If you index websites containing JavaScript, then the latest
additions to Thunderstone's web indexing programs will be of great
assistance. Texis now discovers text and links generated by JavaScript
that are invisible to other crawlers. This allows you to search sites
that have JavaScript-only navigation, as well as verify all the links
that are generated by JavaScript.
JavaScript crawling will be a separate "plug-in" module to
Thunderstone's standard "dowalk" script available on July 9th. We are
offering it for evaluation as part of the free Webinator until
September 30. Just download Webinator after July 9th and try it
out!
Do you buy keywords on search engines? "You probably are competing
with too many other sites that use the same words," says Mike Mindel,
founder of Wordtracker, which is based in London. "That dilutes your
effort to differentiate your offering. And web users probably are
searching related terms that could describe your business, but that you
neglected to incorporate into your site."
Wordtracker has built a highly successful business dedicated to
identifying which keywords are both popular and have the least
competition. One of the most technically sophisticated services of its
kind, Wordtracker relies on Texis to perform many important
functions.
When designing a table in Texis where you need to store text data,
you have the choice of several different datatypes. In this issue we
will compare the VARCHAR and CHAR types, which are used for small to
medium size data that is frequently accessed. A future issue will
explore types that are more appropriate for larger blocks of data that
are not frequently accessed.
One difference between Texis and many other databases is that a
VARCHAR can hold arbitrary amounts of text. It is not limited by the
declared size of the field. In contrast the CHAR field is limited to
the declared size, and always uses the declared size to store the
data.
For most applications VARCHAR is the most appropriate type. However
when you know that you will be storing the same amount of text in each
and every field you may want to consider the CHAR type, as it does not
need to store the size of the data with every row.
Feedback, suggestions and questions are welcome to
