Comments for Sebastian's Pamphlets http://sebastians-pamphlets.com If you've read my articles somewhere on the Internet, expect something different here. Fri, 09 May 2008 23:22:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 Comment on Nofollow still means don’t follow, and how to instruct Google to crawl nofollow’ed links nevertheless by Sunday SEO / Search Supplemental Week 14 « SEO Company | North South Media http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/how-to-dynamically-change-nofollow-to-dofollow/#comment-1309 Sunday SEO / Search Supplemental Week 14 « SEO Company | North South Media Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:49:04 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/how-to-dynamically-change-nofollow-to-dofollow/#comment-1309 [...] I use SEO for Firefox to highlight nofollowed links but as Sebastian showed us all you can even fool plugins and CSS with a cool piece of Javascript (I know Sebastian’s post was not put up in the last week but it is useful to know that these [...]

[…] I use SEO for Firefox to highlight nofollowed links but as Sebastian showed us all you can even fool plugins and CSS with a cool piece of Javascript (I know Sebastian’s post was not put up in the last week but it is useful to know that these […]

]]> Comment on Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy by Kenpachi http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1304 Kenpachi Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:29:21 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1304 Awesome article! I was recently having issues with my site and Google Sitemaps, Googlebot kept encoutering 302 redirect errors. After some reearch I found that google expects your urls in the sitemap to end with a trailing slash. End story was I had to recode a few parts, and I had to add a slash to the end of every url, since I make heavy use of URL re-writing. I was about to look for a way to make my site "look cool" by having an option for a non-trailing urls, but your article straightened me out :) Awesome article! I was recently having issues with my site and Google Sitemaps, Googlebot kept encoutering 302 redirect errors. After some reearch I found that google expects your urls in the sitemap to end with a trailing slash.

End story was I had to recode a few parts, and I had to add a slash to the end of every url, since I make heavy use of URL re-writing. I was about to look for a way to make my site “look cool” by having an option for a non-trailing urls, but your article straightened me out :)

]]> Comment on Fraud from the desk of Sebastian Foss by Gill Miller [nee Guest] http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/fraud-from-the-desk-of-sebastian-foss/#comment-1303 Gill Miller [nee Guest] Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:55:01 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/fraud-from-the-desk-of-sebastian-foss/#comment-1303 This man is a CON MAN some months ago i paid him money for information to earn money. The information was rubbish and didn't work. I asked for my money back which Sebastian Foss offered in a 'money back offer' but had no reply to numerous emails. I am still being bombarded with his junk mail offering yet more get quick schemes. THE MAN IS A THIEF AND A CON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This man is a CON MAN some months ago i paid him money for information to earn money. The information was rubbish and didn’t work. I asked for my money back which Sebastian Foss offered in a ‘money back offer’ but had no reply to numerous emails.

I am still being bombarded with his junk mail offering yet more get quick schemes.

THE MAN IS A THIEF AND A CON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

]]> Comment on Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy by Matt N http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1298 Matt N Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:35:10 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1298 Yeah there is a lot of misunderstanding about URI's when it comes to this department. This W3C document helped me a lot: http://www.w3.org/TR/chips/#uri The thing that stands out to me most (and what most people misunderstand about URI's because of Apache's default configuration) is that a URI IS NOT a filesystem. Apache uses that as a convenient default because it's a 'quick and dirty' way to map URI's to resources on the filesystem. Apache provides many methods for making this mapping other than the filesystem. Modules such as mod_alias, mod_rewrite and mod_negotiation (as well as many others) are much more advanced methods of configuring your server for mapping URI's to resources on the filesystem. The 'redirects that the server does automatically' involving trailing slashes with URI's is actually due to an Apache module called mod_speling. This module is activated in Apache's default install and is one of the causes of this confusion! Yeah there is a lot of misunderstanding about URI’s when it comes to this department. This W3C document helped me a lot:

http://www.w3.org/TR/chips/#uri

The thing that stands out to me most (and what most people misunderstand about URI’s because of Apache’s default configuration) is that a URI IS NOT a filesystem. Apache uses that as a convenient default because it’s a ‘quick and dirty’ way to map URI’s to resources on the filesystem. Apache provides many methods for making this mapping other than the filesystem. Modules such as mod_alias, mod_rewrite and mod_negotiation (as well as many others) are much more advanced methods of configuring your server for mapping URI’s to resources on the filesystem.

