Google results for https://www.scala-lang.org/ are marked with a "13 Feb 2015" timestamp

[epic-64]

Usually only "blog posts" or "threads" get a timestamp in the results, but it seems the scala landing page was wrongly indexed as such.

It could have a negative effect on users seeing it in the search results for the first time, creating a false impression that the Scala language or website has not been maintained for a while.

One potential explanation could be that the landing page used to be a blog and the timestamp of "the newest article" was never removed by Google afterwards.

PS someone noticed that "Feb 13, 2015" could be a wild translation from the newest Scala 2 version, "2.13.15"

[eed3si9n]

I don't see sitemap in rsync output (https://scala-webapps.epfl.ch/jenkins/view/All/job/production_scala-lang.org-builder/8287/console ). I wonder if the sitemap isn't generated for some reason.

[SethTisue]

@fsalvi is this an area where you have any insight?

[fsalvi]

I saw this website:
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/03/help-google-search-know-best-date-for?hl=en

I'll have a deeper look next week.

[fsalvi]

Well, I didn't see anything wrong server-side which could lead to this result.
Date is properly set (Last-Modified: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:45:09 GMT).
I would suggest giving a try at the solution proposed by Google:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/publication-dates?hl=en
in the headers (_includes/headertop.html).
We would quickly see if it makes a difference.

[He-Pin]

use Google site to refresh？

[fsalvi]

Ok, there's no doubt it's because of the scala version seen on the page.
Now, the google result shows 13 Feb 2016!
Maybe the use of AI in google search engine... :-D

The html source code only contains: "Scala 2.13.16 and older releases"
We could try to add "Scala version 2.13.6 and older releases" instead, to see if google engine can understand the difference between a date and a software version.

[SethTisue]

@fsalvi is there no way to make this deterministic? do we have no choice but to try to outwit the weird guessing they're doing?

[fsalvi]

As suggested, we could try either to change a bit the text (eg add "Version 2....", or to try the publication-dates:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/publication-dates?hl=en

I guess the easiest would be to try to just add "Version 2..." to see if it changes something.

[eed3si9n]

FYI - sbt's website generates sitemap during the website build process (e.g. sbt/website#412), which puts sitemap_index.xml last modified date like this:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <sitemap>
        <loc>https://www.scala-sbt.org/sitemap.xml.gz</loc>
        <lastmod>2025-02-03</lastmod>
    </sitemap>
    <sitemap>
        <loc>https://www.scala-sbt.org/1.x/sitemap.xml.gz</loc>
        <lastmod>2025-02-03</lastmod>
    </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

which in turn points to more sitemaps.

[SethTisue]

as an easy first step, let's try not including the Scala 2 version number on the front page: #1762

[SethTisue]

It worked!!