Google Using Toolbar Data for Discovery

This has been happening for a long, long time, but Google does use more than just inbound links to discover websites or web pages. The other day I was looking through one of my website’s “recent visitors” logs, and lo-and-behold, I noted a Googlebot hit on a page… a page that was, first of all, dynamic (somefile.htm?do=something), and second of all — not referenced anywhere online.

Actually, the page being dynamic probably doesn’t have anything to do with the discoverability of the hidden page, but my point is that it’s not something that would likely be guessable, even if somebody knew the name of the .htm file.

For some, this is not new news, but for others — it could be an incentive for them to have the Google toolbar installed in their browser. Or, it could be a deterrent — it really depends on how you look at it. Now, I’m still waiting to see if this page shows up in Google’s SERP, but as of this writing — I’ve only had a hit to the secret URL, that I’ve noticed anyway.

Alexa is famous for publishing what some would hope to be “hidden” pages on their websites, but has anybody noticed Google’s discovery, and subsequent publishing of, pages that are not referenced, or linked to, anywhere online?