Google Now Searches JavaScript

mikejuk writes "Google has been improving the way that its Googlebot searches dynamic web pages for some time — but it seems to be causing some added interest just at the moment. In the past Google has encouraged developers to avoid using JavaScript to deliver content or links to content because of the difficulty of indexing dynamic content. Over time, however, the Googlebot has incorporated ways of searching content that is provided via JavaScript. Now it seems that it has got so good at the task Google is asking us to allow the Googlebot to scan the JavaScript used by our sites. Working with JavaScript means that the Googlebot has to actually download and run the scripts and this is more complicated than you might think. This has led to speculation of whether or not it might be possible to include JavaScript on a site that could use the Google cloud to compute something. For example, imagine that you set up a JavaScript program to compute the n-digits of Pi, or a BitCoin miner, and had the result formed into a custom URL — which the Googlebot would then try to access as part of its crawl. By looking at, say, the query part of the URL in the log you might be able to get back a useful result."

Comments

Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Googlebot will have a very quick timeout on scripts and probably wont be more powerful than a standard home computer. How would that be useful for calculating digits of pi or bitcoin mining? It would take far longer than doing it the conventional way.

Incremental and/or parallel computing?

[SlovakWakko]

You can always cut the whole process into smaller steps, each providing URL that will initiate the next step. Or you can provide several URLs and have the Google cloud compute a problem for you in parallel...

Re:Incremental and/or parallel computing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I already do this using a system of CNAME's in a .xxx domain.

Re:Incremental and/or parallel computing?

[ThatsMyNick]

Anyone wanting to do this would be doing it on a dedicate website. They wont care about the domain or IP address being blacklisted from Google. And good luck with the theft of service charge, they never asked Google to index them. They did not even agree to any terms of service from Google. As I said, good luck.

Re:Incremental and/or parallel computing?

[truedfx]

No, that's not what opting in means. Opting in means you're asking Google to visit your site. Opting out means you're asking Google not to visit your site. When you're not asking for anything, merely hoping, you're neither opting in nor opting out.

Re:Incremental and/or parallel computing?

[ThatsMyNick]

Your JS would generate HTML on the client side. Just generate a link that your server can understand. Google bot, doing what it does, will try to load this URL. When it does, the server stores this result, and generates a new problem for GoogleBot to solve. This is the basis, for the article and the entire comment thread.

A much more likely application

[maxwell demon]

Send Google JavaScript which generates different results for Google than for normal visitors, in order to rank up the site.

Re:A much more likely application

[aaronb1138]

What is this method you have written, "sudo_mod_me_up?"

Re:Simply another example

[Zero__Kelvin]

Well, I think the bigger problem is that you are writing arbitrary code.

so much for

[Anonymous Coward]

using javascript to hide or obfuscate email addresses to help protect them from spammers, scammers and bots.

thanks fer nuttin, google.

Re:I noticed this already some time ago.

[RoccamOccam]

Also, the dry cleaning that you dropped off on Thursday is ready for pick-up and your driver's license expires in three months.

Sincerely,
The Slashdot Citizens Brigade

Spammers!

[xenobyte]

They've been testing this for a while - We've already had the first complaints against someone spamming an email that only exists in exactly one place: Online as the result of some (trivial) javascript. Turned out that if you Googled the page, the result snapshot included the javascript generated email... In other words - it's already there and this will effectively kill javascript as a way of hiding functioning mailto links. Okay it would be fairly simple to add a condition based on the User Agent as GoogleBot is easily identified but it will make things a bit more complicated for the average user.