Spiders?!

[cattycutie]

Looking at Who's Online, I notice that there are... Spiders :P

Confused. Are they little automated searchy things or what?

[Vekseid]

Looking at Who's Online, I notice that there are... Spiders :P

Confused. Are they little automated searchy things or what?

Yes, search engines use web crawling programs known as spiders to browse the web for their results. I left some of the options open for them so you can see them 'doing' some amusing things : )

[Oniya]

I caught one playing one of the arcade games a week or so ago.  Must have been tired of web-crawling.

[Spider]

It happens at time

[Oniya]

Anyone noticed that the spiders seem to have multiplied?  It used to be, I'd see one from each of the major search engines, but now it's rare that Google has less than 5 going at once, and I'm sure I saw it in the double digits once - from Google alone!

[Greenthorn]

Anyone noticed that the spiders seem to have multiplied?  It used to be, I'd see one from each of the major search engines, but now it's rare that Google has less than 5 going at once, and I'm sure I saw it in the double digits once - from Google alone!

Elliquiy is being noticed is all.  I'm 95% sure that is what it means.

[Caeli]

I've seen a couple of spiders from other search engines, too. I was actually quite surprised to see Baidu listed as one of them!

Veks, any chance that when we look at "Users Online", the spiders could be in a separate area, like they used to be?

[Vekseid]

Check the dropdown options : )

[Caeli]

I've seen THAT before. I mean having the spiders in a separate window entirely, even when you list 'everyone'.

But it's all good, that's just me being picky again. xD I don't think I'll notice the extra step once I get used to looking for it.

[Oniya]

I've seen a couple of spiders from other search engines, too. I was actually quite surprised to see Baidu listed as one of them!

Especially since Baidu is for a Chinese search engine and the censorship laws there are so stringent.

[Caeli]

Especially since Baidu is for a Chinese search engine and the censorship laws there are so stringent.

Precisely why I was so surprised. :)

[cattycutie]

Well, THERE'S a topic for Politics & Religion: Are the Chinese relaxing a bit?

But seriously, I thought it was justanything anti-government they censorshipped?

[Oniya]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China#Censored_content

Even if the 'obscenity and pornography' claim (which doesn't have a citation for it) doesn't apply, the 'unregulated content' certainly does - they censor LiveJournal for example.