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Spider / index proof email link

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They have: 2 posts

Joined: Sep 2005

Hi gang,
I was hoping some of the experts here would be willing to share some techniques for posting legible email links which can't be indexed / harvested by spam bot spiders and the like.

I found one technique, as follows:

<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!-- Begin 
user = "info";
site = "website.com";
link = "Product Info";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '\">');
document.write(link + '</a>');
// End -->
&lt;/script&gt;

'

Is this a good technique? Does it work? Any other suggestions?

I'm thinking being that this is a script, many FireFox clients won't display it at all.

Thanks very much.

He has: 388 posts

Joined: Apr 2005

If you have access to any serverside languages you might consider using a contact form.

chrishirst's picture

He has: 379 posts

Joined: Apr 2005

Couple of ideas here Hide email address

I haven't done the PHP version as yet.

Chris

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Venue Capacity Monitoring
Code Samples

They have: 15 posts

Joined: Sep 2005

the best way is to make an image where to show the email address, or just generate an image from php/asp

www.busybits.com - list your site and increase your exposure

AyntRyte's picture

He has: 145 posts

Joined: Jun 2004

I use this tool. It unicodes everything from mailto: to the link text.

\\// Robert

The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's because they use more manure.

Busy's picture
Modrater

He has: 6,148 posts

Joined: May 2001

image (no alt tag) or server side form is the ONLY way that works - bad bots/spiders are the same breed as search engine bots/spiders, they read the output as well as the source in most cases

<?bhb if(broken){ echo("It wasn't me Smiling "); } ?>
Learn HTML the ez way - EzHTML.net

Some people are like slinkies, they dont really serve any purpose but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs ...

AyntRyte's picture

He has: 145 posts

Joined: Jun 2004

You may be right, but I've been using full unicode in mailto's for about 3 years and have minimal spam due only to others not protecting my address. And (following your hypothesis) a Google search for my email address does not return any pages I have published which include my mailto.

\\// Robert

The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's because they use more manure.

Busy's picture
Modrater

He has: 6,148 posts

Joined: May 2001

Is easy to test, get yourself a throw away hotmail account and on a popular site (your own) add the javascript snipet mentioned in the first post (with your new hotmail address), but make a slight change to the above snipet, add to the document write tags (so as it only displays in the source).
don't use the address for anything else.

If you use an htacess file to block bots don't waste your time with this experiment.
It will take a wee while to be found, but you will be found and spammed before to long.
Adding this to a contact page would be found before most others, index and contact are main targets

<?bhb if(broken){ echo("It wasn't me Smiling "); } ?>
Learn HTML the ez way - EzHTML.net

Some people are like slinkies, they dont really serve any purpose but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs ...