yes. Visitors to mynickname.smugmug.com should be able to see/search/browse/etc all public galleries, but visitors to google or www.smugmug.com should have no clue I exist. Obviously the google aspect is not under smugmug control, but changing the default meta/robots tag from follow/index/all to no-follow/no-index (or removing the default and allowing me to specify my own) would help with the google aspect.
workaround
Ok so I think I might have a workaround for this security debacle. In my case I have my own domain hosted elsewhere which the bulk of my website is hosted on, except of course the photo gallery. I'm a smugmug power user so the entire account is fully customised so other than the small 'powered by..' link at the bottom of each page most of my non-technical family wouldn't even realise that there are two hosts involved in serving up my entire website, I assume a vast number of power users on smugmug may have a similar setup.
So, im thinking i can...
1. Set a password on my smugmug account. (yes, the account not individual galleries. Note also that all my galleries are set to public.
2. On the link from my own website add the account password into the URL so users going from my website across to my smugmug account do not need to enter a password.
Therefore all keyword functionality etc. still works and I get no unwanted visitors from the smugmug homepage, and also given that my own website has webcrawler detterent metadata then I shouldn't get any unwated visitors from search engines.
I've tried to figure out the URL required to pass in the password but can't seem to get it working. Anyone on the support/development team be able to tell me if this is possible?
Thx Greg... I ended up using this for now, but it does cause a bit of inconvenience for my friends and family. It would be nice if SmugMug could properly offer this.
I don't think what you're attempting to do will keep your galleries private. I think if you use keywords, someone will be able to get onto your pages through a keyword search, even though they could not get on through your smugmug home page. I could be wrong, but try it yourself by searching for your keywords when you are not logged on to your site.
And, I think you're pages with keywords on them may be indexed by web search engines such as Google.
If you don't use keywords, you should be fine with an account password (and there probably is no need for the extra level of using your other website).
Ok so I think I might have a workaround for this security debacle. In my case I have my own domain hosted elsewhere which the bulk of my website is hosted on, except of course the photo gallery. I'm a smugmug power user so the entire account is fully customised so other than the small 'powered by..' link at the bottom of each page most of my non-technical family wouldn't even realise that there are two hosts involved in serving up my entire website, I assume a vast number of power users on smugmug may have a similar setup.
So, im thinking i can...
1. Set a password on my smugmug account. (yes, the account not individual galleries. Note also that all my galleries are set to public.
2. On the link from my own website add the account password into the URL so users going from my website across to my smugmug account do not need to enter a password.
Therefore all keyword functionality etc. still works and I get no unwanted visitors from the smugmug homepage, and also given that my own website has webcrawler detterent metadata then I shouldn't get any unwated visitors from search engines.
I've tried to figure out the URL required to pass in the password but can't seem to get it working. Anyone on the support/development team be able to tell me if this is possible?
AS you may have seem from earlier posts on this thread, the privacy-issue has been one of my hot buttons with Smugmug. The lack of movement from Smugmug on this issue for almost a year (at least from I've seen) is probably a good indication that they are not planning/willing to do anything about it. And it's really sad.
I've come up with a mediocre way to at least make it inconvenient for people to browse my site whether they come from Smugmug's global search or Google's result page.
I insert the following code in my Javascript customization page:
This code simply redirects the user to Smugmug's main page if they are coming from either Smugmug's search page (or any generic Smugmug page other than the login) or from Google.
It's not great and has LOTS of limitations including a bug where the Javascript doesn't run when you click on an album from the search results (but it goes to your album with all your customizations!). OneThumb and the Smugmug team really need to make privacy a priority and fix it. Make the albums "Private" destroys a lot of what makes Smugmug so great. I've been tempted to create a survey thread to see how people like myself and others on this thread feel about this issue. Could that help persuade them???
AS you may have seem from earlier posts on this thread, the privacy-issue has been one of my hot buttons with Smugmug. The lack of movement from Smugmug on this issue for almost a year (at least from I've seen) is probably a good indication that they are not planning/willing to do anything about it. And it's really sad.
