Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Will robots recognize ALT tags in Imagemaps?

Chip Canty (ccanty_at_shell1.shore.net)
Fri, 31 Jul 1998 09:49:33 -0500 (CDT)

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message: Chris Edwards: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Managing email campaigns"
• Archive Home Page
• Search
• Previous message: Ramon Ray: "ONLINE-ADS>> Placement of ads, text, etc"
• Maybe in reply to: Penn White: "ONLINE-ADS>> Will robots recognize ALT tags in Imagemaps?"
• Next in thread: Danny Sullivan: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Will robots recognize ALT tags in Imagemaps?"

>
Sender: owner-online-ads_at_o-a.com
Precedence: bulk

"Penn White" <pwhite_at_surfsouth.com> wrote:

> Does anyone happen to know if the search engine indexing robots used by
> yahoo, metacrawler, infoseek, etc. will access and read ALT tags in the
> "AREA" markup of imagemaps? ...

I think what you're really asking is this: if I define hyperlinks using
internally specified image maps (as opposed to external image-map files), will
the indexing robots find and follow them?

The answer is (1) yes and (2) maybe. Those robots that are still actively
crawling the Web looking for pages to index seem to find these links as
easily as any other. But not all the search engines are crawling like they
used to. Inktomi, the index behind HotBot (and now ultimately behind Yahoo),
ceased looking for new pages some months ago. Infoseek, too, seems only to
index pages that are actively submitted to it; Lycos, the same. Excite
crawls, but now apparently says that any pages that the crawler finds will be
dropped from the index after just a few months.

All the SE's still have spiders, but many do little more now than revisit
previously submitted URLs to confirm that they're still alive. (AltaVista,
Euroseek and Northern Light are among the exceptions to this.)

The bottom line is that nowadays you shouldn't count on any links, whether
defined in image maps or elsewhere, to get all your pages properly indexed.

Chip Canty mailto:ccanty_at_PLGRM.com
PILGRIM NEW MEDIA http://www.PLGRM.com
132 Adams St., #10 800.99-PLGRM
Newton, MA 02158 617.964.9996
fax: 617.964.9989

"For books are more than books." -- Amy Lowell

========================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week's Online Advertising Discussion List sponsor:

Be sure to check out the latest write-up of the _at_d.Tech.Chicago
Conference at:

http://www.o-a.com/adtech.Chicago/adtechChig-archive.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------
========================================================================
Online Advertising Discussion List To Unsubscribe send UNSUBSCRIBE
http://www.o-a.com/ to online-ads-request_at_o-a.com

• Next message: Chris Edwards: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Managing email campaigns"
• Archive Home Page
• Search
• Previous message: Ramon Ray: "ONLINE-ADS>> Placement of ads, text, etc"
• Maybe in reply to: Penn White: "ONLINE-ADS>> Will robots recognize ALT tags in Imagemaps?"
• Next in thread: Danny Sullivan: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Will robots recognize ALT tags in Imagemaps?"

With an archive of more than 14,000 postings, since 1996 the Online Advertising Discussion List has been the Internet's leading forum focused on professional discussion of online advertising and online media buying and selling strategies, results, studies, tools, and media coverage. If you wish to join the discussion list, please use this link to sign up on the home page of the Online Advertising Discussion List.