Re: MV and robots - duplicate carts.

[Ryan Hertz <rhertz@gyb.baits.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Ryan Hertz <rhertz@gyb.baits.com>     ******

David,

	What a great thread to start!  ;-)  You're right about the session ID's,
but even more importantly is that the link numbering system (does that have
a name?) at the end of the URL increments with every link.  I can see a
robot never indexing the site, as the number of links is infinite.
	Secondly, Minivend isn't too keen on robots, it will lock out a robot that
accesses pages too quickly (this is a user-definable directive).
	If you use frames, like I do, a handful of the major search engines will
not index a site using frames (unless, I believe, if you use <noframes>
correctly.)

	What might be a better solution is creating a mirror of the store, without
Minivend serving, as a doorway to the store.  Perhaps a page for each
category with a link to the "top" of the store.  Often, these pages are not
accessable through links in your website - you give the robot the direct
URL to the doorway pages.  Then, using a robots.txt file, limit the robot
from entering /cgi-bin/* (or the URL of the store).
	
	That's one way of getting indexed and driving traffic to the store via
search engines - and keeping snooping robots out of the store.

	You may want to check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

At 01:17 PM 3/3/99 , David Annis wrote:
>I am considering using minivend to create a site.
>
>I want the site to be indexed by robots.  However, I am concerned that
>if a robot indexes a page with a URL like: 
>http://machine.company.com/cgi-bin/simple/browse?WehUkATn;arg;1 and two 
>people find the site using the same search engine within a short period 
>of time won't both users get the same session ID WehUkATn and share the 
>same cart?
>
>Thanks,
>David Annis

Ryan Hertz                                              tel  520-645-3812
Webmaster                                               tel  800-645-BAIT
Advertising Director                                    fax  520-645-2588
Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Inc.            http://www.yamamoto.baits.com
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