forms and SEO

[french dread]

Greetings,
looking after our "popularity", I made on google a query about the name of my company "sumhit".
I found on the 4th serp this website http://www.geocities.com/sellig.geo/gt3.htm . the word "sumhit" is only included in the form option value.
a proof that it is indexed. i thought it was an interesting info to share ;)

[Advisor]

Hey FD...

In my netscape 4.7 the page is showing as all text and the "word" sumhit is on the page. Not sure what you're seeing!

Jill

[Alan Perkins]

There is an error on the page:

<option selected">

IE and Netscape interpret the page differently following this error. Who knows how Googlebot interprets it? Looks like the same way as Netscape...

[Advisor]

Looks like the same way as Netscape... Yep, I believe that is probably why it is indexed as such. All I see is a page full of text, no options, no nuthin'!

On a similar note, years and years ago I noticed that Lycos did index the options on forms. Have no idea if they still do, and I suppose these days it would be a function of whether or not FAST does. I'm guessing, probably not.

Jill