NYCPHP Meetup

[bzcoder]

csnyder wrote:
> Granted, there are all kinds of reasons not to provide back links.
> Users aren't really expecting them, the referer is not always going to
> be there, and it potentially leaves your site open to Google abuse,
> because suddenly your site has links back to anybody else's website.
>   
All of the above of course depends on the application:
Users aren't expecting them, but they may make sense in the application.

The referer is not always going to be there, so simply code in a way 
that your exit point makes sense if it is not there.

Google abuse doesn't really apply if someone has to go through a 
sequence of form submits before they logoff - Google won't do that so it 
won't see the backlink page.

It does have the potential for people using your site to redirect others 
to somewhere else(for example, if your application had something to do 
with surveys about vintage cars, someone might post a redirect link that 
takes people through a porn site and then automatically redirects them 
to your site the first time they go through it, but takes them to a 
popup laden main page when they return. So after someone goes through 
your entire site, the link they are sent to at the end is porn).
> But at the end of the day if you want to redirect people back to where
> they came from (like Paypal does, for instance, after you make a
> payment), you have no choice but to rely on the referer.
> _______________________________________________
>   

Paypal has a much better mechanism, where the person sending someone to 
paypal indicates to paypal in the redirect exactly which page on the 
website to return the user to when the payment is completed or canceled.

Depending on his application, this may be a method he can use if he can 
require people linking to his site to provide that information to him.