Forum Moderators: DixonJones
-gps
I don't like it at all.
You can turn this off in Mozilla, see:
[mozilla.org...]
How long before someone finds a way to misuse this?
In Firefox, you can disable prefetching by doing the following:1. Type "about:config" the address bar.
2. Scroll down to the setting "network.prefetch-next" and set the value to "False".
Don't you love all these extra features you have to opt out of.
Prefetching may impact your site because the prefetch request will happen whether or not the user clicks on the result, so it may result in additional traffic to your web server.
OK, not that I've got many pages that appear in the top spot at google...
Also:
To block or ignore prefetch requests (from Google and other web sites), you should configure your web server to return a 404 HTTP response code for requests that contain the "X-moz: prefetch" header.
So will the Mozilla-based browser cache the 404 response and not send a further request when the Google user does click on the top link?
Is there a way to detect a Google Toolbar enabled FireFox?
Not sure; but the issue here affects all Mozilla-based browsers, as the prefetch thing is a standard "feature". Seems to have been in existence since at least 2002.
This work?
RewriteCond %{X-moz} ^prefetch [OR]
RewriteRule ^.* - [F]
Anyone have a handy .htaccess ban?
I'll second that. I do not like the sounds of this at all. Google is very adamant about us not causing unnecessary loads on their servers, and they think something like this is ok?
I don't like this one bit...maybe if it was still 1995 when everyone was on dial up...but exactly how much faster do already fast loading pages have to load :(
I wish this could be handled in robots.txt
Chip-
RewriteCond %{X-moz} ^prefetch [OR]
RewriteRule ^.* - [F]
Brett, are you sure about the [OR]? I think it's redundant.
a bit, but:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailSiphon [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Hatena [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Sleipnir [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^amzn_assoc [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailWolf [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^autoemailspider [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ExtractorPro [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^URLSpiderPro [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Crescent [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ContentSmartz [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^CherryPicker [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^[Ww]eb[Bb]andit [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebEMailExtrac.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebCopier.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NICErsPRO [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Openfind [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^grub-client [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebWhacker [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^gigabaz [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^IEAutoDiscovery [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Simple [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^PingALink [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^LexiBot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Link*Sleuth [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Offline*Explorer [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Teleport [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Zeus.*Webster [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Microsoft.URL [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Wget [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^grub [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebCapture [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Sweeper [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Robot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Aide [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^larbin [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Szukacz [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^httpdown [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^MSIECrawler [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^LinkWalker [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^sitecheck.internetseer.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ia_archiver [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Seeker [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ASPSeek [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^DIIbot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Indy*Library [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^psbot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^foobot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} .*almaden.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^MSProxy [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SlySearch [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebStripper/2.09 [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EasyDL/2.99 [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebZip [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebZIP [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Missigua [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebAccounting [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^HTTrack [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Dumbot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NaverRobot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebStripper [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Xenu [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Seekbot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^InternetSeer [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^tScholarsBot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SearchIt.Bot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^abot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^User-Agent [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^mogren [OR]
RewriteCond %{X-moz} ^prefetch [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST} ^world.altavista.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_X_FORWARDED_SERVER} ^altavista.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailCollector
RewriteRule ^.* - [F]
works too ;-)
...if we're pretty sure...
That's amusing.
So you guys are using a background algo to analyze click behavior and only show the tag if there is a high propensity to click on the top result? Interesting.
In other news, how much you wanna bet FireFox and mozilla numbers are up next month?
More like if the search term matches the domain name, or variations of it: webmaster world,webmasterworld, web master world,webmasterworld.com
Thanks
It's only shown if we're pretty sure that the user will click on the top result.
GoogleGuy: regardless of whether you're pretty sure I'll click on the top result, how do you know I want the page to be prefetched? I'm on broadband so the few ms that might be saved are irrelevant. And the times I'm likely to be on dialup are also times when I will probably need the bandwith for stuff I _definitely_ want to load.
BTW: I think prefetch can be a useful idea, but should be an optional extra for those who want / need it. A large part of the problem is not so much Google using it, but Mozilla for enabling it by default.
All kidding aside, I've been conducting a few tests and I honestly don't see a difference in load times. It appears as though Firefox is only prefetching the HTML, not the images, scripts, etc on the site. Those tend to be the slower items, not the HTML of the page itself. To me, this appears to do too little to speed up the load times and can quite possibly be exploited. I'd like to see this "feature" removed from Google ASAP.
