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Interestingly, they used to just blur their text with effect, and the actual text was available in the source. I am not certain what prompted the change, but th

Interestingly, they used to just blur their text with effect, and the actual text was available in the source. I am not certain what prompted the change, but they now screenshot the text, blur it, and put the screenshot (!) in the page, preventing view source snooping. Since that started, I stopped reading Quora entirely and I always avoid their links. Occasionally there is some great content I can't find elsewhere, and I won't sign up to a service that is so abusive. This is a great trick. Thanks.

benjaminwootton 13y ago
Yes, Quora are really quite obnoxious and spammy in many ways. It's a shame they went down this route after a promising start. They could have taken the StackOverflow route but chose to be Expert-Sex-Change instead.
- pestaa 13y ago
  In case some people are not aware, Benjamin refers to the closed and paid Experts Exchange community, whose domain name is particularly easy to misread.
  - chrismorgan 13y ago
    ... and so, eventually, they moved to http://experts-exchange.com/ http://experts-exchange.com/.
    - pc86 13y ago
      I'm still trying to figure out what a s-ex change is.
      - PLenz 13y ago
        That's what you need the expert for
      - _quasimodo 13y ago
        Probably something about s-expressions [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression
    - benologist 13y ago
      Eventually, like a decade ago...
justincormack 13y ago
I also did that plus deleted my account and all my answers, many of which were quite popular. It started so well too.
nodata 13y ago
Isn't that forbidden by Google?
- dangrossman 13y ago
  Only if they're serving up a different page to Google so that it can index that text. If Googlebot gets the same HTML someone clicking on the search result would get, your site can be as user-unfriendly as you want.
  - eksith 13y ago
    Obscuring content to non-bot users is still cloaking, I believe. Google's goal is to mimic a human user clicking through links and if the experience the bot gets is markedly different than others, that's a problem.
    - pestaa 13y ago
      That's the point GP made. It is not markedly different, and it is not different at all. The content is just simply useless. From Googlebot's perspective, it is not cloaking at all.
      - eksith 13y ago
        Not according to Matt Cutts : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHtnfOgp65Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHtnfOgp65Q "Cloaking is essentially serving different content to users than Googlebot". I'm a user who cannot view Quora content that Googlebot has indexed even though it was a result Google said matched my query. This result is therefore unusable without modifying the URL or signing in. That is the definition of different content, HTML/CSS/JS or other semantics be damned, and a poor user experience. And that's something Google is allegedly trying to avoid. The Matt Cutts video also talks about mobile user experiences. If I worked for Quora, I'd pay close attention as I cannot view the site at all without getting their mobile app even though, again, Google said "you should check out this Quora link for this query". Edit: From the webmaster guidelines... https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 •Using white text on a white background •Locating text behind an image •Using CSS to position text off-screen •Setting the font size to 0 •Hiding a link by only linking one small character—for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph ` When evaluating your site to see if it includes hidden text or links, look for anything that's not easily viewable by visitors of your site. Are any text or links there solely for search engines rather than visitors?
patrickaljord 13y ago
I've just tested and I don't see any image, the html is right there and just clicking will make the lightbox go away. I never see it anyway cause I'm signed in but I tried in incognito mode and it was fine. Not sure why there's so much misinformation and hate on HN when it comes to quora.
- ZoF 13y ago
  The reason you don't see an image is because you're signed in or you happen to be viewing an unblurred answer... As someone who has never used this site I can assure you that answers are a blurred PNG with the title "Sign up to view the contents of this answer."[1] It's not misinformation if it's correct. [1]http://www.quora.com/iPhone/How-do-I-move-contacts-between-groups http://www.quora.com/iPhone/How-do-I-move-contacts-between-g...
  - patrickaljord 13y ago
    I clicked on this link and clicking outside of the lightbox anywhere on this page makes the blurred image disappear. Tried on both firefox and chrome in incognito mode so signed off. Did you try to click anywhere on the page?
- andypants 13y ago
  It is not misinformation. Here is a screenshot of a quora page with source: http://i.imgur.com/x8Ic69y.jpg http://i.imgur.com/x8Ic69y.jpg
  - patrickaljord 13y ago
    Thanks, could you give me the URL of that page please?
    - andypants 13y ago
      http://www.quora.com/Python-programming-language-1/Which-is-better-PHP-or-Python-Why http://www.quora.com/Python-programming-language-1/Which-is-...
raverbashing 13y ago
It's probably possible to recover the text from the blurred image (depending on the amount of blurring), some people would consider it a challenge
duncans 13y ago
> ... they now screenshot the text, blur it ... I think the blurred text is generic.

