MSN search targeting automated queries?

Mel · #1 (**permalink**) 02-13-2004, 04:25 AM

After noticing some oddball Wordtracker results I took the matter up with Mike Mindel who emailed:

Quote:

MSN has introduced a new cookie retrieval/set system in order to get accurate results. If you don't use the cookie mechanism, they redirect you to their honeypot server which issues low results. This happened just a few days ago ... We're working on a fix for this right now and I estimate it should be up in the next couple of days

I wonder if this is targeted at automated querying of MSN search and what the implications are for such programs.

minstrel · #2 (**permalink**) 02-13-2004, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mel

Quote:

If you don't use the cookie mechanism, they redirect you to their honeypot server which issues low results. This happened just a few days ago ... We're working on a fix for this right now

I wonder if this is targeted at automated querying of MSN search

Looking at what you quoted, Mel, I read it as basically saying, "this is a bug and will be fixed". Am I missing something?