The ‘redirects that the server does automatically’ involving trailing slashes with URI’s is actually due to an Apache module called mod_speling. This module is activated in Apache’s default install and is one of the causes of this confusion!

]]> Comment on How to fuck up click tracking with the JavaScript onclick trigger by How to Act Like an SEO Expert: Four mistakes to avoid when performing SEO experiments http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/how-to-turn-click-tracking-into-miserable-failure/#comment-1284 How to Act Like an SEO Expert: Four mistakes to avoid when performing SEO experiments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:57:43 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/how-to-turn-click-tracking-into-miserable-failure/#comment-1284 [...] For instance, years ago search engine crawlers did not follow links embedded in JavaScript, but recent experiments have proven that at least Google does follow the less intricate [...] […] For instance, years ago search engine crawlers did not follow links embedded in JavaScript, but recent experiments have proven that at least Google does follow the less intricate […]

]]> Comment on Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy by Sebastian http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1282 Sebastian Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:23:16 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1282 Tristan, seems you're right, I don't consider developers plain users. As for users navigating the Web in the browser address bar, well, search engines do a great job leading type-in queries to the best matching result, or a SERP. That's a great and useful layer between humans and URIs, and it should get improved further, beyond autocomplete, ajax'ed suggestions and such neat stuff. I strongly believe that users shouldn't deal with URIs at all, I mean that's why we've links with meaningful anchor text. But as long as I can't click a link on my telly or on a placard, type-in traffic exists, albeit it lands at quite exotic and unrelated destinations in many cases. The challenge for developers is to keep users away from URIs wherever possible. Tristan, seems you’re right, I don’t consider developers plain users. As for users navigating the Web in the browser address bar, well, search engines do a great job leading type-in queries to the best matching result, or a SERP. That’s a great and useful layer between humans and URIs, and it should get improved further, beyond autocomplete, ajax’ed suggestions and such neat stuff.

I strongly believe that users shouldn’t deal with URIs at all, I mean that’s why we’ve links with meaningful anchor text. But as long as I can’t click a link on my telly or on a placard, type-in traffic exists, albeit it lands at quite exotic and unrelated destinations in many cases. The challenge for developers is to keep users away from URIs wherever possible.

]]> Comment on Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy by Tristan http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1281 Tristan Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:53:57 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1281 I think our problem here is that we're talking about different things. I'm talking about users typing in URIs and you're talking about links and references created by developers or applications. From a user's point of view when typing the URI the slash is meaningless (since the content is the same in 99% of cases) and that will never change, nor should it ever, since it's in a server's best interest to allow both. From a machine's perspective, it's best to have a single canonical URI. Thus, redirects for the users and slashes for the machines. Best of both worlds. So, we were on completely different tracks... sorry for the confusion, I thought it was clear I was talking about users. But if you go back to what you wrote here.... "Tristan, when a user has to see an URI (on the Interweb) and can click it, it should be the canonical URI. If a user has to read or hear an URI (elsewhere) and is supposed to remember it, it should be as short as possible. The machines populating todays Web aren’t smart enough to deal with “offline inputs”." --- That I agree with completely and let's leave it at that. I was just interested in discussing deeper issues of human-centric issues around URI and their "correct" behavior, but apparently you aren't. I think our problem here is that we’re talking about different things. I’m talking about users typing in URIs and you’re talking about links and references created by developers or applications. From a user’s point of view when typing the URI the slash is meaningless (since the content is the same in 99% of cases) and that will never change, nor should it ever, since it’s in a server’s best interest to allow both. From a machine’s perspective, it’s best to have a single canonical URI. Thus, redirects for the users and slashes for the machines. Best of both worlds.

So, we were on completely different tracks… sorry for the confusion, I thought it was clear I was talking about users.

