[wp-hackers] Canonical integration into core

[Lynne Pope]

I find it amazing that those so adamant that canonical links should be added
to the core now had never raised any issues with permalinks in the past.

Amazing too that the reaction to opposition to the proposal should be
comments that I don't know what I am talking about.

The inclusion of the canonical URL link in the core will cause problems for
a number of users. For example, where I have ported content from other apps
I have retained the URL through the HTTP/1.1 standard for content location.
I know of a number of other sites who also use this specification - which
will conflict with the Google canonical URL implementation.

The new Google tag is designed for duplicate content. WordPress already
provides many ways of ensuring duplicate content is not indexed.

The tag is NOT designed to be in the header of every page. It is not a
replacement for server-side www vs no-www settings, or for specifying the
URI for the page you are on.

Sure, go ahead and add it if you like. As long as actions and filters can be
removed I don't much care what goes in. However, if it is implemented as
simply the permalink with the canonical tag in the header this has potential
to really harm a sites SEO.

Lynne