URL looks clean except in Opera

Javascript

[rharri]

Was recently asked to exchange links with a directory. When I looked, the links looked clean in IE and Firefox. But, I happened to look again when I was using Opera and saw this:
javascript:location='ht'+'tp://www.snivelpoop.htm'

Am I correct in thinking that this link will not be seen by 'bots?

rharri

[hutcheson]

You are almost certainly correct. A 'bot could recognize that, but they are not designed to detect obfuscated URLs, and you can expect that they won't, unless they were especially designed to look for devious artificial link pattern creators. (In other words, you've joined a spam-cycle, and you're about to get wrung out.)

This kind of sleaze is all too common in link exchange programs. Most, but not all, of the greedy dogs who run these kind of cons are too stupid to hide them very well. But honest innocent webmasters do get taken in.

[rharri]

Thanks. I've been learning this craft for a couple of years and should (I guess) take pride in being visible enough to get scammed ;-)