Confirmed: Google Is Requiring JavaScript To Block SEO Tools – Search Engine Journal
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The browser you’re using has JavaScript turned off. To continue your search, turn it on.In an email to TechCrunch a Google spokesperson shared the following details:“Enabling JavaScript allows us to better protect our services and users from bots and evolving forms of abuse and spam, …and to provide the most relevant and up-to-date information.”JavaScript possibly enables personalization in the search experience, which is what that spokesperson may mean by providing the most relevant information. But JavaScript can also be used for blocking bots.Using the latest version of Chrome I copied some of the JavaScript via Chrome Dev Tools and ran it through ChatGPT to ask what it does. One part of it may relate to restricting abusive requests for documents.ChatGPT gave me the following feedback:“Core Functionalities
Randomized Value Generation (rdb)Generates a random value based on properties (D_d, idc, and p4b) of the input object a, constrained by p7d.
This may be used for rate-limiting, exponential backoff, or similar logic.Purpose and Context
From its components, the script:Likely handles request retries or access control for web resources.Implements a policy enforcement system, where:Policies determine if requests are valid.Errors are logged and sometimes retried based on rules.Randomized delays or limits might control the retry mechanism.Appears optimized for error handling and resilience in distributed or high-traffic systems, possibly within a Google service or API.”ChatGPT said that the code may use rate-limiting which is a way to limit the number of actions a user or a system can take within a specific time period.Used to enforce a limit on the number of actions (e.g., API requests) a user or system can perform within a specific time frame.
In this code, the random values generated by rdb could be used to introduce variability in when or how often requests are allowed, helping to manage traffic effectively.ChatGPT explained that exponential backoff is a way to limit the amount of retries for a failed action a user or system is allowed to make. The time period between retries for a failed action increases exponentially.ChatGPT explained that random value generation could be used to manage access to resources to prevent abusive requests.I don’t know for certain that this is what that specific JavaScript is doing, that’s what ChatGPT explained and it definitely matches the information that Google shared that they are using JavaScript as part of their strategy for blocking bots.One of the observations made by search marketers across social media is that dealing with the blocks may cause an increase in resources for crawling which in turn may be passed on to users in the form of rate increases.Vahan Petrosyan, Director of Technology at Search Engine Journal observed:“Scraping Google with JavaScript requires more computing power. You often need a headless browser to render pages. That adds extra steps, and it increases hosting costs. The process is also slower because you have to wait for JavaScript to load. Google may detect such activity more easily, so it can be harder to avoid blocks. These factors make it expensive and complicated for SEO tools to simply “turn on” JavaScript.”This is a developing story and we’ll update the article as more information is available.
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