My last blog got me wondering a bit more on what goes on with behind the URL parameters of a search result because all the sudden I noticed a new "/IPC=us/" on a search listing URL for a Spanish keyword on Yahoo! Search. We all know that these URLs have a language of their own, right? So, I remember back a great article from Danny Sullivan on SearchEngineWatch.com for "URL Deciphering At Yahoo" (sorry, subscribers only get the beef). He goes over each parameter on the URL and either tells you exactly what it is or he takes a good guess at it. Unfortunately, a few new parameters have been added since then (June 17, 2004). To compare apples with apples I did a search for the same keyword, kameleon remote. Here I got this result:
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=kameleon+remote/v=2/ SID=e/TID=F492_107/l=WS1/R=7/IPC=us/SHE=0/H=2/ SIG=11oci4r19/EXP=1114063661/*-http%3A//www.remotecentral.com/urc9960
Where as Danny's URL was:
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=kameleon+remote/v=2/ SID=e/TID=DFX5_30/l=WS1/R=2/SS=16752724/H=0/*-http://www.remotecentral.com/
Here are the new parameters and I will try to take an educated guess at each:
IPC=us - This is probably tagging the result coming from a U.S. IP address from the searcher. Perhaps one day Yahoo! will be willing to say "Do you only want U.S. traffic?" -- who knows.
SHE=0 - Could this be that SHE=1 identifies that the user is female and SHE=0 the user is male? Again, perhaps one day Yahoo! might say "Do you want traffic from females, males or both?". Looks like personalized traffic is very near for all marketers.
SIG=11oci4r19 - This is probably the signature file id associated with the page indexed, but I could be wrong.
EXP=1114063661 - I believe 111406 stands for 1/6/05 which is probably the date it was submitted, but I can't figure out the remaining 3661. Could that have anything to do with the expiration of the paid inclusion for this URL?
You agree/disagree with me? Did I miss other parameters? Have fun stripping out the guts of a Yahoo! Search URL in the SEW thread called Defining the Yahoo! Search URL Parameters.
