Wildly Appropriate

Automated Content Access Protocol: Why?

Sep 22, 07:12 PM

Golly. Some daft people I suppose we must refer to as Publishers decided recently that they need more control over how search engines interact with their content, and to that end they're creating something called Automated Content Access Protocol:

"Since search engine operators rely on robotic spiders to manage their automated processes, publishers' Web sites need to start speaking a language which the operators can teach their robots to understand," according to a document seen by Reuters that outlines the publishers' plans.

Umm.. Doesn't Google sitemaps and/or ROR and/or robots.txt do like... most of what the publishers think they're inventing here with the ACAP? You know the World Association of Newspapers who're supposedly spearheading this campaign for publishers being able to tell search engines how to crawl and use their content? Look how effectively they're using the existing protocol for spider control:

http://www.wan-press.org/robots.txt

Here's an idea: instead of reinventing the wheel, try some simple Google searches to see if the thing you think you're inventing actually exists already. Or... if Googling is too much like work... couldn't these Publishers could just go back to minding their clearinghouse and kickin it with Ed?

Update: Apologies to Danny Sullivan. After doing a Technorati search on ACAP with the hope of finding my posting in there somewhere, I discovered that Danny's got this matter well in hand. Go read him on these issues now-like!