{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://social.lol/@brennan/117376694713049791",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Why I Write (and Care) About the Internet, and What So Many People Get Wrong</p><p><a href=\"https://brennan.day/why-i-write-and-care-about-the-internet-and-what-so-many-people-get-wrong/\"><span>https://</span><span>brennan.day/why-i-write-and-ca</span><span>re-about-the-internet-and-what-so-many-people-get-wrong/</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/community\">#<span>community</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/technology\">#<span>technology</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/activism\">#<span>activism</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/privacy\">#<span>privacy</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Why I Write (and Care) About the Internet, and What So Many People Get Wrong\n\nhttps://brennan.day/why-i-write-and-care-about-the-internet-and-what-so-many-people-get-wrong/\n\n#community #indieweb #technology #activism #privacy"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-03T11:17:05+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49755534",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-03T11:17:05.000Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dr26ye7exzzrj5sbklq33gyh/post/3mwxr76ovrkh2",
    "content": {
        "text": "Why I Write (and Care) About the Internet, and What So Many People Get Wrong\n\nhttps://brennan.day/why-i-write-and-care-about-the-internet-and-what-so-many-people-get-wrong/\n\n#community #indieweb #technology #activism #privacy"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "brennan.social.lol.ap.brid.gy",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/brennan.social.lol.ap.brid.gy",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49755441",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-03T10:42:52.945Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xovawoez4ljbddzuytbwxqfy/post/3mwxpbttnnc2r",
    "content": {
        "text": "Fixed some outstanding bugs and issues with my blog post publishing flow. Now my biggest problem is having to squint at the tiny text in my IDE. #indieweb"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "matthewpennell.com",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/matthewpennell.com",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49755201",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://indieweb.social/@jbz/117375499326209757",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>\uff62 What strikes me is that hardly anyone is leaving for something big. They're going smaller. A personal site, a self-hosted app, a capsule nobody's going to stumble onto by accident. Less reach, more control. A few years ago that would have sounded like giving up. Now it sounds like the sensible option \uff63</p><p><a href=\"https://widdershins.verja.net/everyones-packing-up/\"><span>https://</span><span>widdershins.verja.net/everyone</span><span>s-packing-up/</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/ai\">#<span>ai</span></a></p>",
        "text": "\uff62 What strikes me is that hardly anyone is leaving for something big. They're going smaller. A personal site, a self-hosted app, a capsule nobody's going to stumble onto by accident. Less reach, more control. A few years ago that would have sounded like giving up. Now it sounds like the sensible option \uff63\n\nhttps://widdershins.verja.net/everyones-packing-up/\n\n#smallweb #indieweb #ai"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-03T06:13:05+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49754008",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@TheMoonZine/117374976335546810",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Hey <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/ThrillerAndSuspense\">#<span>ThrillerAndSuspense</span></a> writers! \u270d\ufe0f</p><p>Be the first to write for Issue #4! Join our indie web zine and write a story inspired by 5 emojis.</p><p>Write here: <a href=\"https://moon-zine.net/write/genre/thriller-suspense\"><span>https://</span><span>moon-zine.net/write/genre/thri</span><span>ller-suspense</span></a><br /><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/writingcommunity\">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/ThrillerAndSuspense\">#<span>ThrillerAndSuspense</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Hey #ThrillerAndSuspense writers! \u270d\ufe0f\n\nBe the first to write for Issue #4! Join our indie web zine and write a story inspired by 5 emojis.\n\nWrite here: https://moon-zine.net/write/genre/thriller-suspense\n#writingcommunity #ThrillerAndSuspense #indieweb"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-03T04:00:05+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49753408",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@TheMoonZine/117374032825190444",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Look at the living tapestry our writers and readers are weaving underneath the moon \ud83c\udf11\u2728</p><p>\ud83e\udee7 \ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\uddec \ud83e\ude91 \ud83d\udc70\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2640\ufe0f \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddff \ud83d\udc4b\ud83c\udffb \ud83d\udc81\ud83c\udffe\u200d\u2642\ufe0f \ud83d\ude03</p><p>Explore the contributor avatar mosaic or claim your emblem to join:<br />\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https://moon-zine.net/mosaic/users\"><span>https://</span><span>moon-zine.net/mosaic/users</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/writingcommunity\">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/tapestry\">#<span>tapestry</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Look at the living tapestry our writers and readers are weaving underneath the moon \ud83c\udf11\u2728\n\n\ud83e\udee7 \ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\uddec \ud83e\ude91 \ud83d\udc70\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2640\ufe0f \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddff \ud83d\udc4b\ud83c\udffb \ud83d\udc81\ud83c\udffe\u200d\u2642\ufe0f \ud83d\ude03\n\nExplore the contributor avatar mosaic or claim your emblem to join:\n\ud83d\udc49 https://moon-zine.net/mosaic/users\n\n#writingcommunity #indieweb #tapestry"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-03T00:00:08+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49752417",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

