Google has recently announced a few changes that absolutely thrill the search engine marketer in me. Yet, the changes also leave me personally wondering if any of my friends on Facebook have a public profile that I may have posted on!
Google is now indexing AJAX and JavaScript content, which means pages that use this programming--for example, Facebook comments--are now open to being searched.
This change to the Google bot search system was first spotted byDigital Inspiration, and later confirmed by Google's Matt Cutts on Twitter. Cutts tweeted the following on Tuesday:
"Googlebot keeps getting smarter. Now has the ability to execute AJAX/JS to index some dynamic comments"
Before this implementation, Google's bots were unable to trawl the comments section of sites that used third-party commenting engines such as Disqus, Facebook, and Intense Debate. Now, however, Google can index these comments--which is a boon for webmasters but a potentially sticky situation for people who are hyper-sensitive about privacy issues.
You may not think this is a big deal--after all, it's not like you leave a lot of trolling comments on random public forums, right? But what you should be concerned about are your Facebook friends who might not be terribly up-to-date on their Facebook privacy settings. If one of your Facebook friends doesn't have their page on lockdown, and you happen to make a stupid comment--for example, "I am so wasted right now, totally calling in sick to work tomorrow!"--that comment will now be searchable.
The SEO world should be thrilled with this change, as I most certainly am. But you had better believe that I will be going to do a Google search of my name in about 30 seconds….and I suggest you do the same.
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http://www.pcworld.com/article/243011/google_now_indexes_facebook_comments_paranoid_can_relax.html
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Google has recently announced a few changes that absolutely thrill the search engine marketer in me. Yet, the changes also leave me personally wondering if any of my friends on Facebook have a public profile that I may have posted on!
Google is now indexing AJAX and JavaScript content, which means pages that use this programming--for example, Facebook comments--are now open to being searched.
This change to the Google bot search system was first spotted byDigital Inspiration, and later confirmed by Google's Matt Cutts on Twitter. Cutts tweeted the following on Tuesday: "Googlebot keeps getting smarter. Now has the ability to execute AJAX/JS to index some dynamic comments"
Before this implementation, Google's bots were unable to trawl the comments section of sites that used third-party commenting engines such as Disqus, Facebook, and Intense Debate. Now, however, Google can index these comments--which is a boon for webmasters but a potentially sticky situation for people who are hyper-sensitive about privacy issues.
You may not think this is a big deal--after all, it's not like you leave a lot of trolling comments on random public forums, right? But what you should be concerned about are your Facebook friends who might not be terribly up-to-date on their Facebook privacy settings. If one of your Facebook friends doesn't have their page on lockdown, and you happen to make a stupid comment--for example, "I am so wasted right now, totally calling in sick to work tomorrow!"--that comment will now be searchable.
The SEO world should be thrilled with this change, as I most certainly am. But you had better believe that I will be going to do a Google search of my name in about 30 seconds….and I suggest you do the same.