Considered hidden text or not?

Text in a resource button

[apocman]

I was scanning thru some sites today when I found a site that had a resource button at the bottom. When I clicked on the resource button it expanded the same page, showing paragraphs that was wrote around the keywords they wanted to rank for.

Whenever you click back on the resource button the site would go back to the orginal content that was on the site. The script they used was in java.

I looked on yahoo cache and they did read the content that was in the resouce area. Do you think that is considered hidden text?

[designaweb]

No. If it was there for the benefit of the visitors, I dont think it should be considered as hidden text.

[SincerelySandy]

If it was there for the benefit of the visitors

I always thought text was considered "hidden text" if you could not see it.
If you can see it by clicking on an easy to find button or other link, then you can see it and it's not hidden.
As for the comment about it being ok if it's for the benefit of the users, well, what benefits a user is up to interpretation.
MSN, Yahoo, and Google all have a guidelines page where they state not to use hidden text. Those guidelines don't say "it's ok if your intentions are good and it's for the benefit of the user" or "it's ok as long as your not misleading people".
Hidden text is a great way of saying "I don't know what I'm doing" or "I'm not creative enough to find a better way to put these words on the page".

[apocman]

Thank You for the replies, basically the text that opened up was paragraphs about a certain keyword. However though the paragraphs all made sense and was informational, without keyword spamming. I figured they prolly just made it that way so they could still keep the neatness and look of their site without stuffing with alot of content. But if a surfer wanted to click on resoures and read the information then it was there at there disposal.

Thanks for your comments

[Kufu]

That is absolutely considered hidden text. I've seen people get banned for things like that. Don't believe it? Report them to Google and wait a while.

[apocman]

Hmm I wouldnt think it would be considered hidden text do to the fact that the content is there if the surfer wants to read more reasources about the topoc of that website, or the topic of what they sell then they can if they choose to.

The content is still there for both the search engines and the surfer. Because the content can be seen and the conetnt is informational about the subject of the site. But that is just my opinion, I guess we really wouldnt know unless we asked the Search engines themselves :) cause it is prolly considered in the gray area.

[Demaestro]

Is there no distinction between hidden text and text that is availble at the request of the user?

If not I have some pages to change. For reasons of keeping things pretty one of my sites has collapsable product descriptions. It is in a div that only displays when requested, but if you request the source it is in there and does get indexed.

I think I am going to Email G for a ruling on this before someone else emails them to complain. I hadn't even considered that this could be deamed 'hidden text' as described in the TOS.

Funny thing is G inspired me to do it after I saw their Google.com/ig pages that have all the info hidden in divs until you request them with a click. When I saw it I thought it was a great way of originizing info that was needed at a glance but still have more information available with a mouse click and no extra server hit needed.

[Kufu]

Funny thing is G inspired me to do it after I saw their Google.com/ig pages that have all the info hidden in divs until you request them with a click. When I saw it I thought it was a great way of originizing info that was needed at a glance but still have more information available with a mouse click and no extra server hit needed.

That seems ok to me, but the way the OP described the content, it seemed like it was deliberately put in a location where it would not be readily accessible. I would be willing to bet anything that that would not pass a manual inspection.

[apocman]

It was located at the bottom of the page with the rest of the links, once you clicked the resource button it expanded the same window with text that was located right after the regular text that was on the page, It was infomrational pragraphs that inner linked into the inner pages of the site.