News Source: http://www.threadwatcher.com
Published: Jul 16, 2007 - 04:35 pm
Story Found By: NatashaRobinson 1777 Days ago
Category: SEO
UPDATE: Since ThreadWatcher.com seems to be down for good, I’ll go ahead and recreate my findings here.
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Last week I had been doing a little backlink reconnaissance via Yahoo.com when I noticed that I was not being redirected to Yahoo! Site Explorer as per usual.
On a few tries doing a "site:" or a "link:" search via Yahoo!, I would be redirected to either the "Advanced Search Options" page or to the Login page for Yahoo! Site Explorer.
Since I didn’t feel like logging in, I decided to switch to Firefox and use the Yahoo! search extension. That’s when I noticed that the end of the URL for each search query I did was appendage: “fr2=seo-rd-se”.
This was especially odd, because when I logged into my Yahoo! account and did the search in Yahoo! Site Explorer, this was not the case.
So a few questions come to mind:
1. Is Yahoo! moving to "Login Only" approach for Yahoo! Site Explorer?
2. Why are searches outside of a "login" being appended with “fr2=seo-rd-se”?
3. What the heck does “fr2=seo-rd-se” mean?
Any guesses?
10 Comments
Comments
Very cool observation!
Site’s suspended. Was it the SPHINN EFFECT?!?!11!1!one!
Wow - the Sphinn effect is enough to bring down Threadwatcher? Not sure if that’s kudos to Sphinn or shame on Threadwatcher...
Bummer, still down. Where IS that darn bandwidth when you need it?
Google caught it... http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:RhU3bzJmfUkJ:www.threadwatcher.com/2007/07/14/66676-conspiracy-theory-friday-is-yahoo-tracking-seos-via-site/+site:threadwatcher.com+conspiracy+theory+yahoo+tracking&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
I guess it is the Sphinn effect. Thanks for the link IWasHere
I’m covetous of your sharp eye. Good job.
Still down? Jeez... This article looks interesting. I wasn’t able to see it via Google cache... any other places I can check this out?
I’ve had to login to use Site Explorer for many, many months now - I assumed everyone did. Now I want to know why I am ’special’! :(
@Lea: really? even if you are using a search extension in Firefox or the new ie? @David: I’m covetous of your cute baby!