Hi jberd,
You've no indication of this whatsoever. The last communications from Onethumb on the subject are that he'd really like to be able to make something like this happen, if it were possible. It's not a dead issue, in any way, shape or form, at all. Is this thread long in the tooth? Yeah. It is. Don's been clear on this, and so I will be, too: we take your input from here on Dgrin, but it's not the only factor that goes into our business decisions. This would be a nice feature to make happen, I'd love to see it. But the truth is, we've heard from a relatively very few folks about this, versus our entire customer base. And, there exists ways today to ensure that your photos are not found by Google. Yes, we know that you want your cake and to eat it, too - and therein lies the hard part.
SmugMug is growing dramatically - and with that comes some complexity, too. I'm certain that this is not a trivial task - and so we ask your continued patience while Onethumb decides how, and if, this can be done.
I've come up with a mediocre way to at least make it inconvenient for people to browse my site whether they come from Smugmug's global search or Google's result page.
I insert the following code in my Javascript customization page:
This code simply redirects the user to Smugmug's main page if they are coming from either Smugmug's search page (or any generic Smugmug page other than the login) or from Google.
It's not great and has LOTS of limitations including a bug where the Javascript doesn't run when you click on an album from the search results (but it goes to your album with all your customizations!). OneThumb and the Smugmug team really need to make privacy a priority and fix it. Make the albums "Private" destroys a lot of what makes Smugmug so great. I've been tempted to create a survey thread to see how people like myself and others on this thread feel about this issue. Could that help persuade them???
Thanks for the javascript hack - that's wonderful! Of course, you're welcome to make a survey thread, this forum is for you, our customers. Have at it, we'd very much like to see the responses.
sooo...
In regards to my post above... does anyone know what exact URL I could use to link from my own site hosted elsewhere into my smugmug gallery without my visitors ahving to type in the account password?
I am beating a dead horse apparently, but privacy only recently became an issue with my photos. So I found this thread when doing a search for privacy problems like the one I detail below.
"The account password protection seems like a pretty good choice. That is, if it actually does keep pictures from showing up in Google as it should. Does it do this? It seems like there are conflicting reports here. What is the point of this option if it doesn't protect from search engines?"
I am also very concerned about the lack of privacy. Right now, I don't mind giving examples, but I have not uploaded any more photos after I learned about the keyword-search loophole in privacy. Here is my example:
In other words, these photos are not private at all unless I strip out all keywords. Seeing as I'm using smugmug to document family photos from 1965 to present, and family spanning the globe, loss of keyword search capability would make smugmug useless to me. In fact, the keyword search was the draw to smugmug to me in first place.
I am beating a dead horse apparently, but privacy only recently became an issue with my photos. So I found this thread when doing a search for privacy problems like the one I detail below.
"The account password protection seems like a pretty good choice. That is, if it actually does keep pictures from showing up in Google as it should. Does it do this? It seems like there are conflicting reports here. What is the point of this option if it doesn't protect from search engines?"
I am also very concerned about the lack of privacy. Right now, I don't mind giving examples, but I have not uploaded any more photos after I learned about the keyword-search loophole in privacy. Here is my example:
In other words, these photos are not private at all unless I strip out all keywords. Seeing as I'm using smugmug to document family photos from 1965 to present, and family spanning the globe, loss of keyword search capability would make smugmug useless to me. In fact, the keyword search was the draw to smugmug to me in first place.
Please help.
Sara
The Good News is: This is a bug.
The Bad News is: This is a bug.
Once we fix the bug, those keywords will cease to exist. They should not work inside of Passworded or Private galleries.
I know this is an emotional issue, and one I give a lot of thought, but what everyone is asking me to do (and everyone seems to have a slightly different idea of what they want) is nearly impossible.
I can't allow you to search for keywords inside of passworded galleries because that defeats the purpose of those passworded galleries. The resulting image set would look like a bunch of locks, with no idea what each photo is.
