Shortly before the page finishes loading I see #atssh-linked appended to the url for the fraction of a second, then it changes to # and stays there. The great problem with this kind of URL manipulation is social bookmarking plugins, bookmarklets, and if you save a bookmark use this URL with the appended #.
This could dilutes some of your social bookmarking efforts since, index.html and index.html# are considered two different URLs by some social bookmarking sites like
StumbleUpon for example.
Digg and
Reddit seem to handle it well though.
Ouch.
Am I dreaming or does someone else share a similar observation?
Yours
John W. Furst
Update - P.S.: Some Sidewiki blocking scripts (javascript) are based on the fact that Sidewiki currently uses the named anchor ("#" that last part of an URL) as part of a unique key for the its comments. One blocking script creates a different random named fragment for each visitor in the browser, like #hyUJ5678, #mj8tgRf, #wert66EDa, etc. The result: Sidewiki comments become invisible because every visitor writes them on a different URL even though it's on the same page.
While this is used as an exploit right now, it reveals a major design flaw which unfortunately for the blocking script can be fixed rather easily. Besides that it's just a usability issue.
Google finally pays attention to those fragment identifiers within a page. And they can be quite useful for the user experience if used correctly, however, seems the Sidewiki development team didn't pay much attention. I imagine, it won't take long till it is fixed. Then the blocking script magically stops to work and all Sidewiki comment suddenly rise back into existence.
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