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#213228 - 12/17/10 12:27 PM Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider?
KenK Offline
"Be Prepared"
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 06/26/04
Posts: 2208
Loc: NE Wisconsin
On the right side of the forum screen it says "Who's Online" and it lists a number registered, a number of guests, and then it lists a number of "Spiders".

What the heck are "Spiders" in this context?

Just wondering.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka, and a Joyful Holiday to all ... especially to the brave men & women serving to protect us,

Ken K.

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#213230 - 12/17/10 12:51 PM Re: Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider? [Re: KenK]
Eric Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 09/09/06
Posts: 323
Loc: Iowa
Spiders are web crawlers!!

Google and others use software to crawl the web and index things for searching and other purposes. In keeping with the whole web theme these tools are known as spiders.

-Eric
_________________________
You are never beaten until you admit it. - - General George S. Patton


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#213233 - 12/17/10 01:42 PM Re: Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider? [Re: KenK]
Arney Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
Think of "spiders" as the Roomba vacuum cleaners of the web--i.e. automated software that crawl around every nook and cranny of websites 24/7, sucking up text and images as they go.

That's how these search engines can catalog all those millions and millions of webpages in their database. I'm not sure what percentage of all available websites are indexed by search engines now, but thanks to spiders, it must be quite high.

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#213235 - 12/17/10 02:25 PM Re: Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider? [Re: KenK]
dougwalkabout Online   confused
Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
I always thought that "7spidersonline" would be a rather amusing 'net handle. But then I have a weird sense of humour.

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#213275 - 12/18/10 05:48 AM Re: Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider? [Re: dougwalkabout]
Richlacal Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 02/11/10
Posts: 778
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
OK,Then that means the Guests are,Actually Lurking/Lurkers?

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#213284 - 12/18/10 02:00 PM Re: Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider? [Re: Richlacal]
dougwalkabout Online   confused
Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
Originally Posted By: Richlacal
OK,Then that means the Guests are,Actually Lurking/Lurkers?


Yup. Or they could be members who aren't logged in.

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#213290 - 12/18/10 05:14 PM Re: Silly Forum Question: What's a Spider? [Re: dougwalkabout]
hikermor Offline
Geezer in Chief
Geezer

Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
I note that when I am checking this forum, sometimes I am shown as registered (like right now) and sometimes not. Is there a limit to the number of registered members who can be displayed? Idle curiosity question only - it's a quiet rainy day here is SoCal.
_________________________
Geezer in Chief

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