Not to mention the technical difficulty involved in doing some sort of a search if they had already entered a matching password for some of the photos - that's nearly impossible from a technical point of view.
I'm trying to come up with some way to make this work but so far it's proven impossible. I'm truly sorry I can't please everyone - but Private means Private and Passworded means Passworded. We can't allow searching within those galleries because that defeats the very purpose.
I can't allow you to search for keywords inside of passworded galleries because that defeats the purpose of those passworded galleries. The resulting image set would look like a bunch of locks, with no idea what each photo is.
Not to mention the technical difficulty involved in doing some sort of a search if they had already entered a matching password for some of the photos - that's nearly impossible from a technical point of view.
How about implementing separate views for keywords on a per-gallery basis? A URL like something.smugmug.com/gallery/2354235/keyword would list the keywords of a private gallery and a passworded gallery as well if the user enters the password.
Then you could also provide a separate option to opt out of the public smugmug listings on a per-gallery basis. Public would then mean publicly visible at the user's subdomain only. I mean, when browsing smugmug, who really wants to see some stranger's snapshots of grandpa Irving at the family barbecue?
I'd love to offer keyworded proofs for clients privately but currently this is not possible. Also my keyword "cloud" is full kart racing specific keywords which I'd like to limit to inside a gallery or category perhaps.
A lot of info: Questions:
So, in the current state of Smugmug...
...what do you exactly need to do (or not do) if you want this for a gallery:
1-. Your account does not have a password:
2-. Your gallery must not be searchable by any search engine.
3-. Direct links to photos in that gallery should not render. E.g. http://www.smugmug.com/photos/12343546-L.jpg should render nothing or some dummy-picture if '12343546' is inside a protected/private gallery.
4-. Direct link to gallery (e.g. http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1234567) must not show anything or a password-screen.
5-. Do keywords/captions/gallery-description in the gallery provide a back-door to search engines?
What happens if....?
...a Smugmug gallery owner (1) password protects his/her entire site; (2) and provides the password to friends and family so they can view the galleries; and (3) removes the password lock just long enough to do whatever keyword search he/she needs to perform on an ad hoc basis; then (4) resets the site-wide password immediately after completing the keyword search??
Does the "exposure" to Google searches last only as long as the site is unprotected by the password, or does the keyword search itself cause Google to crawl and cache the keyword contents for subsequent ("unauthorized") searches, even after the site is locked-up again with a password?
Since I am not a geek, I'm certain this is not a geek-approved solution (it's more of a workaround than a solution), and it's certainly not "elegant"...but will it "work"?... would it give me, and others like me (who want the functionality of keywords, but do not want anyone other than invited friends and family to view my galleries) some measure of privacy/security and functionality beyond what is currently offered?
Still hoping for a long-term "fix", but somewhat desperate for a short-term substitute. Papajay.
Once we fix the bug, those keywords will cease to exist. They should not work inside of Passworded or Private galleries.
I know this is an emotional issue, and one I give a lot of thought, but what everyone is asking me to do (and everyone seems to have a slightly different idea of what they want) is nearly impossible.
I can't allow you to search for keywords inside of passworded galleries because that defeats the purpose of those passworded galleries. The resulting image set would look like a bunch of locks, with no idea what each photo is.
Not to mention the technical difficulty involved in doing some sort of a search if they had already entered a matching password for some of the photos - that's nearly impossible from a technical point of view.
I'm trying to come up with some way to make this work but so far it's proven impossible. I'm truly sorry I can't please everyone - but Private means Private and Passworded means Passworded. We can't allow searching within those galleries because that defeats the very purpose.
Don
Don, following on from my other thread about this issue, as you know I have the same concerns on this matter. You have referred to keywords (or searching) in passworded or private galleries, but don't seem to mention keywords in a password protected site. Obviously these are two completely different things & the fact that you have only mentioned the gallery & not the account level password issue is the main reason that I spent hours re-keywording all my photos & galleries.
I am pleased to see that I am not alone in wanting to see a change, but I also see that this is unlikely to happen.
