Main | Friday, November 04, 2011

Google To Trawl Web Comments

According to Web Monkey, a new Google algorithm will connect your name to comments made on blog posts, web articles, and Facebook pages.
The new indexing plan isn’t just about Facebook comments, but applies to nearly any content that’s previously been accessible only through an HTTP POST request. Google’s goal is to include anything “hiding” behind a form — comment systems like Disqus or Facebook and other JavaScript-based sites and forms. Typically when Google announces it’s going to expand its search index in some way everyone is happy — sites get more searchable content into Google and users can find more of what they’re looking for — but that’s not the case with the latest changes to Google’s indexing policy. Developers are upset because Google is no longer the passive crawler it once was and users will likely become upset once they realize that comments about drunken parties, embarrassing moments or what they thought were private details are going to start showing up next to their names in Google’s search results.
A commenter notes on the above-linked article: "So in a nutshell, Google is going to publicly display public messages I intentionally left in a public place? I like privacy as much as the next guy, but in this case I can't imagine how any semi-intelligent person could have had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the first place."

Labels: , , ,

comments powered by Disqus

<<Home