The sole purpose of this page is a test

to check when and how a new page, including a typical advertisement,  is listed by a search engine or taken by univited robots.

Updated 17 Jun 2009: This page was first placed on the server on 11 Jun 2009 about 10:34:53 GMT, and links added to most pages on the site a minute or two later by revising the left-column 'include' file.
Golly! Checking Google, it was already indexed when I looked about six hours later. It may have been online earlier... I just didn't look earlier... but their robot had added this test page to its cache Jun 11, 2009 13:40:31 GMT - that's within about THREE HOURS. Wow! Kudos, Google!

So how about Microsoft's Bing? Well as of 17 Jun 2009, 06:48:00 GMT, this test page doesn't seem to be in their index. A search for a key phrase from this page ["is listed by a search engine" site:todayinsci.com] produces the reply "We did not find any results ..." Well, credit where due, in that six days, the bingbot looked at over a thousand pre-existing pages with that newly-added link and has revised entries in its index,... so a search for ["Test link - please ignore" site:todayinsci.com] has a thousand hits. There may be more but only the first 1,000 hit results get listed. So, Bing isn't interested in looking at a link it has seen at least one thousand times. Hmmm....
Well, let's try another test. The Bing search non-result page says "If you cannot find a page that you know exists, send the address to us." so I will. Right now. (17 Jun 2009, 06:59:00). http://www.todayinsci.com/TestPleaseIgnore.htm

Let's see when Google notices this page was revised, without being specifically directed to it.

Update 20 June 2009: Google now has a version of this page from 16 Jun 2009 in its cache (on 16 June, the page had not changed since the original on 11 June). Google is keeping a close eye on the page!
As of 20 June, Yahoo does have the phrase "The sole purpose of this page is a test" indexed, and shows the page in its cache. It was seen earlier by the Yahoo robot, because the earlier, but the cache page appears as it did before the 17 June updated text.
Meanwhile, Bing still does not list the page, according to a search on 20 June 2009 for the headline phrase, "The sole purpose of this page is a test." Well, Bing flunks the test - it has seen the link many hundreds of time and never visited it, .... unless the robot uses AI to understand "please ignore' !!!

As of 24 June 2009, Google is showing in its cache the page as it appeared Jun 20, 2009 22:39:13 GMT (which includes updates up to and including the 17 June remarks.) So the answer to when Google would notice the change is... within 3 days!
Meanwhile, how about Bing? No change. This page is still not yet in its index - a week after it was specifically told on using a form on its search page to report missing pages, there is no search result using the headline ["The sole purpose of this page is a test" site:todayinsci.com].

Update early on 2 July 2009. Well, let's welcome - finally - Bing's listing. Looking today, the cached version stated the last time the crawler visited this page was 28 June 2009, and it shows the update comments (above) of 24 June.  The website logs can checked for any earlier visit(s) for which credit must be given between 24 June and 28 June to see if the first visit was in fact made any earlier. Please stand by! Google's cached copy is dated 25 June, includes the update remarks (above) for 24 Jun.


If you are visiting out of curiosity - I suppose even "Test - please ignore" causes curiosity - why not try pages which have more interesting content., such as...

Science Quotes and Scientist Quotations

which give not merely witty or wise quotes of scientists, but also their own biographical remarks about themselves and their work.

Science Stories

There are several series to look at....

The Science Wall Calendar

button in the navigation column takes you to a page where you can print any month with scientist and event thumbnails for each day.

Our Survey

gives you a chance to send some feedback for statistiics about this site's readers - please participate!

The Newsletter

you can sign up for gives about five questions per day in your email to test your knowledge of the day's events, with links to the answers.


Finally, if you read this far, why not send an email to say "Hi!" and describe what you find most interesting about the site?
Look for the Email button top right of any page with the top navigation bar.

The URL for the home page is http://www.todayinsci.com