Does the "exposure" to Google searches last only as long as the site is unprotected by the password, or does the keyword search itself cause Google to crawl and cache the keyword contents for subsequent ("unauthorized") searches, even after the site is locked-up again with a password?
It is the presence of the smugmug keyword index that provides Google a crawling path into a passworded Smugmug account. If you are using keywords, then you are exposed to Google crawling (whether you have set a smugmug password or not). Smugmug's keyword index is not shielded by setting a password. Then once Google has discovered the direct URL's to your photos, they become accessible to the world by Google searches (regardless of whether you have set a smugmug password). This is the "backdoor" that has been mentioned before.
Without knowing the inner workings of the site, we can all only guess. To me, for example, it would seem like you would just want to set up a parallel set of keywords called 'private keywords' that are explicitly only set up to work within a single user's site. You could provide simple functions to copy the keywords back and forth between private/public sets, or just switch them automatically based on whether 'private' is on for that gallery.
If you are using keywords, then you are exposed to Google crawling (whether you have set a smugmug password or not). Smugmug's keyword index is not shielded by setting a password. Then once Google has discovered the direct URL's to your photos, they become accessible to the world by Google searches (regardless of whether you have set a smugmug password). This is the "backdoor" that has been mentioned before.
ARGHHH!!!! Now I really want to cry! It's an even worse situation than I first thought...a virtual 2x4 across the bridge of the nose.
Thanks for the explanation, though, gblotter. At least I now understand how totally compromised anything I thought was "protected" isn't. The "neatest" functionality of Smugmug that first caught my attention was the ability to use keywords to readily search my photos...how utterly disappointing it is to now know that I don't dare use it. Papajay
I agree completely - thinking about leaving smugmug over this as well
This is EXACTLY what I had asked smugmug support about just the other day....
I want to be able to have my photos private and not searchable/viewable by the general public BUT I LOVE THE KEYWORDS feature. So, being able to make my pictures private but not having the keywords for those "invited" to see my pictures stinks.
Just wanted to pass along thoughts that WE NEED THIS PLEASE
I've set up a front end site that links to my smugmug at this point but it's not the ideal scenario.
Thanks -- Tamara
Don, thank you for looking at this. This issue is the one reason I am considering leaving Smugmug. I can't have my family's photos searchable by Google or any other sites on the web. I've never liked the fact that I have no control over that. The new keywords feature is cool, except that it was turned on without me knowing about it and it got my Smugmug site indexed by Google using my last name.
Now all anyone needs to do to see my family's private photos is to Google me. I'm not happy about that at all. I'd love to see a global setting that allows me to control whether Google and other search engines can index my galleries.
In the mean time, is there a way for me to change Smugmug usernames without having my old URL point to my new one?
Can someone recommend an alternate to Smugmug that is feature-rich AND has better privacy support? I don't mind paying for the service (as I do now with Smugmug). I like Smugmug but to me they seem to be all over the map when it comes to selection of features to implement and bugs to fix...
This is EXACTLY what I had asked smugmug support about just the other day....
I want to be able to have my photos private and not searchable/viewable by the general public BUT I LOVE THE KEYWORDS feature. So, being able to make my pictures private but not having the keywords for those "invited" to see my pictures stinks.
Just wanted to pass along thoughts that WE NEED THIS PLEASE
I've set up a front end site that links to my smugmug at this point but it's not the ideal scenario.
Thanks -- Tamara
Can someone recommend an alternate to Smugmug that is feature-rich AND has better privacy support? I don't mind paying for the service (as I do now with Smugmug). I like Smugmug but to me they seem to be all over the map when it comes to selection of features to implement and bugs to fix...
-J
Look we know it's important to you. But the difficulties have been explained. And the genuine desire to satisfy everyone as best as possible is there. I'm not sure what you mean by "all over the map" but I'll go with "they're not making this one happen yet..." - unless you could clarify? It would really help us.
You've no indication of this whatsoever. The last communications from Onethumb on the subject are that he'd really like to be able to make something like this happen, if it were possible.
