Different skin for spiders?

[Scott]

This is an option I can set in IPB, allowing search engine spiders to see a different skin from users. The question is, does this fall under cloaking (http://www.seo-glossary.com/cloaking.html)?

[Tyler]

I believe anything "different" is considered to be a blackhat technique.

I am sure Google has spiders that are on a completely different IP, and different useragent, just to see if people try to do something unique only for spiders...

[SoftWareRevue]

... The question is, does this fall under cloaking (http://www.seo-glossary.com/cloaking.html)?Google would say so. (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&topic=8522)

Things to Avoid
Don't fill your page with lists of keywords, attempt to "cloak" pages, or put up "crawler only" pages. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don't intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site.
I think the mere fact that you don't intend for visitors to see the pages that you want to send google to, is enough for them (google) to ignore your site.

Of course, you could take the chance and let us know. :dgrin:

[Scott]

Of course, you could take the chance and let us know. :dgrin:
That's the thing, it's being listed fine in google. I've taken it off though, not really worth the risk.