791303 - Google search of Add-on SDK docs on AMO using "latest/" does not work as expected

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, defect)

Description

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

AMO hosts different versions of the Add-on SDK docs (1.8, 1.9 and so on), and provides access to the most recent release through an alias https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/latest/ (which currently aliases https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/1.9/).

I'm trying to search the latest version of the docs only, using Google.

If I go to google.com and restrict search to the latest version of the SDK docs using the "latest" alias, like this:

"site:https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/latest/ panel"

...then I only see results from a single file, specifically this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/latest/dev-guide/guides/content-scripts/accessing-the-dom.html

This is surprising, since the SDK docs also includes files like this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/latest/packages/addon-kit/panel.html

The only thing different about "accessing-the-dom.html" seems to be that it's brand new in the latest SDK version, while all the other files are new revisions of existing files.

If I restrict search using the exact version number, instead of the alias, like this:

"site:https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/1.9/ panel"

...it gives me the results I expect.

The motivation for this is to add search to the docs using a Google Custom Search engine (see bug 791115). In that bug I implemented a Google CSE which searches https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/latest/, so as to search only the latest doc set, and it was with that search engine I first saw this problem. But it turns out to be observable at google.com as well.

Note that back in April, when I first implemented the Google CSE, this worked fine, so "something", possibly Google, has changed to break it in the meantime.

Comment 1

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Thanks for filing this.  Due to resource constraints we are closing bugs which we won't realistically be able to fix.  If you have a patch that applies to this bug please reopen.

For more info see http://micropipes.com/blog/2014/09/24/the-great-add-on-bug-triage/