The robots.txt thing is a cheap shot and I've battled it everywhere I've seen it.
If you look at the long contents of the Bush version of it, it all points to */text directories. Which probably are the text file contents for pages that are displayed as HTML, etc. There's no reason to make the source text files themselves searchable when that White House wanted you to view them on their full multi-media page layouts.
Sure, I want to believe they are hiding something. But really, there's a sound technological reason for what they did.
The one line of disallow on the Obama robot file is on test only/printer-friendly pages, so it's only intention is to block double pages from appearing.
Why link to NaFun and not kottke? NaFun might be your BFF, but he's got the first post here.
And amy!, what are you on about? The fact that they needed to special case every text file shows a profound misunderstanding about graceful degradation, accessibility, etc.
And as some have pointed out, Obama's new page isn't really very semantically meaningful, which isn't a big deal, but isn't really WEB 3.0 BETA OMG either.
(Am I the only who is completely baffled by what they're talking about? Sure, I have to type by hitting my forehead against the keyboard, but I didn't think I was THAT dumb.)
Why have a fucking robots.txt file at all? Since all this is paid for by the tax payer all of it (with the exception) of national security (in the strictest possible sense) must be searchable and indexable.
These are very nice and all—one a sign of a web team that cares, two are symbols of high-tech transparency, and one is.. a blog—but the real changes are to be found in a blog post announcing the new site and the new administration's policy towards information.. There's no reason to make the source text files themselves search able when that White House wanted you to view them on their full multi-media page layouts. And as some have pointed out, Obama's new page isn't really very semantically meaningful, which isn't a big deal, but isn't really WEB 3.0 BETA OMG either....
AS LONG AS IT'S SOMETHING GAY WHITE MEN CAN ACCESS, THE REST OF US ARE UNDER THE BUS
If you look at the long contents of the Bush version of it, it all points to */text directories. Which probably are the text file contents for pages that are displayed as HTML, etc. There's no reason to make the source text files themselves searchable when that White House wanted you to view them on their full multi-media page layouts.
Sure, I want to believe they are hiding something. But really, there's a sound technological reason for what they did.
And amy!, what are you on about? The fact that they needed to special case every text file shows a profound misunderstanding about graceful degradation, accessibility, etc.
And as some have pointed out, Obama's new page isn't really very semantically meaningful, which isn't a big deal, but isn't really WEB 3.0 BETA OMG either.
Also, JQuery ftw.
92.122.82.135 Linux Apache 17-Jan-2009
However, it's Akamai, which means it could be running anything...
#5: Yeah, I saw that they were using JQuery -- amazing stuff. They have a better customer list than Microsoft these days...
I suppose that's justified.
(Am I the only who is completely baffled by what they're talking about? Sure, I have to type by hitting my forehead against the keyboard, but I didn't think I was THAT dumb.)
Come back in a few months to see if it's still a vital, fresh place to visit, or just another pretty, zombie site.