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Did you ever try passing one of those links to a colleague? They were doing some referrer-checking at one point - if you weren't coming from Google, you didn't

by Shog9 13y ago

Did you ever try passing one of those links to a colleague? They were doing some referrer-checking at one point - if you weren't coming from Google, you didn't get the answer.

JTon 13y ago
Oh really, I had no idea they were doing this. Any idea why?
- Hovertruck 13y ago
  Because Google wouldn't list them unless clicking the link revealed the answer, I believe.
- sp332 13y ago
  They did that for a while, but Google implemented a policy that what gets shown to the Googlebot has to be the same as what a user would actually see. EE got delisted from Google for violating that policy, and ever since then, they have the answer way at the bottom of the page no matter what.
  - slig 13y ago
    Too bad Google doesn't care anymore, or else they'd do the same to Quora.
    - criley2 13y ago
      Can we finally start calling Quora the spiritual successor to Experts Exchange? Because it is.
    - hrasyid 13y ago
      Quora contents tend to have bad search engine ranking, so probably Google still cares about that
    - alecsmart1 13y ago
      Just put ?share=1 at the end of any Quora link to view the full page without any login.
      - notatoad 13y ago
        better yet, just never link to or use quota. if they're going to be scummy, don't support them.
  - garethadams 13y ago
    Actually, no. Click through to this recently answered question from Google's search results[1] and scroll down to see the answer. Then open the resulting link[2] in an incognito tab and poof no answer [1]: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=experts+exchange+%22Trouble+with+Converting+Strings+to+Numbers%22 https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=experts+exchange+%22Troubl... [2]: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/JavaScript/Q_28241378.html http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Script...
  - dspillett 13y ago
    That had been Google's policy for some time, they just started enforcing it for a while. IIRC it was around the same time BMW and a couple of other big names were temporarily de-listed for keyword stuffing and similar shenanigans.
- rmc 13y ago
  Why did they do that? To make the site less useful unless you'd paid up. i.e. "to encourage you to pay".

by Shog9 13y ago

Did you ever try passing one of those links to a colleague? They were doing some referrer-checking at one point - if you weren't coming from Google, you didn't get the answer.

JTon 13y ago

Oh really, I had no idea they were doing this. Any idea why?

Hovertruck 13y ago
Because Google wouldn't list them unless clicking the link revealed the answer, I believe.
sp332 13y ago
They did that for a while, but Google implemented a policy that what gets shown to the Googlebot has to be the same as what a user would actually see. EE got delisted from Google for violating that policy, and ever since then, they have the answer way at the bottom of the page no matter what.
- slig 13y ago
  Too bad Google doesn't care anymore, or else they'd do the same to Quora.
  - criley2 13y ago
    Can we finally start calling Quora the spiritual successor to Experts Exchange? Because it is.
  - hrasyid 13y ago
    Quora contents tend to have bad search engine ranking, so probably Google still cares about that
  - alecsmart1 13y ago
    Just put ?share=1 at the end of any Quora link to view the full page without any login.
    - notatoad 13y ago
      better yet, just never link to or use quota. if they're going to be scummy, don't support them.
- garethadams 13y ago
  Actually, no. Click through to this recently answered question from Google's search results[1] and scroll down to see the answer. Then open the resulting link[2] in an incognito tab and poof no answer [1]: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=experts+exchange+%22Trouble+with+Converting+Strings+to+Numbers%22 https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=experts+exchange+%22Troubl... [2]: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/JavaScript/Q_28241378.html http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Script...
- dspillett 13y ago
  That had been Google's policy for some time, they just started enforcing it for a while. IIRC it was around the same time BMW and a couple of other big names were temporarily de-listed for keyword stuffing and similar shenanigans.
rmc 13y ago
Why did they do that? To make the site less useful unless you'd paid up. i.e. "to encourage you to pay".