Hi I did some searching and didn’t see anything, but thought I would get an official answer on this, if I can.

Do the search engines spider and record what’s posted or commented on Lemm.ee (specifically)?

Thanks for any info.

  • Daemon Silverstein@thelemmy.club
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    18 hours ago

    I’m from another instance, but here’s what I noticed: due to federation, fediverse content shows up on Google’s search results.

    My instance doesn’t seem to have Google indexation by itself, but my comments and posts appear through other instances, often instances that I never heard of.

    Similar thing happens with Mastodon: while the Mastodon instance I’m in has Google indexation, my posts also appear through other Mastodon instances as well, and you guessed it: they’re often instances that I never heard of, too.

    So, even if your instance lemm.ee didn’t set up Google indexation (or if they even prohibit it via robots.txt), lemm.ee content will still be found by Google through other instances that federate with lemm.ee.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Google does pick up our instance but it’s generally not indexed high against the same posts on other instances. You can add “site:thelemmy.club” to a search and see.

  • perishthethought@lemm.eeOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    16 hours ago

    Interesting - thanks folks!

    ANd I search again and found this post from last year on this topic, which was helpful: https://lemmy.world/post/238847

    I did some new searching for this phrase:

    fullmoveiesonyoutube site:lemmy.world

    (That’s a community I moderate)

    • DuckDuckGo found links, but just to lemmy.world in general
    • Google found the community correctly
    • Ecosia said nothing found, until I removed the “site:” filter and then it found the Subreddit and the Lemmy.world pages.

    So thanks, this answers my question!