There are two separate issues. 1) We don't want the old docs indexed by Google, because users who google something like "lilypond titles" can end up unknowingly reading 2.12 docs, for example (currently the top match, btw).
One consequence of preventing Google from indexing old docs is that someone who actually wants to search for something in an old manual won't be able to, except by doing it manually, browsing through the nodes. Personally, I'm okay with this. 2) Users who use the search bar from the stable docs should only be served google hits from the stable docs. See http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=3209 Our current tactic is to serve them only the development docs, which I confess I don't fully understand. Perhaps the logic is that once we release the next version, what is now the development version will already have a Google presence? That still doesn't add up. One of the problems is that we use non-generic URL's: http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/ http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.16/Documentation/ http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/ Is it possible to change the URL's from `v2.16' to `stable'? http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/ http://lilypond.org/doc/stable/Documentation/ http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/ Then, instead of having the Google search bar specify "site:lilypond.org/doc/v2.16", we could have it specify "site:lilypond.org/doc/stable", which would automatically point to the new docs when we release the next version. Of course the process of updating the URL's should be automated, such that `stable' in the URL always points to the current docs, and then what was called `stable' would then switch to `2.16' in the URL. One drawback of this approach is that any new nodes won't appear in searches at first, until Google indexes them. This also doesn't bother me, because most of the nodes would already be there, and then the user always gets served the current stable docs. And before too long, Google will start finding the new stuff. Any opinions? Thanks. - Mark p.s. these two tracker items should be merged: Issue 2909: Manual search returns results from wrong version http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=2909 Issue 3209: Searching stable release documentation should only return results from stable release See http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=3209 _______________________________________________ lilypond-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel
