Google JavaScript Error affects listings

Javascript error is showing up as my sites description

[abound]

I've been showing up in the top 5 on Google for "key phrase"
(without quotes) for about 2 years. Recently, I hit #1. All of a
sudden I'm gone. Of course I'm used to disappearing from Google for a
week or two at a time on occasion, but this time was different.

First, I verified that I was in the search results by doing some
really focused searches, but I saw the following text as my site
description:
"NOTE: It appears your browser does not support scripting
(javascript). Scripting is required to use this site."

Just to see if that error really was Google's description of my
website, I searched on "javascript key phrase" (without the
quotes), and lo and behold I showed up. Then, I searched on "It
appears your browser does not support" (with quotes), and over 71,000
sites showed up.

Now, I want to head off one suggestion, which is that the problem is
with my host. Basically, my website is hosted by storesonline, and
the observant will see that all 71,000 websites are hosted by
storesonline. The reason for that is because they all have the same
javascript code, hence the same error message to search on. However,
search on javascript key phrase, and you will see that many other
websites with javascript have the same type of error: they just use
different text in their error message... which means significantly
more than 71,000 sites are actually impacted by this.

Did Google change their algorithm to intentionally disallow
java-enabled sites that are unfriendly to non-java-enabled browsers?
Is it a Google bug? Does anybody know what's going on?

Thanks,
Mike

[edited by: ciml at 11:03 am (utc) on Feb. 13, 2004]
[edit reason] Generalised [/edit]

[tantalus]

Hi Mike,

I really don't think Google has changed its policy about non java enabled browsers.

Indeed it seems that it has started to 'read' off-page js files, as you can see from this example [google.com ]

You can view the whole thread here: [webmasterworld.com ]

I would say from your post, and this is just a guess, that your host has changed something, ie they have started sniffing for javascript, and redirecting to another page if it can't find it.

Have you checked the cache to see if there is a link that gbot could follow?

[abound]

It turns out, the problem was with my host (I hate being wrong, but at least I know!). Storesonline seems to have added text to their noscript tag which is at the top of every page. Since Google triggers the noscript code, it saw the text and thought the warning was part of my page.

I've notified storesonline, and customized my own template to remove the noscript code from my site. We'll see how long it takes for me to recover my Google position(hopefully not long).

Thanks for the reply!

Mike