Experts Exchange - How To Get Answers
Experts Exchange dominates Google for just about everything about “how to” do stuff on Linux/Unix.
I am always looking for syntax examples for various Unix and Linux commands to make my life easier but most of the time I need the answer RIGHT NOW and dont have time to go through some signup proccess… wait for confirmation… blah blah blah just show me the damn answer that you showed in Google!
So today I was Google’n for the find command on how to remove files older then 7 days so I searched for “linux find files older then 1 day” As you can see its #1 and has the answer I want. So I click on it but then I am hit with this “Welcome Google user” and all the answers are blured out =(
BUT!!!
They showed me the answer in the result so… they must show it to googlebot right?
WHOLA look at the Google cache for the same page (or just click on the cached link).
Instant answers without having to sign up 
BTW: some people might think that since its a free site making you signup is not that big of deal… ehh bullshit. When this site is sold how do you think its measured? Ya by its userbase. User aquisition is key and cloaking for Google seems to be working well for the experts exchange
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I’ve been hitting the cached link for a long time on sites like that. It’s a pain and not sure why a lot of those don’t get in trouble from google for cloaking. I know I do when I get caught. :p
I couldn’t believe it when I saw this for the first time. Correction… I wasn’t surprised at all. But it’s still an inconvenience.
I’ll be honest I don’t mind it as long as the cached link works. If that wasn’t there i’d piss me off.
You can also just use their translation tool to translate the page to German - and if you scroll all the way down on the translated page, it gives you the non-cloaked answers
That type of cloaking is what prompted Matt Cutts to tell Brett of webmasterworld, stop the practice or get removed from the serps. In the end, Brett went to a few page loads per user before requiring registration.
Got to love the Google cache. Whenever I see a site that I know that has a chance of a popup, slow servers, or signups I always hit the Google cache first.
This might be a noob question, but do they still get an impression for their advertisements when people use the cache?
I think it depends on the type of advertising program used. If they’re using AdSense for example, the JavaScript should remain in tact (including the publisher ID), and thus the ad should load correctly and still count.
If it’s another service where they check the referrer URL or something like that, then it wouldn’t count. Or if it’s direct advertising, they simply won’t see that visitation stat in their Analytics (or similar) reports, which could potentially hinder their advertising in the future if too many people do tricks like this.
If you scroll all the way to the bottom of that EE page you will see the answers not blurred out.
Yeah, but that’s still “older than” and not “older then”. You might have gotten more different results if you had typed it right.
Hey, I used to answer questions in ExpertsExchange (not to be confused with ExpertSexChange) several years ago.
Today, I tried to login with my old account and this is what I got:
Member Name: xxxxxx
Points Earned: 35,353 Expert Points
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My problem is that I no longer have the time to answer questions. What would you do?
@Hamlet,
I say go ahead and sign up, I am a premium member at EE and I’m loving it. Try to answer 1 question per month if you can.
Shoemoney,
Thanks for the tip. I have been using EE so long and sites like it, that I never realized that I could get the answer without signing up just by clicking the cache link…that’s awesome and now my new thing!
I also did a lot on EE (even got an expert-of-the-year t-shirt, no I’m not sending it in) - their push on monetization is what made me leave. Ads are nothing compared to their trying to sell accounts (and the experts get nothing from all of that). You can also usually find the answers in the page source (hidden in the code).
That said, they’re amazingly quick and usually very competent. It’s amazing how they’re able to keep enough people who can answer all those questions for free. One heck of a business model: work for me for free and I will sell your work.
basically: nothing.
you’re right about the comfo and ease part; but on the other hand I think it’s just a way to monetize a site; if they offer good service, I’m willing to sign up.
Hey Shoe,
Is that “Experts Exchange” or Expert Sexchange”???
You can actually just scroll down to the VERY bottom of the page and you’ll find the solutions/discussion. They do put some “fake” ones near the top to trick you in to registering, but the answers are in fact on the pages.
It pisses me off when I click through from a SERP and see a signup page, if you want to get into the engines you shouldn’t be able to hide your content behind some stupid free registration. I don’t care if you’re the NY Times, if it’s out there for the bots, it better be out for everyone.
