Re: indexing via redirectors

Eric Miller (emiller@oclc.org)
Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:27:59 -0500

Sigfrid Lundberg writes:
>
> Had I followed the RFCs in this context, my database would have been
> full of rubbish. A common practice is the use of status 302 and redirection
> when any error occurs, for example:
>
> Location: http://someplace/403.html
>
> Also, a LOT of sites redirects when there should really been
> status 404. Not to mention those who silently delivers something
> user-friendly with status 200 in place of the requested documents.
> Search for "Error" in the title field in, say, AltaVista, and you'll get
> the point.
>
> Don't blame the indexers! It is the webmasters fault!

:) Bleach... I think we can chalk this up to "stupid human tricks" on
the webmasters side of things. Ok then... give the fact that in some
cases we have this type of redirection abuse, is there any way of
effectively distingishing a "good redirection" from a "bad
redirection" and thus promote the use of NAMEing and object rather
than pointing to one.

eric j. miller <URL:http://purl.oclc.org/net/eric>
emiller@oclc.org Office of Research, OCLC, Inc.
emiller@cis.ohio-state.edu Dept. of Geography, The Ohio State University
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