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live.com NOT passing correct referrer RRS feed

  • Question

  • this has been reported on numerous forums already, and i'm not certain that someone at MSFT is aware of the issue.

    the live.com search engine is NOT passing correct referrers to the web servers reached from live.com search results.

    typically the referrers we get are:

    http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=photo

    when the actual search was: "photo of the golden gate bridge"
    (that's an example).

    i.e. the query term indicated in the live.com referrer only contains ONE word, not the entire query, and further more, all the other parameters included in the actual referrer page (e.g. page number, language of search etc) are not passed.

    for example:

    if i reach my website from

    the referrer i get is:

    this is not good.  it is really important for webmasters to get access to the correct referrers, in order to know what search terms bring the traffic.

    Monday, February 16, 2009 2:19 AM

Answers

  • Hi Loupiote,

    My apologies for the incovenience this is causing you; however, we are aware of the situation. My manager and I are waiting for word back from the group responsible for these issues. I'll post back to the forums as soon as I have an update.


    Thank you,

    Brett
    Program Manager, Live Search Webmaster Tools
    • Marked as answer by Brett Yount Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:31 PM
    Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:31 PM

All replies

  • Hi Loupiote,

    My apologies for the incovenience this is causing you; however, we are aware of the situation. My manager and I are waiting for word back from the group responsible for these issues. I'll post back to the forums as soon as I have an update.


    Thank you,

    Brett
    Program Manager, Live Search Webmaster Tools
    • Marked as answer by Brett Yount Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:31 PM
    Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:31 PM
  • Hey Brett.
    The problem that Loupiote is having is still relevant. At first I wasn't sure if Live was passing referrer spam but now I see that the referrer is only passing part of the original search string. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is or how long this has been happening, but it really needs to be fixed.


    Thanks,
    Bryan
    Saturday, May 30, 2009 6:05 PM