> Wait a minute...
>
> A robot can go through an image map can't it ?
>
> By just exploring everything in the current directory and the
> sub-directories, as long as it isn't blocked by a .htaccess...
>
> Do all robots quit when they run into an image map ?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tom.
>
> _______________________________________________________
> Thomas Merlin http://www.cybertheque.fr/~merlin
> Grolier Interactive Europe http://www.club-internet.fr
>
>
You got a very good point in asking if all robots quit when running into
an image map. If they don't, then the question is, *when* do they quit or
are they in some kind of a *loop* and just keep going and going like the
Eveready Bunny.
Speaking of which leads to another thing that troubles me, if a site owner
is allocated say 200MB of transfer (throughput, whatever) for their web
site, and everyone starts using robots and spiders, then won't these
robots and spiders *alone* use up the average small web site's transfer
allocation? If the charge for additional transfers above the web site
allocation is say $20 per 200MB, then couldn't active robot/spider
activity (especially if one gets stuck in a loop on a given site and keeps
hitting it for days) break the piggy bank of a small web site owner? Just
a rhetorical aside..
^^The Net Surfer^^^