Possibility is relative. Can it happen? Absolutely. Can it happen in the meaningfull time frame with the current resources? Not sure. But it should.
It's not a dead issue, in any way, shape or form, at all. Is this thread long in the tooth? Yeah. It is. Don's been clear on this, and so I will be, too: we take your input from here on Dgrin, but it's not the only factor that goes into our business decisions. This would be a nice feature to make happen, I'd love to see it. But the truth is, we've heard from a relatively very few folks about this, versus our entire customer base.
That comment I have a very hard time believeing. Because you want not have 'heard' from a large enough number of customers about an issue does not mean that they don't exist. It's a statistic based on how many users you have using the service in a certain manner that expect certain security , know and understand the issues, and take the time to bring them up.
For example, take all your standard and power user accounts that are not in any communities and do not have share groups or friends/families (i.e. they do not cross-link) and multiply it by a fraction. This fraction would be the percentage of users that would expect more privacy than is actually available without locking down their site/galleries and making Smugmug much less appealing. I'm sure you would come up with a fairly large number. Has this ever been polled from your user base?
We surveyed our entire customer base in the nov/december 05 timeframe. This issue was waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list in terms of # of people who brought it up. Like, orders of magnitude smaller. It does not mean that it's not important to you, and others, but our customers told us in no uncertain terms they want more themes, more display options, better image compression, more and easier organization tools, more print options (products), and a few pro-related features. Very, very few told us about searching keywords in private galleries.
We surveyed our entire customer base in the nov/december 05 timeframe. This issue was waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list in terms of # of people who brought it up. Like, orders of magnitude smaller. It does not mean that it's not important to you, and others, but our customers told us in no uncertain terms they want more themes, more display options, better image compression, more and easier organization tools, more print options (products), and a few pro-related features. Very, very few told us about searching keywords in private galleries.
What about features like date searching in private galleries? That would be a wonderful feature to have. I am sure I don't understand how the security is implemented as SM but features should not be tied to security. Security should only be who/what is allowed to interface with that system and view those galleries/ images.
It appears however that choosing to make a gallery "private"(*) means we lose really useful features. Could we fix this problem?
(To remind everyone, "private" only means that it doesn't show up on your main page. This provides no security and anyone can still get to all of your pictures at will.)
Secuirty Issue
Can someone tell me if this issue has been resolved or not? or in other words, can someone tell me for sure, that if I have a password protected gallery or password protect site, then the pictures are really private and CANNOT be found by any search engine, etc? Thanks Amarpreet
Can someone tell me if this issue has been resolved or not? or in other words, can someone tell me for sure, that if I have a password protected gallery or password protect site, then the pictures are really private and CANNOT be found by any search engine, etc?
With recent changes made to smugmug, keywords are now disabled for password-protected accounts, password-protected galleries, and private galleries. Therefore the keyword index does not exist for search engine crawling. Backdoor access is closed.
Very, very few told us about searching keywords in private galleries.
Morning
I just feel like replying on this old thread ... Me too I was SO! excited to finally have a photo archive with tags and keyword search ... what a disappointment when those features disappeared once I added a password to my galleries :cry
We surveyed our entire customer base in the nov/december 05 timeframe. This issue was waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list in terms of # of people who brought it up. Like, orders of magnitude smaller.
*sigh*:cry alas... another moot:deadhorse "ME TOO". Having just signed up, loving it, buying it for a friend, and then only to realize the fatal flaw, and reconsidering suggesting it to other friends.
Alas #2... I guess I will just have to wait for the next "survey", and make sure I'm counted. :-D
Ok, sorry about this newbie finding the "more emoticons" button.
I just feel like replying on this old thread ... Me too I was SO! excited to finally have a photo archive with tags and keyword search ... what a disappointment when those features disappeared once I added a password to my galleries :cry
Is there hope to see them added at some point ?
Thanks,
McGil
Well, ME TOO.
I would like the password protected galleries, to have them available separatelly... I'm sorry for that.
