pageoneresults - 6:57 pm on Dec 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

Google could start to simply query a website just like a browser does and then parse the object model. How would your pages rank when Google actually "looks" at them?

Hopefully the same way they do now as nothing is different.

Google has a hard enough time now dealing with html/xhtml. Parsing CSS files and determining whether something is hidden or not is not a solution. Now the bot would need to determine why that CSS exists. There are many valid uses of display:none or display:hidden.

The bots are definitely smarter than they were a few years ago. But, I don't think they are ready for CSS.

For those who may be hiding things through CSS or negatively positioning content off screen to manipulate page content, I surely wouldn't do that with any long term projects. ;)

The penalty for getting busted using this technique I would imagine is a permanent ban. No if's, and's, or but's, you're history. You'll need a pardon from the Governor to be reconsidered for inclusion. ;)