DigitalSorceress - 3:13 pm on Jun 21, 2004 (gmt 0)

Hmmm...

Brett_Tabke::

You bring up a very interesting point. Maybe this type of instance is a perfect and legitimate use for cloaking.

Instead of banning the bot, why not detect that particular bot and use your favourite cloaking technique to redirect those to a page of your own that says something like...

"Dear Ask Jeeves user,
We appreciate your interest in our products and services... please CLICK HERE to enter our site..."

Make the CLICK HERE a framebuster... or even better, make a framebuster for your whole site (globally included) that automatically braks you out of others' frames.

After all, if Ask Jeeves gets mad at you for cloaking on their site, the worst they can do is de-list you... the exact same result as if you had banned them.

I wonder if Google and other search services would get mad at you for cloaking out someone else specific like that. I find it highly unlikely that their cloaking detection would go so far as to pretend to be other search service bots. (If for no other reason than the exposure to lawsuits from the other services claiming that they are somehow defaming or infringing on their names and trademarks)