Defining the Yahoo! Search URL Parameters

[Nacho]

In a blog entry today I explained that I encountered a few new parameters on a search result listing:

rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=kameleon+remote/v=2/SID=e/TID=F492_107/l=WS1/R=7/
IPC=us/SHE=0/H=2/SIG=11oci4r19/EXP=1114063661/*-http%3A//www.remotecentral.com/urc9960

Below are the new parameters and I will try to take an educated guess at each:

IPC=us - This is probably tagging the result coming from a U.S. IP address from the searcher. Perhaps one day Yahoo! will be willing to say "Do you only want U.S. traffic?" -- who knows.

SHE=0 - Could this be that SHE=1 identifies that the user is female and SHE=0 the user is male? Again, perhaps one day Yahoo! might say "Do you want traffic from females, males or both?". Looks like personalized traffic is very near for all marketers.

SIG=11oci4r19 - This is probably the signature file id associated with the page indexed, but I could be wrong.

EXP=1114063661 - I believe 111406 stands for 1/6/05 which is probably the date it was submitted, but I can't figure out the remaining 3661. Could that have anything to do with the expiration of the paid inclusion for this URL?

You agree/disagree with me? Did I miss other parameters? Have fun stripping out the guts of a Yahoo! Search URL.

[hjalli]

You're definetely not right about the meaning of SHE. Like the other parameters it is a acronym or abbreviation of some sort, but I can't guess what.

IPC almost definetely stands for IP Country, the country of the searcher.

EXP probably stands for Expires and it looks familiar to any programmer. The number is a UNIX timestamp (counting the seconds since January 1st, 1970. As such, the timestamp from your example - 1114063661 - translates to Thursday, April 21st 2005, 6:07:41 (GMT)

You can convert timestamps to dates here:
http://www.4webhelp.net/us/timestamp.php

[dannysullivan]

I get IPC=gb

So yes, this seems to be the IP address resolved to the country location of the searcher, in my case, the UK/Great Britain (GB)

SHE= I really doubt is tied into the sex of the searcher, but I have no idea wahat it is.

SIG=11o5kujlf is what I get, different from you, so not likely data tied into the record itself.

EXP=1114078341 is what I get, different from you, so not likely an expiration date.

It would be nice if Yahoo simply explained what the codes are. I asked them a year ago, and there was silence. Well, I'll ask again.

[Gurtie]

exp could be a serial date style number for the expiry date

she I agree isn't likely to be sex related, I wonder if it incriments by one each search in a session? The only reason I say that is thinking about what might be useful data, and what doesn't seem to be elsewhere in the string, it would probably be useful to know how many repeat searches were made.

[dannysullivan]

Back to Exp, missed the timestamp converter note. Great resource. And looking back, this looks like the time is one day after the request happened. IE, my timestamp is dated Thurs, 10:12am -- one day after I did the search.

[sugarrae]

>>> this seems to be the IP address

Definately looks to be IP...

>>>resolved to the country location of the searcher, in my case, the UK/Great Britain (GB)

Mine says us and I am in Canada at the moment. Seems to be machine based and not location based?

Exp is definite timestamp of the *search* ime anyway - mine gave me: Thursday, April 21st 2005, 13:13:51 (GMT) and was the exact same on all serps. A few minutes later I performed a search and on all the redirection url's for every result, the new number resulted in Thursday, April 21st 2005, 13:18:45 (GMT).

Not that I stare at the Yahoo urls every day, but, in the times I've taken a look, I've never seen SHE= anything but 0. Danny, do you have an example of a url giving a SHE=1?

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by dannysullivan

SHE= I really doubt is tied into the sex of the searcher, but I have no idea wahat it is.

Yep, it's not. I checked using my wife's computer and being loged in into Yahoo! where her account is defined as female and SHE remained at 0 (same as mine).

[arius]

Originally Posted by Nacho

Yep, it's not. I checked using my wife's computer and being loged in into Yahoo! where her account is defined as female and SHE remained at 0 (same as mine).

A most scientific test but you under estimated the gender detection algorithms of the Yahoo Scientists. Your testosterone levels were a dead giveaway.

[Jorge]

I also get SHE with a 0 and IPC=es for Spain