Getting all sorts of cookies that I don't want to get. Does anyone else feel that this is a huge violation of online privacy?
My thoughts too.
Unless Google can control which sites it applies to, then the cookie issue is only part of it.
All this will do IMO as webmasters is mess up our stats.
Surely Google's time would be better spent concentrating on other issues at the moment.
The prefetch feature was designed to prefetch pages from links on a page that the user requested, not what some SE *thinks* they want.
I do not like the sounds of this at all.
I'm on broadband so the few ms that might be saved are irrelevant.
On this point, I suggest Googling for "I don't know anything about typical latency delays on the Internet, or even about the cost of DNS fetches for first-time visitors."
And, in the complaining-to-the-gas-station-attendant-about-the-price-of-gas department:
I'd like to see this "feature" removed from Google ASAP.
Repeat after me: the "feature" is in the browser, not in Google. Getting that straight means you can just change one config setting instead of spending the rest of your life complaining to an infinite number of websites who elect to insert this particular browser "hint" in their HTML.
Meanwhile, requests for favicon.ico continue to beat the Internet to death with no particular value added. Who do I see about that?
:-)
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 6:25 pm (utc) on Mar. 31, 2005]
P.S. I am think to prefetch AdSense URLs too for the benefit of my users. j/k
Oh the irony! nice one. :-)
> pad logs
With Google Referrals and Mozilla agent numbers. Hence, Mozilla will falsly jump in the agent name market and Google will jump in the referral dept.
very smoooth...
I'm on broadband so the few ms that might be saved are irrelevant.On this point, I suggest Googling for "I don't know anything about typical latency delays on the Internet, or even about the cost of DNS fetches for first-time visitors."
'Your search - "I don't know anything about typical latency delays on the Internet, or even about the cost of DNS fetches for first-time visitors." - did not match any documents.'
;-). I don't know about typical latency delays, but for me everything's just fine as it is. "Prefetching" DNS lookups might be a nice idea though.
And, in the complaining-to-the-gas-station-attendant-about-the-price-of-gas department:
I'd like to see this "feature" removed from Google ASAP.
Repeat after me: the "feature" is in the browser, not in Google. Getting that straight means you can just change one config setting instead of spending the rest of your life complaining to an infinite number of websites who elect to insert this particular browser "hint" in their HTML.
This is the crux of the problem: an obscure (I'd never heard of it until now) browser function (in Mozilla) with all kinds of potential for causing Things To Happen That Shouldn't, which defaults to "on", which means for the rest of my life I'll have to remember to switch this off whenever I'm using a "fresh" browser.
Thanks to Google to bringing it to my attention ;-).
I've tried running a test but my site's not cool enough to get a prefetch tag as of yet for its main identifying phrase :)
the "feature" is in the browser, not in Google
the feature is for users to prefetch pages from links on a page that they have requested and probably trust.
Unless Google can guarantee that there will be no dodgy tactics used by the site at number one for any particular search then i can see this being exploited.
(the "oh, but they requested the SERP" argument doesn't stand up)
It is not designed so a search engine can guess which link the user wants and prefetch the code!
If that was the case then the "im feeling lucky" would be the default search
or am i just missing something really useful? :o)
(I admire google for taking the initiative, i just can't see the benefit over the potential problems)
The first result on G could just happen to be adwords premium spot and G or another SE decides to prefetch this , this seems like could be used like popups were in the old days
The theory seems good but the possible abbuses make it a no go as far as i'm concerened
also as others have pointed out graphics etc. are generally the reason a page loads slow and those not prefetched sorry don't like or trust reasons for implementation
steve
I am sure there are way more useful applications. Some gallery scripts were doing this with JavaScript even before the feature was released by Mozilla.
Remember - user experience is key. If user thinks your site is way faster then your competitor's site - they will come back to you. Read "The Need for Speed [useit.com]" by Jakob Nielsen.
Research on a wide variety of hypertext systems has shown that users need response times of less than one second when moving from one page to another if they are to navigate freely through an information space. Traditional human factors research into response times also shows the need for response times faster than a second. For example, studies done at IBM in the 1970s and 1980s found that mainframe users were more productive when the time between hitting a function key and getting the requested screen was less than a second.
[edit]added quote[/edit]
[edited by: moltar at 6:31 pm (utc) on Mar. 31, 2005]
