photos I want to be found can be found in public galleries and the ones I don't want to be found are hidden behind passwords.
That's exactly what I want.
Dna
In my original post, I just thought it was a little weird that photos of children came up when someone searched "no clothes". That's all. When someone searches google for "no clothes", my site doesn't come up. When they search smugmug, it does... because I use the word "clothes" (I'm a fashion shooter) in my keywords... not because I have nudie pics posted.
Anyway, I appreciate the replies-- including Don's. I'd still like a way to opt out of the smugsearch though.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
I hate to disagree with you, but it's already personally happened to me a lot.
One of my wife's friends, just the other day, was worried that her daughter's photos could be found by anyone Googling her. She was upset that we'd allow Google to search her images. I, of course, let her know about the password and private features, and she was thrilled!
Awhile later, she was even more upset and angry with us. I thought she might cancel. Why? Because her mom no longer could get to her photos. Turns out it has nothing to do with the password (which the mom had), and everything to do with the fact that the mom didn't know how to use a web browser. She'd just type her daugher's name into the Search box that came up on her homepage (Google, I believe, but maybe MSN) and the word "photos". Then she'd click the first link.
This is not unique and not isolated. Ask any of the search engines - a vast amount of the queries done to them are actually search terms that look *exactly* like: "http://www.smugmug.com/"
Yes, that's right, instead of typing it into the location bar, where it belongs, they type it into their search engine instead and rely on it taking them to the right spot. With http:// and everything intact.
Our job at SmugMug is, among other things, to make you look good and to make it easy for your friends/family/clients to find you. It turns out, that for most people, that means a presence in Google more than anything else. That's just the world we live in.
Don
I understand that many people would want their site to be able to found by Google -- but, I'm not asking for you to change that at all. (I would point out, though, that many people also want to keep their site private outside of the search engines -- just look at some of the threads here ).
Smugmug's a great site, but it would be a lot better for some of us if we could use more of its features without opening our site up to google.
All I'm asking is to allow users to opt out if we want -- not necessarily by giving us a check box that might allow people who don't understand what they are doing to opt out of a feature they really want. How about just allowing power users to insert code to tell the crawlers to not index the site in their customization (and that does not conflict with other code). Certainly, your customer's desire to not have their photos found by Google should trump their friends' desire to find them using Google.
Your point, which I don't dispute is a valid one, only becomes an issue if the customer really wants their site to be searchable but opts out without understanding the implications. I think power users who customize their own sites certainly understand the implications of putting in the code I'm suggesting (at least the ones that would go to the effort of doing so would).
Thanks for listening.
Steve
Thread http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=43231 suggests that's already possible and gives the code to do it, plus you always have the option of private galleries and passworded galleries. Please keep in mind that regardless of what code, checkbox or ideal you subscribe to, no line of code is going to prevent all search engines, webcrawlers or bots from exercising EVERY publically accessible link or web address on the Internet. That's their job and the only way to fully prevent this is to lock your site down and restrict physical access, regardless of what Smugmug impliments. If I can type in anything in my browser bar and be permitted access to your site, a bot will find it eventually and it only takes once to be listed and propagated to other engines. If I were on the pro-paranoia side of this discussion, I would be much more ambitious about having the functionalities of keyword searching within private areas and any other features afforded to those with public sites, instead of trying to combat the very root of the Internet, cuz it 'ain't never gunna happen'.
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
Is there no way to give individual users the OPTION of keyword functionality within private galleries by making modifications that would require the user to actually be <u> logged-in to their own site </u> in order to conduct searches? I realize many folks WANT their keywords and captions to be searchable, and the current SmugMug design does this, so that functionality must "survive" any modifications. Is a second set of "keyword" fields that are non-searchable unless one is actually logged-in a possible approach?
I've asked (or tried to ask) this question before on several occasions, and I'm sure it's because I did not ask it properly that I can't seem to get a "yes" or "no " (or even a "maybe") answer.
Thanks, Papajay