Canonical Links in Google Products

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02 11:23-0700",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2026/10/canonical-links-in-google-products/",
    "category": [
        "dev",
        "Google",
        "indieweb"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://bsky.app/profile/gregorlove.com/post/3mww4eu3hes2h"
    ],
    "name": "Canonical Links in Google Products",
    "content": {
        "text": "Short version: Adding the rel=canonical URL in your web pages is important for more than just search results. It can also impact link previews in other Google products like Docs.\n\nI recently ran into a weird edge case with link previews in Google Docs. A work client has an online directory and each profile has a unique permalink. Someone pasted their link in a Google Doc and clicked on it, which brought up a card preview showing the title. The title was showing the name of someone else\u2019s profile, though!\n\nMy first thought was something with Google\u2019s cache of the link preview, although the other person\u2019s name had never appeared at that link, so that didn\u2019t make much sense. I tried adding the link with a query string at the end: ?v=2026-10-02. With caching, that usually is seen as a unique URL and can avoid the cached response. Docs showed no preview initially, but after a couple minutes, it showed the same (incorrect) title.\n\nMy next thought was that these permalinks did not include a rel=canonical tag. The contents of the profile pages are largely similar except for the person\u2019s name and list of credentials. I didn\u2019t think that should be an issue, though, because the permalinks all contain a unique, 32-character identifier and no query strings. The links are very distinct and it did not make sense how Google would be picking another, seemingly random profile.\n\nI was pretty stumped at that point but decided to check Google Search Console. It reported \u201cPage is not indexed. Duplicate without user-selected canonical.\u201d It explained that since we had not specified the canonical URL, they had selected another permalink as the canonical. Sure enough, the one they had chosen was the name that was showing up in the link preview.\n\nThat de-duplication process makes sense when it comes to search results, but I didn\u2019t expect Docs to also be relying on that. I expected when you paste a URL, it should always show a link preview for that URL. It appears what they actually do is check the search index and use the canonical for the link preview only. They don\u2019t change the URL itself, so you can still click through and get to the intended location.\n\nThis definitely seems like a bug and is not in any Google documentation I could find, which is partly why I am writing this up. A StackOverflow answer also hypothesizes this behavior.\n\nEdit: I forgot to mention, we added the rel=canonical and started the \u201cValidate Fix\u201d process in Search Console. It says it may take a few days to finish the process. I expect it to fix this issue in Docs, but will update this post with the results either way.",
        "html": "<p><b>Short version:</b> Adding the <code><a href=\"https://indieweb.org/rel-canonical\">rel=canonical</a></code> URL in your web pages is important for more than just search results. It can also impact link previews in other Google products like Docs.</p>\n\n<p>I recently ran into a weird edge case with link previews in Google Docs. A work client has an online directory and each profile has a unique permalink. Someone pasted their link in a Google Doc and clicked on it, which brought up a card preview showing the title. The title was showing the name of someone else\u2019s profile, though!</p>\n\n<p>My first thought was something with Google\u2019s cache of the link preview, although the other person\u2019s name had <em>never</em> appeared at that link, so that didn\u2019t make much sense. I tried adding the link with a query string at the end: <code>?v=2026-10-02</code>. With caching, that usually is seen as a unique URL and can avoid the cached response. Docs showed no preview initially, but after a couple minutes, it showed the same (incorrect) title.</p>\n\n<p>My next thought was that these permalinks did not include a <code><a href=\"https://indieweb.org/rel-canonical\">rel=canonical</a></code> tag. The contents of the profile pages are largely similar except for the person\u2019s name and list of credentials. I didn\u2019t think that should be an issue, though, because the permalinks all contain a unique, 32-character identifier and no query strings. The links are very distinct and it did not make sense how Google would be picking another, seemingly random profile.</p>\n\n<p>I was pretty stumped at that point but decided to check <a href=\"https://search.google.com/search-console\">Google Search Console</a>. It reported \u201cPage is not indexed. Duplicate without user-selected canonical.\u201d It explained that since we had not specified the canonical URL, they had selected another permalink as the canonical. Sure enough, the one they had chosen was the name that was showing up in the link preview.</p>\n\n<p>That de-duplication process makes sense when it comes to search results, but I didn\u2019t expect Docs to also be relying on that. I expected when you paste a URL, it should <em>always</em> show a link preview for that URL. It appears what they actually do is check the search index and use the canonical for the link preview only. They don\u2019t change the URL itself, so you can still click through and get to the intended location.