Keeping engines away from some files.

Keeping some image files away from the prying seahc engines....

[ScoobyFlew]

Hi There,

Not sure if this is the right forum, but it sort of fits in....

I've developed a site with hundreds of images, I have pages that link to thumbnails and low res versions. Only subscribers can see the high res versions.

Questions:
1. I have always thought that a web site was indexed by the bots navigating the hyperlinks on a site. Is that still the case?

2. If my high res images are not referenced, can the search engines get to them? Do they have the capability to crawl down a directory structure?

Cheers

Paul

[Dijkgraaf]

1) Yes, that is the case for most search engines
2) The only circumstances in which well behaved search engine could get a directory listing is if the server is configured to allow that, there is no default page in the directory, and there is a link pointing to the directory.

However I would dissallow the directory in robots.txt, as there is always the possibility that someone will put a link to an image somewhere that a bot can come accross it.

[ScoobyFlew]

Thanks Dijkgraaf
I'll create a disallow in the robots.txt
Cheers
Paul