But if you go back to what you wrote here…. “Tristan, when a user has to see an URI (on the Interweb) and can click it, it should be the canonical URI. If a user has to read or hear an URI (elsewhere) and is supposed to remember it, it should be as short as possible. The machines populating todays Web aren’t smart enough to deal with “offline inputs”.”
— That I agree with completely and let’s leave it at that. I was just interested in discussing deeper issues of human-centric issues around URI and their “correct” behavior, but apparently you aren’t.

]]> Comment on Update your crawler detection: MSN/Live Search announces msnbot/1.1 by Sebastian http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/live-search-announces-msnbot-1-1/#comment-1280 Sebastian Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:07:38 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/live-search-announces-msnbot-1-1/#comment-1280 Yep Simon, they really could improve their browser optimization as well as their geo targeting. :) I ran in such funny error pages too, which --not providing an EN-US link-- without Google Translate in the toolbar would be totally useless in the language of the country they think my IP addy is assigned to. Yep Simon, they really could improve their browser optimization as well as their geo targeting. :) I ran in such funny error pages too, which –not providing an EN-US link– without Google Translate in the toolbar would be totally useless in the language of the country they think my IP addy is assigned to.

]]> Comment on Update your crawler detection: MSN/Live Search announces msnbot/1.1 by Simon http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/live-search-announces-msnbot-1-1/#comment-1279 Simon Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:54:51 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/live-search-announces-msnbot-1-1/#comment-1279 Thanks Sebastian - when I went looking for contact information the website claimed I wasn't running a current web browser ?! At which point I gave up, since the folk at live.com are clearly clue challenged with this web technology ;) Thanks Sebastian - when I went looking for contact information the website claimed I wasn’t running a current web browser ?! At which point I gave up, since the folk at live.com are clearly clue challenged with this web technology ;)

]]> Comment on Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy by Sebastian http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1278 Sebastian Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:29:01 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1278 Tristan, the phone number example totally makes sense, and that's the point you don't get. The trailing slash is part of the address. When you remove it in some cases you get different content, and in some cases you run in a redirect. A manipulated URI is like a different phone number. When you add a character to an URI, as you do with your additional digit, you will always run in a 404-Not found error on the Web. Adding stuff to URIs is as bad as truncating them in hyperlinks. With phone numbers of call centers your additional digit will be taken as input after the connection was established, so you can end up in a support queue instead of chatting with a sales rep. So the lesson is, don't play with addresses of any kind. Frankly, neither stealing the trailing slash from URIs nor adding or removing digits from phone numbers is "natural human behavior". It's a plain stupid error that kids learn to avoid in elementary school, if they didn't figure it out already by applying the trial-and-error method. In other words, in some cases folks just have to play by the rules, because they land nowhere otherwise - online as well as offline. I don't see a way to improve the current error handling in both cases (invalid URI / phone#), and there's absolutely no reason to encourage users to use incorrect respectively manipulated identifiers. BTW a directory URI request without trailing slash runs in a 404 internally before a well configured Web server recognizes that "the user is simply broken" and replies with a redirect header. "Machine-centric viewpoints" can save the human vistors time, and hassles. ;) Tristan, the phone number example totally makes sense, and that’s the point you don’t get. The trailing slash is part of the address. When you remove it in some cases you get different content, and in some cases you run in a redirect. A manipulated URI is like a different phone number. When you add a character to an URI, as you do with your additional digit, you will always run in a 404-Not found error on the Web. Adding stuff to URIs is as bad as truncating them in hyperlinks. With phone numbers of call centers your additional digit will be taken as input after the connection was established, so you can end up in a support queue instead of chatting with a sales rep. So the lesson is, don’t play with addresses of any kind. Frankly, neither stealing the trailing slash from URIs nor adding or removing digits from phone numbers is “natural human behavior”. It’s a plain stupid error that kids learn to avoid in elementary school, if they didn’t figure it out already by applying the trial-and-error method. In other words, in some cases folks just have to play by the rules, because they land nowhere otherwise - online as well as offline. I don’t see a way to improve the current error handling in both cases (invalid URI / phone#), and there’s absolutely no reason to encourage users to use incorrect respectively manipulated identifiers. BTW a directory URI request without trailing slash runs in a 404 internally before a well configured Web server recognizes that “the user is simply broken” and replies with a redirect header. “Machine-centric viewpoints” can save the human vistors time, and hassles. ;)

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