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Ajax is good at displaying different content in the same url. There is no way for search engines to index pages like that. What search engines need are unique urls. No matter how long the url, as long as they are unique, it is all good.

I heard there were some development in making search engines read ajax code… in the mean time, i dont think it will work after doing some experiments in a few websites. The inability for search engines to follow ajax hyperlinks is a major disadvantage to Web 2.0.

The are a few solutions and it seems that the most obvious one is to use utilise a javascript function to return false in the onclick attribute. That way, the page will remain static while search engines will still be happy. Search engines see the “a href”, ignores the ”onclick” and follow the links… cool. The ugly side of it: All the hyperlinks look ugly.

Web2.0 is taking the internet by storm. The next generation of websites will all be developed using Web 2.0 technologies, ie AJAX. Though I still think that AJAX is bad for search engine optimization, I am fully supportive of using AJAX to create web applications. JSON is another buzz word that comes into the picture when we talk about AJAX.

I was inspired to write an introductory article on JSON after a long talk with my colleague designer. I have been using AJAX and JSON for a while now and haven’t really wrote anything on it… thought that it is a good idea to share the basics of JSON with everyone - JSON for beginners

I always receive emails saying that you will get paid for doing surveys. When you mouse over the link, you will see the link is actually pointing towards another ip address, possibly someone else computer. The sender will usually be tactical, ie you will normally be asked some simple questions and then when you reach the last step, YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS!

All the steps, prompts and graphics are believable and if you are not aware, you will enter the credit card details in the last step. What happens after that? bye bye, your credit card details are now stolen.

This type of scam can be spotted easily by moving or clicking on the links in the mail. There are however, more intelligent ones such as customizing the mouseover display and redirecting you to a similar website after you arrived at the scam website. Some scam sites uses sub-domains so that it is more believable, such as ebay.xxxx.com… so that you might think that the site is actually an ebay site!

Another good way to find out if the email is a scam is that you visit the site ONLY after a few days you receive the mail. If it is a scam, the site will most likely be gone. Scammers are intelligent, they will not put a scam site for long period of time so that the police have a chance to catch them.

I receive this one today:

————- BEGINNING OF SCAM ———————- 

Dear Valued Customer,

CONGRATULATIONS !!!

You have been chosen by the Washington Mutual online department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey. In return we will credit $20 to your account - Just for your time!

Helping us better understand how our customers feel benefits everyone. With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand our online service.
The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous - No part of it is handed down to any third party groups.
It will be stored in our secure database for maximum of 3 days while we process the results of this nationwide survey.

We kindly ask you to spare two minutes of your time in taking part with this unique offer!

To Continue click on the link below:

http://www.wamu.com/secure/online.wamu.com/IdentityManagement/index.html?Washington-Mutual-survey

Many Thanks and Kind Regards - Washington Mutual Bank Customer Department

———————— END OF SCAM ——————

Yes, one more thing…. to make sure you don’t fall into the hands of scammers, don’t click on the links, instead copy the whole url and paste it in the browser. That way, you make sure that you are visiting the actually website and not the scammer’s website.

Be smart. Don’t believe in any scheme or surveys asking you to give your bank or credit card details. If you do wish to pay, always check that the page is secure, ie starts with a https:// instead of a http.

So Beware friends! If you are retired and are looking for home jobs, get rich schemes…etc, this little piece of IT knowledge might save you from giving away your hard earned money.