It’s Tech Tuesday for Tech ‘Tards! Join Me if You Dare!
Posted
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 5:38 PM
by
Romo
The ways of the Internet are somewhat foreign to me, and most of the time I just accept this. But sometimes I start wondering about something if I see it enough times. Such was the case today with the phrase “mirror sites.” I asked someone in my office (okay, it way my boss) about it and he suggested that I find out what wikipedia had to say about it and then check in with any outstanding queries. So I paid a little visit to wikipedia and, in brief summary form, this is what I learned.
Mirror sites are used (“legitimately,” in the eyes of search engines) to synchronize date between multiple users.
Mirror sites are used (again, “legitimately”) to back up data, although this is a lousy way of backing up yer info.
Mirror sites are (“legitimately!”) used to route some of a heavy traffic load away from a site, splitting it between the mirrors. (This would be done, for instance, in the event that the original site’s server couldn’t handle a huge flood of traffic.)
Mirror sites, totally to the chagrin of search engines, are used for link farming. In this scenario, the sites are full of hyperlinks between each other, trying to trick the search engines into thinking that, since there are lots of in-links, the site must be important. However, the indomitable search engines will catch on to this and make you pay dearly.
Overall, mirror sites are a way to put the same data online in an identical format, but via independent (so to speak) sites.
At least, that’s my current understanding. After my little foray to the land of Wiki I actually had more questions than my original, “Hey, what’s a mirror site and is it a bad thing?” If my intrepid boss thought he got away easy on that one, he’s got another thing coming when he discovers my list of confusion in his inbox tomorrow!