Topic: web crawlers

  • Official AI Licensing Standard Now Requires Payment for Scraping

    Official AI Licensing Standard Now Requires Payment for Scraping

    The Really Simple Licensing 1.0 (RSL) standard allows publishers to set rules and require payment from AI companies that scrape their web content, evolving beyond the basic access controls of robots.txt files. Supported by major infrastructure firms like Cloudflare, RSL enables publishers to sele...

    Read More »
  • Google: Frequent Crawling Is a Positive SEO Signal

    Google: Frequent Crawling Is a Positive SEO Signal

    Frequent crawling by Google is a positive SEO signal, indicating fresh, relevant content that users are seeking, such as on ecommerce sites for updated prices and inventory. Google uses specialized crawlers that perform repeat visits to find the latest updates, and this crawling activity has grow...

    Read More »
  • AI Content Labeling: A Controversial Proposal

    AI Content Labeling: A Controversial Proposal

    A proposal for a new HTML attribute to label AI-generated content sections is sparking debate, aiming to meet upcoming EU regulations but facing criticism as a potential compliance checkbox without clear web ecosystem benefits. The proposal focuses on section-level labeling using the `<aside>` el...

    Read More »
  • AI Search Fails Users 3X More Often Than Google

    AI Search Fails Users 3X More Often Than Google

    AI search tools frequently direct users to non-existent or broken pages, with ChatGPT performing the worst by generating 1% of clicked URLs that result in 404 errors. The issue stems from AI systems relying on outdated training data and sometimes inventing plausible-sounding URLs that have never ...

    Read More »
  • AI Companies Now Face a New Web Payment System

    AI Companies Now Face a New Web Payment System

    The Really Simple Licensing (RSL) standard is a new framework that allows web publishers to specify and enforce compensation terms when their content is used for training AI systems, with support from major platforms like Reddit and Yahoo. RSL builds on the robots.txt protocol by adding financial...

    Read More »
  • Google Drops Outdated JavaScript SEO Warning

    Google Drops Outdated JavaScript SEO Warning

    Google has updated its JavaScript SEO guidance, removing outdated warnings against using JavaScript for essential content, as its search engine now effectively renders and understands modern web pages. The change reflects advancements in both Google's ability to process JavaScript and improvement...

    Read More »