Scrambling your code once your site is big enough

[Jake]

I have a debate for you.

What are your views on scrambling your websites code so that a browser can read it, but so that a human can not read it once you are big enough of a site? Could this effect the way Google's robots (browsers??) see it and judge it?

What I mean is:

Turning this-

<div id="some_Id" class="some-Class" style="some_Style_Which-Should-Really_Be_In-An-External_File">
<p id="steal_Me_Im-A-Cool_Paragraph" class="StealMeI'mACoolClassDeclaration">Some Ridiculous Paragraph
Complaining About Google</p>
</div>

Into this-

<script>var U7=window,W8=document;var a1="%3Cdiv%20id%3D%22some_Id%22%20class%3D%22some-Class%22%20style%3D%22some_Style_Which-Should-Really_Be_In-An-External_File%22%3E%0A%3Cp%20id%3D%22steal_Me_Im-A-Cool_Paragraph%22%20class%3D%22StealMeI%27mACoolClassDeclaration%22%3ESome%20Ridiculous%20Paragraph%0AComplaining%20About%20Google%3C/p%3E%0A%3C/div%3E";function V0(){var V0;V0=unescape(a1);W8.write(V0);}V0();</script>

 

[master412160]

What is best?

 

[Fergal]

Jake what would be the advantages of doing that, is it so that other's can't copy your code?

Why do you say "once you are big enough", is there a reason why small sites couldn't do it?

 

[Jake]

Yes, it would be so people couldn't steal your code, or find links to your CSS/JS files and copy them (though those can be scrambled as well)

When I say "once you are big enough", I mean when SEO really doesn't matter anymore. You're big, you don't need Google's help, etc.

I just don't know if this would effect your Google rating by scrambling your code. If not, then I say that everyone should do it, to prevent would-be thieves from becoming thieves.

 

[InRomoWeTrust]

I mean when SEO really doesn't matter anymore.

Never?

 

[Jake]

Facebook? Google? YouTube? MySpace?

 

[Cosmic]

I mean when SEO really doesn't matter anymore [.....] MySpace?

Wait, what doesn't matter again?

Code obfuscation has never stopped anyone from copying anything if they want to do it. It's fine if you want a performance boost, which will be small, but still there, but don't think you're going to protect your copyright.

 

[Darthmaul]

I know in most cases, if there's a way to encrypt it, there's a way to decrypt it. The best encoding I can think of is some really long-winded and cryptic code that would make it obnoxious to try and steal. 😉

 

[VirusZero]

Code obfusication doesn't always work well. Like if you use Jquery... code obfuscators tend to break that code since they don't understand it's not strict javascript (since it uses some different formatting).

And I don't know how much, if any, real performance boost you'd gain by obfuscating. What I do know is that if you obfuscate and have to make changes... You had best hope you have copy of pre-obfuscated code lying around since it can be a nightmare trying to figure out where and how to edit after it's been transformed.

Personally, if a site is going to steal your content there isn't much you can do. Instead the best thing to rely on is the fact that your site is the original. People will usually see that and ignore the copy (which generally only ends with the duplicate dying because it will never be as big/good as the original).
Plus if it's something you wrote, you can often send takedown requests to get your original content removed. If the site doesn't respond after a week, you can send a DMCA request to the host to see if they'll forcibly remove your content. (Either by going in and removing that content themselves or taking their site offline for violating their ToS.)


For code anyway, if you don't want them to access it you should try to use PHP as much as possible instead of javascript since PHP doesn't give the source, it only renders the output. (This isn't always practical or possible though so some use of javascript may still be necessary.)

 

[mav3n]

To me, you can't stop a thief. The best alarm system that you can buy for your home won't stop a thief if they want in. If you try to encrypt it, chances are, the person that is trying to rip your theme really wants it, and would just find a way to get around it. There is always a loop hole to everything.

 

[Gimgak]

sounds pointless yo

 

[Nuke]

I know in most cases, if there's a way to encrypt it, there's a way to de-encrypt it. The best encoding I can think of is some really long-winded and cryptic code that would make it obnoxious to try and steal. 😉

It's decrypt. Also agreed.

sounds pointless yo

Also Gimgak just sent a fiery torpedo of truth.

 

[Darthmaul]

I know in most cases, if there's a way to encrypt it, there's a way to de-encrypt it. The best encoding I can think of is some really long-winded and cryptic code that would make it obnoxious to try and steal. 😉

It's decrypt. Also agreed.

sounds pointless yo

Also Gimgak just sent a fiery torpedo of truth.

Oh damn, you're right. Editing.
+1 to what gimgak said 😉

 

[froggyboy604]

I think you can scramble the code, but people can still steal your idea, and use their own code, or a CMS program like WordPress, or Forum software like phpBB, and make a similar themed site.

Facebook is similar to Myspace, and other social networks, but FB was a College/University theme in the beginning to attract young adults who are in school to join.

Scrambling the code sounds like it might make website load a little slower if you add a lot of un-needed characters to the code which makes the file size of the HTML file bigger for the user to download.

It's always a good idea to have good SEO since people delete or abandon their accounts from old websites, so search engines are a good way for other people who never heard of your site to randomly find your site searching for a topic.

I'm sure Yahoo which is a big sites still get a lot of Traffic from Google since Yahoo Answers, and Yahoo News rank pretty high in Google Search when searching for weird questions on Google.

 

[iPhonefreak]

We already do this on our custom coded stuff.

 

[Zerum]

Can't it be easily deobfuscated anyway? I mean there are sites that does that for free and instant. Are there obfuscated codes that requires a keyword to be deobfuscated? If so then that would be extremely useful.

But if it would be deobfuscated in one click, then that won't really be so effective. Surely, newbies won't be able to figure that out, but for someone to want to read your source code I'm sure those are people who know how these things work.