amznVibe - 6:51 pm on Feb 4, 2005 (gmt 0)

Am I hallucinating or did this thread/topic get recycled?

I'm sorry but there is no way a bot, even based on advanced browser code, will ever be able to determine if certain situations are deceptive on purpose, or if they are fancy css/javascript design.

A perfect example would include simulated popup DIVs that appear or disapper when a mouse is hovered over words (doable both in css or javascript). This is a perfectly legitimate feature. But how is a search engine bot, no matter how advanced, going to know that is for real and isn't cloaked text? It's impossible and can only be determined with human intuition.

Again, Google did not have to wait until now to parse css and javascript via buying browser code and developers. I seriously doubt that is what they are doing. Google simply realizes that an advanced browser is the very key to the web and having one of their own empowers them to produce greater products. After developing the advanced code for gmail and "suggest" it's easy to come to that conclusion. There is also a possibility they need more powerful browser tools for their Adsense program, for their agents to review websites, etc.