"Do you think Google will ever start indexing CSS files? " why would they want to do that? Isn't that for formatting purposes?
Yes, it's mostly used for standardizing the layout of an entire or at least a portion of a web site, so that minor changes can be made and change the appearance of the whole site at once... But some people are realizing that a some things that they currently use javascripting for, like their navigational menus, aren't read by searchbots, and that they can make a navigational menu that looks nearly identical by using CSS, and if they use keyword-rich links within their navigational menu (i.e. Cordless Power Drills, Table saws, etc.), that these will be one more link to their internal pages that are getting spidered... unfortunately they also clutter up the actual html of a page, and if you have to change a link's name or destination for any reason, you'd have to change it on all web pages that currently have that nav-menu... it'd be nice if you could simply store it in an external file and have that file spidered as well... I'm fairly new to the whole SEO arena as well, I've been researching e-commerce possibilities for myself for the past couple of months now, and am currently reading up on SEO techniques and webdesign strategies, and have seen some very nice things that can be done using CSS... unfortunately, the whole purpose of CSS is to be able to store the settings externally so you can make maximum changes across your site with minimal editting, and in the case of a keyword-rich CSS nav-menu that you have stored externally, any optimizations you've built into it are invisible to searchbots because the CSS settings are built into your page on the client side of html processing... I suppose you could probably force an external style sheet to be spidered if you used some form of server side processing, like SSI's or whatnot... i haven't quite gotten that far in my research yet, so I'm not quite sure what server side possibilities would be feasible for inserting your CSS settings into an html document before passing it to the client in the first place... anyone feel like throwing me a bone here? Or correcting me if I've gotten my stuff wrong altogether? wavewave Vel.
Thee HTML would control the data (text etc...) for the nav, the CSS will only control what it looks like. Google would want to read CSS so they could see whether people are hiding text with it... display:none
I agree with SEOGuru 100% I am in the process of taking one of my companies public and the rules and regulations are enormous. Right now I can tell you with 100% certainty, once Google goes public they will no longer be able to sell AdWords without an independent council supervising the technology used. Why? Because Yahoo had the same issue. They were acused of rigging search engine results where businesses were screwed out of top rankings in order to make more businesses buy ads. Fortunately for Yahoo it was settled out of court before it got blown into the bublic. Once Google goes public is is open season for lawsuits and lawsuits are very expensive whe you are faced with 100s of them per month. In addition, Google IS ALREADY bullying the public by banning sites which have done NOTHING illegal and trying to dictate to the developers industry and webmasters how to design their sites. You watch and see. Once Google is public the real shit will start to fly because Google seems to ignore what yahoo went through and what M$ went through.
Hey Bro, I hate to break the news to you, but Google has been public for a month or so now. Go to www.nasdaq.com and pull a quote on "GOOG"
Oh, cool. have not been following it because their IPO was too expensive anyway. I am a penny stocks guy. It will be interesting to see what follows.
I just read this thread and I was amazed at how far off base the original poster is/was. I don't know about google becoming a penny stock, but still don't think they'll be able to keep the price above the ipo price after one year. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's going to tank, but I don't think it's going to be a gainer.
If you get a phone for a business, your name is automatically listed in the telephone directory, unless you request otherwise and pay to have it removed........ Why should google not be considered a parallel?
Well here is the deal, when Google introduces a browser, if in fact they do, they will replace the toolbar with a Google browser. You will also have applications like the "so-called Puffin hard drive search tool" built into the Google browser. You will have Google search built into the browser, G-mail Built into the browser, Orkut built into the browser, Google news and blog search built into the browser. So what will you need M$ for when Google introduces the browser (Google OS)? The trade off in using Google OS will be that they will know more about you than "Jo Momma".
Sounds good in practice, but if spyware laws and M$ come together, that is the end of the Google OS. If transmissions of page views to third parties are outlawed (I think M$ will work toward this), also if M$ places privacy controls that prevent transmissions of data to third parties in THEIR OS, both of these things could spell big trouble for Google. M$ could work with lawmakers (and will) to hurt Google if privacy laws are changed.
The way I understand the so-called Google OS to be is that it is nothing more than a web-application. The Google Browser would be akin to something like AOL's browser which will interface with Google products (search, gmail, blogger, froogle, etc.). Add in some Office-like products and you have an online OS so to speak. The desktop applications would (understandably) be the browser plus some tray items like gmail alert. Perhaps the browser will roll all of this into one and have the browser reside in the tray (just like the AOL browser does). The disk search is another animal altogether and will become defunct on the outset of Longhorn. MicroSoft will not be providing Google with the keys to this gate willingly for sure. As for MicroSoft teaming up with spyware lawmakers, dream on. Google will probably be leading that charge anyway by example, rather than lobbying Congress. They will set the tone (or bar) to be met. It will be a matter of not how sleazy you are, but how less sleazy you are. (Did we soon forget how MSN and Yahoo Search are mimicking the Google Search interface now.) Cutting off the transmission of data is an impossibility. If you do that, then all browsers will not function -- period. It is a two-way communication. Limiting the type of data an Html header will send, will be met with resistance by more people you can shake a stick at. Data that is sent for OS type, browser type, screen size, referral strings, and all of the other information that webmasters use daily will never be cut off. The actions of a slimey few, will not over-ride the rights of the many. If laws are changed to a more stricter form, then Google will adapt accordingly -- as will every other company out there, especially AOL and MicroSoft.
Dodger, Google working to make spyware laws is like the devil deciding who will spend time in hell with him. You are much smarter than that. Yahoo is the one offering the "anti-spy toolbar", not Google in case you missed that. Dodger, I said transmissions of "page views to THIRD PARTIES" just in case you misunderstood what I said. http://www.bizreport.com/news/8039/ That means, I go to your site and my browser communicates with your site, not some toolbar that sends data on our communication back to the toolbar or browser software company.
Where did I say that Google was going to be actively involved in enacting Anti-spyware laws. I said they would lead by example. So far, in my mind, they have been doing just that. I am also not aware of Google sending data to third-parties. If you have an example of that, show it. What third party have they been releasing their data to? Data being sent from and to the Googlebar is done because the user allows it to. Not all functions of the toolbar do this, just the advanced functions. When the user enables these features, a full disclosure pops up on your screen that you have to agree to. It is not done serepticiously or on the sly. You are free to disable these features at any time. You obviously must be thinking of another toolbar from Alexa which tracks your surfing patterns. Even if you disable this slimeware from your browser, look down at your status bar .... you will see that sucker transmitting data. And just try to uninstall it -- you can't without jumping thru a bunch of hoops. Honestly -- I think you have been reading too many Daniel Brandt articles. Man, to cite MicroSoft as a leader in the anti-spyware battle is more of a fox in the chickenhouse than Google will ever be. Actually, I thought you were smarter than that. Their only interest is in themselves and their precious Internet Explorer. Think about it for just a second or two -- which browser has the problem anyway.