Comments
-Shaun
Ok so I think I might have a workaround for this security debacle. In my case I have my own domain hosted elsewhere which the bulk of my website is hosted on, except of course the photo gallery. I'm a smugmug power user so the entire account is fully customised so other than the small 'powered by..' link at the bottom of each page most of my non-technical family wouldn't even realise that there are two hosts involved in serving up my entire website, I assume a vast number of power users on smugmug may have a similar setup.
So, im thinking i can...
1. Set a password on my smugmug account. (yes, the account not individual galleries. Note also that all my galleries are set to public.
2. On the link from my own website add the account password into the URL so users going from my website across to my smugmug account do not need to enter a password.
Therefore all keyword functionality etc. still works and I get no unwanted visitors from the smugmug homepage, and also given that my own website has webcrawler detterent metadata then I shouldn't get any unwated visitors from search engines.
I've tried to figure out the URL required to pass in the password but can't seem to get it working. Anyone on the support/development team be able to tell me if this is possible?
Thanks,
Greg
-Shaun
I don't think what you're attempting to do will keep your galleries private. I think if you use keywords, someone will be able to get onto your pages through a keyword search, even though they could not get on through your smugmug home page. I could be wrong, but try it yourself by searching for your keywords when you are not logged on to your site.
And, I think you're pages with keywords on them may be indexed by web search engines such as Google.
If you don't use keywords, you should be fine with an account password (and there probably is no need for the extra level of using your other website).
Steve
I've come up with a mediocre way to at least make it inconvenient for people to browse my site whether they come from Smugmug's global search or Google's result page.
I insert the following code in my Javascript customization page:
if((document.referrer.indexOf("www.smugmug") >= 0 &&
document.referrer.indexOf("login.mg") < 0) ||
document.referrer.indexOf("google.com") >= 0)
{
location.href = "http://www.smugmug.com";
}
This code simply redirects the user to Smugmug's main page if they are coming from either Smugmug's search page (or any generic Smugmug page other than the login) or from Google.
It's not great and has LOTS of limitations including a bug where the Javascript doesn't run when you click on an album from the search results (but it goes to your album with all your customizations!). OneThumb and the Smugmug team really need to make privacy a priority and fix it. Make the albums "Private" destroys a lot of what makes Smugmug so great. I've been tempted to create a survey thread to see how people like myself and others on this thread feel about this issue. Could that help persuade them???
You've no indication of this whatsoever. The last communications from Onethumb on the subject are that he'd really like to be able to make something like this happen, if it were possible. It's not a dead issue, in any way, shape or form, at all. Is this thread long in the tooth? Yeah. It is. Don's been clear on this, and so I will be, too: we take your input from here on Dgrin, but it's not the only factor that goes into our business decisions. This would be a nice feature to make happen, I'd love to see it. But the truth is, we've heard from a relatively very few folks about this, versus our entire customer base. And, there exists ways today to ensure that your photos are not found by Google. Yes, we know that you want your cake and to eat it, too - and therein lies the hard part.
SmugMug is growing dramatically - and with that comes some complexity, too. I'm certain that this is not a trivial task - and so we ask your continued patience while Onethumb decides how, and if, this can be done.
Thanks for the javascript hack - that's wonderful! Of course, you're welcome to make a survey thread, this forum is for you, our customers. Have at it, we'd very much like to see the responses.
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In regards to my post above... does anyone know what exact URL I could use to link from my own site hosted elsewhere into my smugmug gallery without my visitors ahving to type in the account password?
eg... xxx.smugmug.com/login?user=xxx&pass=xxx
"The account password protection seems like a pretty good choice. That is, if it actually does keep pictures from showing up in Google as it should. Does it do this? It seems like there are conflicting reports here. What is the point of this option if it doesn't protect from search engines?"
