Google search bar issues

[Mark Polesky]

There are two separate issues.

1)
We don't want the old docs indexed by Google, because users who google
something like "lilypond titles" can end up unknowingly reading 2.12
docs, for example (currently the top match, btw).

One consequence of preventing Google from indexing old docs is that
someone who actually wants to search for something in an old manual
won't be able to, except by doing it manually, browsing through the
nodes.  Personally, I'm okay with this.

2)
Users who use the search bar from the stable docs should only be
served google hits from the stable docs.  See
http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=3209

Our current tactic is to serve them only the development docs, which I
confess I don't fully understand.  Perhaps the logic is that once we
release the next version, what is now the development version will
already have a Google presence?  That still doesn't add up.

One of the problems is that we use non-generic URL's:
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.16/Documentation/
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/

Is it possible to change the URL's from `v2.16' to `stable'?
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/
http://lilypond.org/doc/stable/Documentation/
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/

Then, instead of having the Google search bar specify
"site:lilypond.org/doc/v2.16", we could have it specify
"site:lilypond.org/doc/stable", which would automatically point to the
new docs when we release the next version.  Of course the process of
updating the URL's should be automated, such that `stable' in the URL
always points to the current docs, and then what was called `stable'
would then switch to `2.16' in the URL.

One drawback of this approach is that any new nodes won't appear in
searches at first, until Google indexes them.  This also doesn't
bother me, because most of the nodes would already be there, and then
the user always gets served the current stable docs.  And before too
long, Google will start finding the new stuff.

Any opinions?

Thanks.
- Mark

p.s. these two tracker items should be merged:

Issue 2909: Manual search returns results from wrong version
http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=2909

Issue 3209: Searching stable release documentation should only return results 
from stable release
See http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=3209