1047872 - Search engines should not index "action=edit" links

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Websites :: wiki.mozilla.org, defect)

Description

[Hal Wine [:hwine] use NI!]

Google (and probably other) search engines appear to index and follow links in the "edit view" of our wiki pages. A quick look shows that we do not properly tell search engines to ignore that material when the edit request is not authenticated.

STR:

1. use google to search for: "site:wiki.mozilla.org fresh_bb_setup"

2. note that 4 matches are returned -- 2 to rendered pages, and 2 to the "edit" view of each of those pages.

3. in a browser already authenticated to edit wikimo, load one of the edit links:
  https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=ReleaseEngineering/How_To/Setup_Personal_Development_Master&action=edit

4. View the source html for that page, and note the presence of the header:
    <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />
    
5. Load the same URL from #3 in a browser not authenticated

6. View the source html for that page. No robots instruction is present.

It would be nice to both save the server/bandwidth costs AND get rid of those duplicate search results.

Comment 1

[Gordon P. Hemsley [:GPHemsley]]

I'm sure this will get fixed automatically once we upgrade to MediaWiki 1.23.

Comment 2

[Gordon P. Hemsley [:GPHemsley]]

(In reply to Gordon P. Hemsley [:GPHemsley] from comment #1)
> I'm sure this will get fixed automatically once we upgrade to MediaWiki 1.23.

I appear to have been correct.