<OT> webpage index

[Ronnie Gauthier]

On Tuesday 18 November 2008 02:46:42 pm Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Thanks in advance for help with this.
>
> Consider a URL with a directory like this:
>
> http://www.a_website.com/a_directory
>
> Without knowing that a directory exists with the name a_directory, or
> the names of files, html pages, whatever within a_directory, is it
> possible for anyone to actually see these files, html pages, whatever or
> to know that they exist?
>
Well, it depends on the server and a few other things.
A search engine follows links. If there is a link to ../foo/file.abc
we know that the folder foo exists. So we can script the folder and get its 
contents if the server will let us. When you are surfing try viewing a 
graphic and then using the url to the images folder. On most servers you will
get a dir listing of the image files. If a folder is public you should be able 
to script it and get the contents.]

> I suppose that this is the same as asking "how does Google know that a
> page exists (especially without any "keywords" in the page)?
>
> Thanks!


Ronnie