Yahoo Delete URL Feature Disaster Waiting to Happen
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007;
-- Jeremy Luebke |
Yahoo announced a number of very nice new features for Site Explorer today. The Yahoo Search Blog has a full list.
The feature I am most interested in and also worried about is the new “delete URL” feature. It is literally a disaster waiting to happen. There is zero verification other than being logged into the proper Yahoo account to delete an entire site from the Yahoo index.
With Google you are required to upload a robots.txt file to the webserver that verifies the same information being requested through the Google delete URL/Site tool. With Yahoo, you just log in, click delete, click confirm, and it’s gone.
Until they fix this issue I recommend to everyone that you don’t authenticate any domain to Yahoo Site Explorer and if you have previously authenticated a site that you remove the authentication file or meta tag. If this loop hole is not fixed it’s only a matter of time before webmasters start waking up to entire sites missing from the Yahoo index. Yahoo accounts are too accessible to phishing and hack attempts to be the only barrier for such a powerful tool.
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January 30th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
[…] Dazu Jeremy Luebke: It is literally a disaster waiting to happen. There is zero verification other than being logged into the proper Yahoo account to delete an entire site from the Yahoo index. […] If this loop hole is not fixed it’s only a matter of time before webmasters start waking up to entire sites missing from the Yahoo index. Yahoo accounts are too accessible to phishing and hack attempts to be the only barrier for such a powerful tool. […]
January 31st, 2007 at 2:32 am
We regularly recheck that a site has the user’s authentication file present every few days. If ever we realize that the authentication file is removed we reverse all actions that were taken by that account. Hence, if your userid is ever compromised, immediately remove your authentication key from your site to undo any unwanted actions on Site Explorer. This is also documented in the Site Explorer Help http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/siteexplorer/siteexplorer-49.htm l (refer note at the bottom).
January 31st, 2007 at 6:13 am
[…] how anyone can delete a website from the yahoo search engineread more | digg story […]
March 14th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
[…] Here are what others are saying: Marketing Pilgrim: “The feature I am most interested in and also worried about is the new “delete URL†feature. It is literally a disaster waiting to happen. There is zero verification other than being logged into the proper Yahoo account to delete an entire site from the Yahoo index.” […]
July 19th, 2007 at 5:07 am
[…] Search Engine Land praat over de nieuwe ‘delete url‘ mogelijkheid in Yahoo. Danny Sullivan legt uitgebreid uit hoe het werkt, bijvoorbeeld door het te vergelijken met index exclusion regels in robots.txt en in meta-robots. Als je de ‘delete url’ feature van Yahoo site explorer gebruikt, wordt je pagina nog steeds gecrawld, maar het wordt niet opgenomen in de index. Deze optie is met name handig als je SNEL iets wil verwijderen uit de index van Yahoo. Er wordt stilgestaan bij de mogelijke veiligheidsrisico’s naar aanleiding van een post op Marketingpilgrim. […]