Just looking over backlinking and seo and i cam across the term sandboxed. Also a number of varying explanations. Can anyone explain what sandboxed is? thanks
A site is sandboxed when it is new and does not rank for keyword phrases that are not incredibly competitive (such as a unique company name) in Google after making the page "search engine friendly" and after being indexed. Some are mistaken that a sandboxed site is a site that has not been indexed by Google. That is wrong. Sandboxed sites are very much so indexed by Google, but have a hard time ranking for keyword phrases, no matter how competitive they are.
A sandpit or sandbox is a low, wide container or shallow depression filled with sand in which children can play. Many homeowners with children build sandpits in their backyards because, unlike much playground equipment, they can be easily and cheaply constructed. A "sandpit" may also denote an open pit sand mine. Well, A software sandbox is no different that a sandbox built for a child to play. By providing a sandbox to a child we simulate the environment of real play ground (in other words an isolated environment) but with restrictions on what a child can do. Because we don't want child to get infected or we don't want him to cause trouble to others. What so ever the reason is, we just want to put restrictions on what child can do for Security Reasons. Now coming to our software sandbox, we let any software(child) to play (execute) but with some restrictions over what it (he) can do. We can feel safe & secure about what the executing software can do. You've seen & used Antivirus software. Right? It is also a kind of sandbox. It puts restrictions on what any program can do. When a malicious activity is detected, it stops and informs user that "this application is trying to access so & so resources. Do want to allow?". Download a program named sandboxie and you can get an hands on experience of a sandbox. Using this program you can run any program in controlled environment. Now from programmer's point of view, sandbox is restricting the API that is allowed to the application. In the antivirus example, we are limiting the system call (operating system API). Another example would be online coding arenas like topcoder. You submit a code (program) but it runs on the server. For the safety of the server, They should limit the level of access of API of the program. In other words, they need to create a sandbox and run your program inside it. If you have a proper sandox you can even run a virus infected file and stop all the malicious activity of the virus and see for yourself what it is trying to do. In fact, this will be first step of Antivirus researcher.
This is a really great explanation, I never have quite heard it put this way. It makes sense though. I learned something from this post. In an SEO context, I do not really believe in the "sandbox" unless someone is making their link building look incredibly unnatural and thus knocks it out of the running in Google's eyes while Google tries to figure out what is going on and where to put it... but the use of a "sandbox" by an antivirus researcher is very interesting.
fiona that is awesome explanation. thanks for dumbing it right down lol. That answer might make its way over to my blog. If you dont mind of course