Posted by finelinebob on January 27, 2006, at 13:35:28
In reply to Re: Babble's relevance for search engines, posted by finelinebob on January 27, 2006, at 7:11:55
I should point out that focusing on getting the home page and the top-level pages for each forum to be the primary destinations from search engines might also strike a compromise between getting new people to the info they need and giving vets a measure of privacy. For the newcomers, the question would be whether the pages a search engine points them at be informative enough for them to know what to do next. People look for information both through searching and through browsing, but some studies show that users mostly ignore site-based search features and browse to information instead. In other words, they make be very likely to start their search at Google or Yahoo, but as soon as they arrive in Babbleland they'll probably switch to browsing.
Would this be serving newcomers best, or allowing the search engines to grab it all with fairly equal weighting be it? And is there enough concern from the more socially anxious to push for more of a compromise? (after broadcasting I was bringing a camera to an early Babble event and seeing the effect that might have had, I try to be sensitive about making things too public!)
poster:finelinebob
thread:593798
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20060111/msgs/603470.html