SEARCHES DYSFUNCTIONAL:
Trying to sort out the parameters of this:
What is happening? it was suggested that with time Google will map the pages on the new iSpot.
But the opposite seems to be happening. Fewer and fewer iSpot pages are showing up, and almost all of them are old ones, some of which are linking to the current site.
The site has been up now for 4 weeks and the 800 000 original pages are still not on Google.
Try it.
Google search something easy to track; Try Roridula (a Cape endemic). The top 4 entries on Google used to be iSpot. Now I cannot find iSpot on the first three pages.
So let us try the iSpot search (knowing full well that it uses Google):
In the All tab there are 6 results: - all to the old site.
In the Identifications tab there are 2 results – both to the old site
(note the old elegant urls: the new url is : https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/southern-africa/view/observation/420177/roridula-dentata - 3 times longer!!)
Now let us try the taxonomy tab:
(the search said there were 3 pages, but when I pressed on the 3rd it bombed out, and I had to redo the search and it then said only 1 page)
Now what would I expect in the taxonomy tab? I should think dictionary links.
Well the first is to the old ZA dictionary page and the second to the non-existent old CoL dictionary page, but then there are irrelevant links – nothing to do with the dictionary, but all old site and defunct.
So: NOT A SINGLE PAGE OF THE NEW ISPOT IS SHOWING ON THE ISPOT SEARCH!!
It is now 30 days of over three-quarters of a million observations and not a single one is recorded by Google!!
And some genius has decided that iSpot can use Google to do its searches!
For the record:
There are 13 observations of Roridula dentata and 16 of Roridula gorgonias on iSpot.
So I would have expected A MINIMUM of:
All tab: 29 observations + plus all those that mention it
ID tab: 29 observations (only!!! – this is for IDs)
Dictionary tab: 3 (one for the genus, and one each for the species)
I don’t know what is wrong, but it looks to me like Google is not being allowed to map the site, even though it is being used as the engine for the searches.
So: No TRACK, No CHANGES and No SEARCH. If someone suggested that the OU is deliberately trying to kill iSpot by making it unusable it would be hard to find evidence to the contrary.