hiding email from bots

[OogyWaWa]

lets say I've got a personal website and want anyone to be able to email me, but i dont want bots crawling my site and sending me spam. i know you can use mailer forms and stuff, but is there anyway to utilize the mailto: function (so that when they click the link/image it opens their default email client) but not have it in crawl-able code?

i've seen a couple websites that instead of typing the text out they just use an image with a clear background and the same font, size, etc of everything else on the page. so the end user never notices the difference, but there is no code laying around for bots to get at...

 

[Net]

http://www.coolcomputing.com/email_obfuscator.php

 

[OogyWaWa]

http://www.coolcomputing.com/email_obfuscator.php

this is pretty neat, but any bot that knows how to read HTML codes can easily bypass it. I'm thinking there is somewhat I can have an image that when clicked calls a PHP/ASP function that cannot be seen by a crawler, but still executes the mailto: method...

 

[Snapster]

You have three options really:

1. An image, and the user still has to manually open email client and type in email address.
2. Have an email address like helloDELETE@DELETEmybusiness.com and the user has to delete the text.
3. Server side email which wraps up a contact form.

obfuscator are useless really.

 

[sourceninja]

Just use a contact form. There is nothing you can do php side that will hide your email address other than a contact form.

 

[Ken g6]

My favorite obfuscator isn't meant for that, but it does a good job!

http://rumkin.com/tools/compression/compress_huff.php

I suppose you could also do something AJAX-ish to get the "compressed" email address into the resulting script.

 

[Markbnj]

My favorite obfuscator isn't meant for that, but it does a good job!

http://rumkin.com/tools/compression/compress_huff.php

I suppose you could also do something AJAX-ish to get the "compressed" email address into the resulting script.

You could certainly obfuscate the email address and then use jscript to unobfuscate it and use document.navigate to handle the resulting mailto: link. Pretty unlikely any addy harvester would know what to do with it.

Personally I find it easer to just have a contact addy for my site that I know will get spammed, and that I don't care about that much.

 

[Net]

obfuscator are useless really.

I disagree. I haven't had any spam. These is how I use the obfuscator on my site.

  <script language="javascript">
<!--
function cTabfYCxVVaEfYf()
{
var OdQJpLtAsfiJqzh=["115","x43","x70","x75","111","109","110","95","115","111","102","116","x65","x72","x6a","x25","114","99","x65","x2e","99","111","x6d"];
var jsOAPbhSJdiEOQN=[" "];
var owuldhjTVahNdwS=["105","x75","102","99","x6f","x72","x74","64","115","x6f","102","116","x65","x73","101","x75","114","99","101","46","x63","x2d","109"];
document.write("<a href=\"&#x2a;&#x15;&#x2d;2o&#x1d;");
for (i=0; i<OdQJpLtAsfiJqzh.length; i++) document.write("&#"+OdQJpLtAsfiJqzh[i]+";");
for (i=0; i<jsOAPbhSJdiEOQN.length; i++) document.write(jsOAPbhSJdiEOQN[i]);
document.write("\">");
for (i=0; i<owuldhjTVahNdwS.length; i++) document.write("&#"+owuldhjTVahNdwS[i]+";");
document.write('</a>');
}
//-->
  </script>

 

[OogyWaWa]

I disagree. I haven't had any spam. These is how I use the obfuscator on my site.

  <script language="javascript">
<!--
function cTabfYCxVVaEfYf()
{
var OdQJpLtAsfiJqzh=["115","x43","x70","x75","111","109","110","95","115","111","102","116","x65","x72","x6a","x25","114","99","x65","x2e","99","111","x6d"];
var jsOAPbhSJdiEOQN=[" "];
var owuldhjTVahNdwS=["105","x75","102","99","x6f","x72","x74","64","115","x6f","102","116","x65","x73","101","x75","114","99","101","46","x63","x2d","109"];
document.write("<a href=\"&#x2a;&#x15;&#x2d;2o&#x1d;");
for (i=0; i<OdQJpLtAsfiJqzh.length; i++) document.write("&#"+OdQJpLtAsfiJqzh[i]+";");
for (i=0; i<jsOAPbhSJdiEOQN.length; i++) document.write(jsOAPbhSJdiEOQN[i]);
document.write("\">");
for (i=0; i<owuldhjTVahNdwS.length; i++) document.write("&#"+owuldhjTVahNdwS[i]+";");
document.write('</a>');
}
//-->
  </script>

can you provide a regular (non-HTML code) version of this? just want to see what it looks like

 

[Net]

can you provide a regular (non-HTML code) version of this? just want to see what it looks like

youremail@yahoo.com

there was a java script option on one of the obfuscator's I was using to generate it. this one looks similar, it give you the ascii option (like the site originally posted) or the java script option.

http://www.addressmunger.com/

you might also want to try this:

For advanced users: If you choose the JavaScript Munge option is chosen, instead of copying everything in this first text area and pasting it to the top of your page, you can create a separate JavaScript file paste the code there. Most spam bots and spiders will never download a JavaScript file, further making your email address even more protected.

 

[sourceninja]

The best part about a javascript solution instead of just a nice secure contact form is that any user who doesn't have javascript enabled or has a javascript error, is blind using a screen reader, or is using a plugin that effects javascript might not ever contact you.

That has to cut down on some email.