benjaminwootton 13y ago

Yes, Quora are really quite obnoxious and spammy in many ways. It's a shame they went down this route after a promising start. They could have taken the StackOverflow route but chose to be Expert-Sex-Change instead.

pestaa 13y ago
In case some people are not aware, Benjamin refers to the closed and paid Experts Exchange community, whose domain name is particularly easy to misread.
- chrismorgan 13y ago
  ... and so, eventually, they moved to http://experts-exchange.com/ http://experts-exchange.com/.
  - pc86 13y ago
    I'm still trying to figure out what a s-ex change is.
    - PLenz 13y ago
      That's what you need the expert for
    - _quasimodo 13y ago
      Probably something about s-expressions [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression
  - benologist 13y ago
    Eventually, like a decade ago...

justincormack 13y ago

I also did that plus deleted my account and all my answers, many of which were quite popular. It started so well too.

nodata 13y ago

Isn't that forbidden by Google?

dangrossman 13y ago
Only if they're serving up a different page to Google so that it can index that text. If Googlebot gets the same HTML someone clicking on the search result would get, your site can be as user-unfriendly as you want.
- eksith 13y ago
  Obscuring content to non-bot users is still cloaking, I believe. Google's goal is to mimic a human user clicking through links and if the experience the bot gets is markedly different than others, that's a problem.
  - pestaa 13y ago
    That's the point GP made. It is not markedly different, and it is not different at all. The content is just simply useless. From Googlebot's perspective, it is not cloaking at all.
    - eksith 13y ago
      Not according to Matt Cutts : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHtnfOgp65Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHtnfOgp65Q "Cloaking is essentially serving different content to users than Googlebot". I'm a user who cannot view Quora content that Googlebot has indexed even though it was a result Google said matched my query. This result is therefore unusable without modifying the URL or signing in. That is the definition of different content, HTML/CSS/JS or other semantics be damned, and a poor user experience. And that's something Google is allegedly trying to avoid. The Matt Cutts video also talks about mobile user experiences. If I worked for Quora, I'd pay close attention as I cannot view the site at all without getting their mobile app even though, again, Google said "you should check out this Quora link for this query". Edit: From the webmaster guidelines... https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 •Using white text on a white background •Locating text behind an image •Using CSS to position text off-screen •Setting the font size to 0 •Hiding a link by only linking one small character—for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph ` When evaluating your site to see if it includes hidden text or links, look for anything that's not easily viewable by visitors of your site. Are any text or links there solely for search engines rather than visitors?

patrickaljord 13y ago

I've just tested and I don't see any image, the html is right there and just clicking will make the lightbox go away. I never see it anyway cause I'm signed in but I tried in incognito mode and it was fine. Not sure why there's so much misinformation and hate on HN when it comes to quora.

ZoF 13y ago
The reason you don't see an image is because you're signed in or you happen to be viewing an unblurred answer... As someone who has never used this site I can assure you that answers are a blurred PNG with the title "Sign up to view the contents of this answer."[1] It's not misinformation if it's correct. [1]http://www.quora.com/iPhone/How-do-I-move-contacts-between-groups http://www.quora.com/iPhone/How-do-I-move-contacts-between-g...
- patrickaljord 13y ago
  I clicked on this link and clicking outside of the lightbox anywhere on this page makes the blurred image disappear. Tried on both firefox and chrome in incognito mode so signed off. Did you try to click anywhere on the page?
andypants 13y ago
It is not misinformation. Here is a screenshot of a quora page with source: http://i.imgur.com/x8Ic69y.jpg http://i.imgur.com/x8Ic69y.jpg
- patrickaljord 13y ago
  Thanks, could you give me the URL of that page please?
  - andypants 13y ago
    http://www.quora.com/Python-programming-language-1/Which-is-better-PHP-or-Python-Why http://www.quora.com/Python-programming-language-1/Which-is-...

raverbashing 13y ago

It's probably possible to recover the text from the blurred image (depending on the amount of blurring), some people would consider it a challenge

duncans 13y ago

> ... they now screenshot the text, blur it ... I think the blurred text is generic.