webwhiz - 5:25 pm on Jan 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

Whether it's UA or IP based, people cloak to provide search engine friendly pages to spiders... Appears to me as if your (or Alan's) definition of cloaking may need some polish.

I don't believe the definition needs any polish. Other users besides the search engines can and do see the UA content you're talking about. i.e., handhelds, other browsers, etc.

Having to need the search engines IP means only one thing...trying to trick the search engines. Nobody else EVER sees that content that you feed the engine. There's no other purpose for it. And that is the ultimate definition of cloaking.

The other stuff isn't cloaking at all. Sometimes it can be used to spam, but it's not cloaking.