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deborah2002
05-13-2003, 02:46 PM
Hey ya'll. I'm kinda new so bear with me. My web techie friend and I have a bet. I say in the source code if your background is white and the text reads "color=#FFFFF then you have hidden text. He thinks I'm wrong (again, I'm just getting the hang of all this). Could somebody help clear this up? I have $10 on this and would love to get it! Thanks!
brendandonhue
05-13-2003, 02:51 PM
"Hidden Text" is not a technical term. It depends what you define as hidden text.
deborah2002
05-13-2003, 02:53 PM
Well, I was told that if the spiders see something the user can't, that it's "hidden text" and thus it's running the risk of being seen as spam. Can't that get you banned cuz all it is is keyword saturation for the spiders benefit as opposed to user benefit?
khaki
05-13-2003, 02:58 PM
hi Deborah...

time to collect on your bet:

http://websearch.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-hidden-text.htm

http://www.search-engine-optimization-help.net/hidden_text_desc.htm

enjoy spending it!!!

;) k
brendandonhue
05-13-2003, 02:58 PM
You win the bet, but its Sort of true, sort of not.
Any decent search engine doesn't reply on flawed methods like that. Some search engines may ignore text that is written in the same color as the background, and they don't show it in the description.
But Google and other search algorithms are very complicated (including stuff like how many pages link to you, how important those pages are, etc).
deborah2002
05-13-2003, 03:04 PM
Ya'll Rock! Thanks for all the info--I'm printing all this out to show to my techie friend and receive my $$$. Thanks again, gang! deb
khaki
05-13-2003, 03:09 PM
You win the bet, but its Sort of true, sort of not. hidden text is hidden text.
what it's used for is irrelevant to the term.
ka-ching...
it spends the same regardless!!!
wooo-hooo!!!
you go girl!!!
brendandonhue
05-13-2003, 03:14 PM
True, but you will not get your page banned from engines for having hidden text.
Either way, you did make 10 bucks :P
deborah2002
05-13-2003, 03:22 PM
Now comes the newbie in me.....everything I have read (and believe me, the Library of Congress has NOTHING on me!) says "no hidden text" ad nauseam. Especially Google! What'd I miss? deb
web-eagle
05-13-2003, 05:56 PM
Follow up question:
Does anyone know the “tolerance level” for these bots? In other words if my BG color is #FFFFFF and my text is #FFFFFE it’s not going to be discernable to the naked eye. Just how smart are these bots?

Not that I or even anyone I know would EVER consider spamming a bot!:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
brendandonhue
05-13-2003, 06:19 PM
I doubt if they use techniques like that, it probably just reads the bgcolor and the text color and if they are = it ignores that info.
deborah2002
05-14-2003, 08:02 AM
Web Eagle, I also heard they are smart enough to understand that #F3F3F3 is also a "hue" of white and will react accordingly. I'm not trying to argue a fine point here, but everything I've seen this far says they don't "ignore" you, they BAN you. Apparently, you CAN tick off a robot! :)

deb
brendandonhue
05-14-2003, 02:22 PM
I guess so :P