...OK, totally daft, ridiculous question- but it's ok, Im allowed to ask them here!

All this talk of 'google bots' and 'search spiders'......what actually are they? Are they automated machine thingys? How do they work?

And most importantly, does anyone else anthropomorphise them?!

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Fill-Your-Pants

...OK, totally daft, ridiculous question- but it's ok, Im allowed to ask them here!

All this talk of 'google bots' and 'search spiders'......what actually are they? Are they automated machine thingys? How do they work?

And most importantly, does anyone else anthropomorphise them?!

Shoudn't this be in SEO section?, shall I ask a Mod to move it ?

Your'e probably right! I was torn between the two- but ill move it....any excuse, its fun!

[boxby]

Originally Posted by Fill-Your-Pants;2313

All this talk of 'google bots' and 'search spiders'......what actually [I

are[/i] they? Are they automated machine thingys? How do they work?

They're wee hairy beasties!!!!!
At least in my head!!

[Spiderden]

Bots and spiders are programs that the search engines run that download and analyse the source code of your web pages. In general, they ignore images, and external files such as CSS and JavaScript, all they're interested in is the text and some of the HTML tags on each page so they can rank each page accordingly.

So they are just programs? There must be zillions of them 'running around' though (see Im doing it again ), where do they all run from?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Fill-Your-Pants

So they are just programs? There must be zillions of them 'running around' though (see Im doing it again ), where do they all run from?

Computers

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Fill-Your-Pants

...OK, totally daft, ridiculous question- but it's ok, Im allowed to ask them here!

All this talk of 'google bots' and 'search spiders'......what actually are they? Are they automated machine thingys? How do they work?

And most importantly, does anyone else anthropomorphise them?!

well what happens is google puts loads of flies into there server and the spiders chase them all over the internet and when they get tired they sit down and read a few sites till they get there breath back.

Then off they go eventualy they end up back where they started.

google grabs them and puts them on a rack till they tell all.

in reality they whip round the web at the speed of light 176,000 miles per second, and as they go so fast no one has ever seen one.

so can't answer your question.

Alvin

[RayB]

Originally Posted by Spiderden

Bots and spiders are programs that the search engines run that download and analyse the source code of your web pages. In general, they ignore images, and external files such as CSS and JavaScript, all they're interested in is the text and some of the HTML tags on each page so they can rank each page accordingly.

Described perfectly!

An analogy - a bot just runs round the web looking for gossip to add to it's search engine (by reading posts etc) - and follows one link to the next to get to it all

lol thanks Alvin, now Im even more confuzzled