I am also very concerned about the lack of privacy. Right now, I don't mind giving examples, but I have not uploaded any more photos after I learned about the keyword-search loophole in privacy. Here is my example:
My entire smug-mug account is password protected. See here:
http://sara-la.smugmug.com/
However, I can google a specific photo out of my password protected smugmug site above. See this search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22sara+la%22+%22chris+scarborough%22&btnG=Search
The first hit on the google search points to a keyword search in my password protected smugmug site. This is the result:
http://sara-la.smugmug.com/keyword/sara%20la
In other words, these photos are not private at all unless I strip out all keywords. Seeing as I'm using smugmug to document family photos from 1965 to present, and family spanning the globe, loss of keyword search capability would make smugmug useless to me. In fact, the keyword search was the draw to smugmug to me in first place.
Please help.
Sara
The Good News is: This is a bug.
The Bad News is: This is a bug.
Once we fix the bug, those keywords will cease to exist. They should not work inside of Passworded or Private galleries.
I know this is an emotional issue, and one I give a lot of thought, but what everyone is asking me to do (and everyone seems to have a slightly different idea of what they want) is nearly impossible.
I can't allow you to search for keywords inside of passworded galleries because that defeats the purpose of those passworded galleries. The resulting image set would look like a bunch of locks, with no idea what each photo is.
Not to mention the technical difficulty involved in doing some sort of a search if they had already entered a matching password for some of the photos - that's nearly impossible from a technical point of view.
I'm trying to come up with some way to make this work but so far it's proven impossible. I'm truly sorry I can't please everyone - but Private means Private and Passworded means Passworded. We can't allow searching within those galleries because that defeats the very purpose.
Don
How about implementing separate views for keywords on a per-gallery basis? A URL like something.smugmug.com/gallery/2354235/keyword would list the keywords of a private gallery and a passworded gallery as well if the user enters the password.
Then you could also provide a separate option to opt out of the public smugmug listings on a per-gallery basis. Public would then mean publicly visible at the user's subdomain only. I mean, when browsing smugmug, who really wants to see some stranger's snapshots of grandpa Irving at the family barbecue?
I'd love to offer keyworded proofs for clients privately but currently this is not possible. Also my keyword "cloud" is full kart racing specific keywords which I'd like to limit to inside a gallery or category perhaps.
So, in the current state of Smugmug...
...what do you exactly need to do (or not do) if you want this for a gallery:
1-. Your account does not have a password:
2-. Your gallery must not be searchable by any search engine.
3-. Direct links to photos in that gallery should not render. E.g. http://www.smugmug.com/photos/12343546-L.jpg should render nothing or some dummy-picture if '12343546' is inside a protected/private gallery.
4-. Direct link to gallery (e.g. http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1234567) must not show anything or a password-screen.
5-. Do keywords/captions/gallery-description in the gallery provide a back-door to search engines?
When I hear the earth will melt into the sun,
in two billion years,
all I can think is:
"Will that be on a Monday?"
==========================
http://www.streetsofboston.com
http://blog.antonspaans.com
...a Smugmug gallery owner (1) password protects his/her entire site; (2) and provides the password to friends and family so they can view the galleries; and (3) removes the password lock just long enough to do whatever keyword search he/she needs to perform on an ad hoc basis; then (4) resets the site-wide password immediately after completing the keyword search??
Does the "exposure" to Google searches last only as long as the site is unprotected by the password, or does the keyword search itself cause Google to crawl and cache the keyword contents for subsequent ("unauthorized") searches, even after the site is locked-up again with a password?
Since I am not a geek, I'm certain this is not a geek-approved solution (it's more of a workaround than a solution), and it's certainly not "elegant"...but will it "work"?... would it give me, and others like me (who want the functionality of keywords, but do not want anyone other than invited friends and family to view my galleries) some measure of privacy/security and functionality beyond what is currently offered?
Still hoping for a long-term "fix", but somewhat desperate for a short-term substitute. Papajay.
Don, following on from my other thread about this issue, as you know I have the same concerns on this matter. You have referred to keywords (or searching) in passworded or private galleries, but don't seem to mention keywords in a password protected site. Obviously these are two completely different things & the fact that you have only mentioned the gallery & not the account level password issue is the main reason that I spent hours re-keywording all my photos & galleries.
