From spc@conman.org Wed Jul 16 21:05:25 2008 From: spc@conman.org To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org Subject: deep linking policy (was Re: Osborne Computer 4 (Vixen) prototype?) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:05:25 -0400 Message-ID: <20080717020525.GA11732@brevard.conman.org> In-Reply-To: <487EA6B6.2010303@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============0028830857804385652==" --===============0028830857804385652== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit It was thus said that the Great Sridhar Ayengar once stated: > Eric Smith wrote: > >Dave Dunfield wrote: > >>I was wondering if you could explain to me what is not clear about > >>this request, which is posted (bolded) at both the top and bottom > >>of my disk images page: > > > >The problem is the usage model of the web. Just because something > >happens to be on a page, at the top or bottom (or both), doesn't mean > >that anyone is going to bother to read it. > > > >Your URL randomization scheme is a (somewhat) reasonable way to prevent > >deep linking. Expecting people not to do so simply out of respect for a > >statement on a web page that they may or may not have actually read is > >doomed to failure. > > Dave, > > You can always have your web server software check the referring URL for > all of your downloadable files to make sure that people are clicking > through your website. Not foolproof, but it'll work the vast majority > of the time. And on the page you want people to hit first, add the following to the section: That means (to the search engines that respect it, like Google) to index the contents of the page, but not to follow any links (like, to the individual files). -spc --===============0028830857804385652==--