596009 - component registration changes in Firefox 4/Thunderbird 3.2 from search engines should be easier to find from search engines.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Wiki pages, defect)

Description

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

See bug 499516 from comment 30 onward.  I did a few quick searches on Google and Bing and didn't get results that really led me to the right place.  Perhaps some SEO would be help here?

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

What search keywords do you expect people will be using? I really don't think that searching for "chrome registration" should end up anywhere other than https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Chrome_Registration (which it currently does). Do you somehow want to crosslink that to the XPCOM registration changes?

Let's try to be specific!

Comment 2

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

Hmm, looking more closely, I'm thinking that maybe SEO isn't really the issue.  Rather that while that page has the details one needs to write a working chrome registration, it's a little hard to infer the details of <https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XPCOM/XPCOM_changes_in_Gecko_2.0> from it.  So maybe just a link to that page somewhere near the top would do the trick.  buddhatron, given that it was you that ran into this issue first, do you think this would have helped you?

Comment 3

[buddhatron]

Hmm, it might have...

The terms I used were mixed and matched with each other in hopes of trying to find someone experiencing the same problem I was, and that in the same thread would hopefully contain the solution. I thought I was being pretty specific at the time, but there really wasn't anything that existed describing what NOT updating your stuff for Gecko 2.0 compat. would do.

There just seems to be a gap currently with no bridge between moz-savviness and the more casual, generally out-of-the-loop development. I know in my case I need a lot of idiot-proof instruction ;]. But yeah, I guess depending on experience sailing the ocean of Mozilla documentation, some things can be hard to find.

I hope that was helpful.

Comment 4

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

buddhatron, yeah, thanks!  jenzed, sheppy, do you guys have any thoughts on improving findability in general, particularly for documentation aimed at people who are not swimming in the deep end of the mozilla pool?

Comment 5

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

That's an ongoing issue, and one that will be resolved (hopefully) when we get the new wiki system up and migrated onto next year. For now, there's not a lot we can do.

Comment 6

[buddhatron]

That seems reasonable.
The only idea I can pull off the top of my head is some kind of official or unofficial, far-reaching heads up page about the mandatory changes that would hopefully find the kiddies in the wading pool. But the problem with that is the logistical challenge of getting the word out to a really small percentage without aggravating those who are aware of it with news they've already heard before.

I'll make a post on my blog using the same keywords I used in search and bring the reader's attention to the XPCOM changes page, that ought to route a handful the cases like mine to the right road.
But it does seem that unawareness in general about this is a pretty rare occurrence by the looks of things.

Comment 7

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

buddhatron, a blog post would be great, thanks!

I've updated <https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Chrome_Registration> with a link to the XPCOM changes page at an appropriate spot.  Given the earlier discussion on this bug, I'm going to assert that this is a Good Enough solution to the problem for now, and resolve this as FIXED.  If anyone disagrees, they're welcome to re-open.

I look forward to the new wiki system.  Are new details about that available as yet?