I am pleased to see that I am not alone in wanting to see a change, but I also see that this is unlikely to happen.
It is the presence of the smugmug keyword index that provides Google a crawling path into a passworded Smugmug account. If you are using keywords, then you are exposed to Google crawling (whether you have set a smugmug password or not). Smugmug's keyword index is not shielded by setting a password. Then once Google has discovered the direct URL's to your photos, they become accessible to the world by Google searches (regardless of whether you have set a smugmug password). This is the "backdoor" that has been mentioned before.
ARGHHH!!!! Now I really want to cry! It's an even worse situation than I first thought...a virtual 2x4 across the bridge of the nose.
Thanks for the explanation, though, gblotter. At least I now understand how totally compromised anything I thought was "protected" isn't. The "neatest" functionality of Smugmug that first caught my attention was the ability to use keywords to readily search my photos...how utterly disappointing it is to now know that I don't dare use it. Papajay
This is EXACTLY what I had asked smugmug support about just the other day....
I want to be able to have my photos private and not searchable/viewable by the general public BUT I LOVE THE KEYWORDS feature. So, being able to make my pictures private but not having the keywords for those "invited" to see my pictures stinks.
Just wanted to pass along thoughts that WE NEED THIS PLEASE
I've set up a front end site that links to my smugmug at this point but it's not the ideal scenario.
Thanks -- Tamara
-J
Look we know it's important to you. But the difficulties have been explained. And the genuine desire to satisfy everyone as best as possible is there. I'm not sure what you mean by "all over the map" but I'll go with "they're not making this one happen yet..." - unless you could clarify? It would really help us.
Many thanks...
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I like these discussions
Possibility is relative. Can it happen? Absolutely. Can it happen in the meaningfull time frame with the current resources? Not sure. But it should.
That comment I have a very hard time believeing. Because you want not have 'heard' from a large enough number of customers about an issue does not mean that they don't exist. It's a statistic based on how many users you have using the service in a certain manner that expect certain security , know and understand the issues, and take the time to bring them up.
For example, take all your standard and power user accounts that are not in any communities and do not have share groups or friends/families (i.e. they do not cross-link) and multiply it by a fraction. This fraction would be the percentage of users that would expect more privacy than is actually available without locking down their site/galleries and making Smugmug much less appealing. I'm sure you would come up with a fairly large number. Has this ever been polled from your user base?
-J
We surveyed our entire customer base in the nov/december 05 timeframe. This issue was waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list in terms of # of people who brought it up. Like, orders of magnitude smaller. It does not mean that it's not important to you, and others, but our customers told us in no uncertain terms they want more themes, more display options, better image compression, more and easier organization tools, more print options (products), and a few pro-related features. Very, very few told us about searching keywords in private galleries.
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What about features like date searching in private galleries? That would be a wonderful feature to have. I am sure I don't understand how the security is implemented as SM but features should not be tied to security. Security should only be who/what is allowed to interface with that system and view those galleries/ images.
It appears however that choosing to make a gallery "private"(*) means we lose really useful features. Could we fix this problem?
(To remind everyone, "private" only means that it doesn't show up on your main page. This provides no security and anyone can still get to all of your pictures at will.)
Thanks,
smugmug nickname: mpmcleod
http://www.michaelmcleod.com/
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=303819#post303819
is somehow related to the matter discussed here.
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Can someone tell me if this issue has been resolved or not? or in other words, can someone tell me for sure, that if I have a password protected gallery or password protect site, then the pictures are really private and CANNOT be found by any search engine, etc? Thanks Amarpreet
Morning
I just feel like replying on this old thread ... Me too I was SO! excited to finally have a photo archive with tags and keyword search ... what a disappointment when those features disappeared once I added a password to my galleries :cry
Is there hope to see them added at some point ?
Thanks,
McGil
Alas #2... I guess I will just have to wait for the next "survey", and make sure I'm counted.
Ok, sorry about this newbie finding the "more emoticons" button.
!T! Timmie!
I would like the password protected galleries, to have them available separatelly... I'm sorry for that.