I love the cache for the speed reasons too, sometimes servers are so darned slow… but not google!
I was gonna say that..a lot of people don’t know about that.
Indeed, EE has always shown the answers at the bottom of the page.
I have used cached versions before for others sites also. great way to get info without having to give out a real or “fake” email
Surely you just scroll down?! I’m amazed at how many people failed to point this out… especially since the cache returns exactly the same thing :S
There are tons of websites that this trick works on. I use it all the time to access pages that websites hide. They shouldn’t be cloaking anyhow.
while the expert sex change joke is funny, http://www.expertsexchange.com/ is a different site. the real site has a hyphen.
Have you tried searching for linux older “than” one day? That’s a great trick, though, a lot of people don’t know about that one.
I personally dislike EE. Making me sign up to view answers *shouldn’t* be a big deal, especially since they are providing what I am possibly looking for - but it is
Also, ever since signing up I’ve been bombarded with EE emails. Not necessarily spam but still fairly unnecessary at times.
I’ve been avoiding every EE page I come across just because of that. Their pages are such a tease, and when I’m in the middle of coding and need to figure something out I don’t have time for dilly dallying. Never thought about the Google cache though.. thanks for the tip..
comes in handy when your site is dugg too..
I agree.. surprised they haven’t had the Google smackdown yet..
I just had an EE result come up that I needed to read, and I’ve got to say, both the normal and the google cache one are a pain in the ass to read. It was literally 6 pages of scrolling (1600×1200) before I got to the answer.
Ya, it’s been like that for a long time, I never did figure out why I would want to signup when the answer was right there, hehe.
Depends if you’re from Nebraska or Pen Island
I think webmaster world employs the same type of cloaking. It’s annoying to say the least.
When I see a link to EE, I usually go back to Newsgroups (Google groups) and find the solution there.
I love newsgroups..they haven’t changed too much in the last 10-15years as opposed to the web.
I do usualy the same thing. Quite often is the page with answer moved somwhere else also but once Google finds it than it is for sure in the Google Cache.
I could have sworn that the last time I used that trick on this site it didn’t work, like they set the page to index but not cache.
in any event … i use this trick as much as you all do but no one has merit to be pissed about their process, EE should be the ones pissed for everyone grabbing the fruits of their and their users labor without even signing up.
I used to use google answers but that closed.
I can’t stand signing up for stuff I know I am only going to use once. There should be a forum software that allows a single user signup to then use many forums.
I myself am an EE user, I used to go there regularly when I was setting up my Gentoo system, it was always helpful. Your post actually reminded me I need to give them my new email address XD
Peace out :O
-LtBrenton
Do these pages typically have the answer you are looking for though? I know a lot of Yahoo answers don’t always have the specific information I am looking for.
That’s an awesome idea. I’m sick of spreading around my “unsecure” password to who know’s who…
I like hitting the cached link for cloaked sites to see how they get away with high SERankings. Some of these ringtones results on msn barely have any text on them and they get to the first page although they just redirect you immediately to the affiliate sign up page. Sometimes you have to hit stop load to actually see the cloaked page though.
This applies for a lot of other websites as well. I’ve seen the result I want in SERP, but I’ve never thought of looking in the cache pages..
Experts Exchange is a good site and I often use it to get answers to questions. What I noticed was that if you scroll wayyy down the page, you will get your answer there. The top part of the page is filled with ads, sign up buttons and all the crap, but often if you scroll down, the answers are also there. Don’t know if any one else has experienced that.
[...] today, Shoe Money posted one of those posts that make me think, duh, why didn’t I think of [...]
[...] Yesterday, Shoemoney reported about his experience in typing some technical questions in Google and finding links to the answers in ExpertsExchange. The interesting thing is that part of the answer is visible on the SERPs (search engine result pages), but once you land on the website you are presented with a login/subscription screen. I am sure you have probably experienced something similar with the New York Times Online, and some of the other news subscription services sites as well. They provide the real content to the search bots (in order to get the search referrals), and a subscription screen to the user. These are legitimate ways where cloaking can be used. Note that they are not trying to manipulate rankings,they are simply trying to increase their sign-ups. [...]