Cloaking or Redirect

[mrwhy2k]

<%
Session("Language") = "English"
response.redirect("./widget/home.asp")
%>

This is on the default.asp page and redirects the visitor depending on the language. I have two questions:

1) Will Google follow the redirect?
2) Will Google consider this cloaking?

[volatilegx]

> 1) Will Google follow the redirect?

Honestly, I'm not sure.

2) Will Google consider this cloaking?

No. It isn't cloaking.

[GlynMusica]

Will Google follow this? The probability is that Google will not follow this link but then it's really hard to say. It really depends how they scan for links, if they scan looking for an Anchor and then a text string in a certain format afterwards, such as producs/index.html then it might be possible. If they don't look for an anchor but just a text string format then they might find it. Your best bet is to place visible links, comment tag or noscript in this page and wait and see.

As for whether it's cloaking... It's all a matter of definition nowadays. But no Google probably will not consider it cloaking as many of the larger companies and portals use this type of redirecting for language specific sites. You might consider buying a regional domain that way you get definition by domain of language and you'll get more exposure in the European/Global regional engines.

Glyn.