rlange - 4:16 pm on Apr 2, 2012 (gmt 0)

HitProf wrote: Google wants to know what your page looks like to the user. If you hide your css and/or js, Googlebot can't see that. They might assume that you are messing around with visibility or content flow. They might not lik ethat, especially if you have done a lot of other things to please Googlebot. Just assuming.

Is it reasonable to assume that Google's algorithm would apply a penalty because of a lack of positive evidence for any wrongdoing? Even the government in George Orwell's 1984 didn't go that far.

This might take a while, but don't be surprised to see Google evolve in this direction over time.

This isn't an assumption; it's a prediction. I'm curious why you think "disallowing the crawling of external JavaScript and CSS files will result in an over-optimization penalty" is a logical outcome. On what past observations and/or information are you basing this prediction?

Sure, cloaking can result in a penalty, but even that requires some sort of confirmation, like a manual review (if I understand correctly). Google didn't just slap a penalty on your site because your site used JavaScript that Googlebot couldn't understand and therefore might mean you were doing something naughty.

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Ryan