</p>\n\n<p>This definitely seems like a bug and is not in any Google documentation I could find, which is partly why I am writing this up. A <a href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/a/65394303\">StackOverflow answer</a> also hypothesizes this behavior.</p>\n\n<p>Edit: I forgot to mention, we added the <code>rel=canonical</code> and started the \u201cValidate Fix\u201d process in Search Console. It says it may take a few days to finish the process. I expect it to fix this issue in Docs, but will update this post with the results either way.</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/6268/profile-2021-square.300x0.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "49752347",
    "_source": "179",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T23:32:36.000Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ljcv2nqj5xj66fj2nkehvdri/post/3mwwjtem26mw2",
    "content": {
        "text": "This is a cute game: https://dogonline.net\n\n#IndieWeb #Dog #Dogs"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "eatinghawaiianp1zza.meow.social.ap.brid.gy",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/eatinghawaiianp1zza.meow.social.ap.brid.gy",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49752300",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://meow.social/@EatingHawaiianP1zza/117373924566336813",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>This is a cute game: <a href=\"https://dogonline.net/topdogs\"><span>https://</span><span>dogonline.net/topdogs</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://meow.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://meow.social/tags/Dog\">#<span>Dog</span></a> <a href=\"https://meow.social/tags/Dogs\">#<span>Dogs</span></a></p>",
        "text": "This is a cute game: https://dogonline.net/topdogs\n\n#IndieWeb #Dog #Dogs"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-02T23:32:36+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49752297",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T23:18:45+00:00",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hzebgrkbc42iyxsrmwsdjnej/post/3mwwj2jvbsx2f",
    "content": {
        "text": "\ud83d\udce6 indieauth/client v1.2.0\n\nIndieAuth Client Library\n\n\ud83d\udd17 https://github.com/indieweb/indieauth-client-php"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "throwable.bsky.social",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/throwable.bsky.social",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49752253",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.world/@ronscf/117373807406537357",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I wanted to write about something that bothers me and this came out</p><p><a href=\"https://ronscf.com/translation/en/posts/2026/post-02-10-2026-o-imperialismo-linguistico.html\"><span>https://</span><span>ronscf.com/translation/en/post</span><span>s/2026/post-02-10-2026-o-imperialismo-linguistico.html</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.world/tags/opinion\">#<span>opinion</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.world/tags/blog\">#<span>blog</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.world/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.world/tags/web\">#<span>web</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I wanted to write about something that bothers me and this came out\n\nhttps://ronscf.com/translation/en/posts/2026/post-02-10-2026-o-imperialismo-linguistico.html\n\n#opinion #blog #indieweb #web"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-02T23:02:48+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49752186",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@HisVirusness/117373528157007692",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>New hVmark \"Patch\": v1.8.5</p><p>Added the ability to separately set the alt text and captions of images.</p><p>Yeah, there's been a lot of \"patches\" lately, but nothing that felt like they warranted their own minor release, despite how transformative these \"patches\" have been.</p><p><a href=\"https://github.com/HisVirusness/hvmark\"><span>https://</span><span>github.com/HisVirusness/hvmark</span><span></span></a></p><p>hVmark is my tiny, opinionated markup language: MIT-licensed, intentionally strict, and built to power HisVirusness.com.</p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/markup\">#<span>markup</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/markdown\">#<span>markdown</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/hVmark\">#<span>hVmark</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/webdev\">#<span>webdev</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/php\">#<span>php</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "New hVmark \"Patch\": v1.8.5\n\nAdded the ability to separately set the alt text and captions of images.\n\nYeah, there's been a lot of \"patches\" lately, but nothing that felt like they warranted their own minor release, despite how transformative these \"patches\" have been.\n\nhttps://github.com/HisVirusness/hvmark\n\nhVmark is my tiny, opinionated markup language: MIT-licensed, intentionally strict, and built to power HisVirusness.com.\n\n#markup #markdown #hVmark #webdev #php #indieweb #smallweb"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-02T21:51:47+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49751853",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/117373175146070739",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>If you liked The 'Paperwork Flood': How I Drowned a Bureaucrat before dinner., my feed URL is <a href=\"https://sightlessscribbles.com/feed.xml\"><span>https://</span><span>sightlessscribbles.com/feed.xml</span><span></span></a> <a href=\"https://caneandable.social/tags/RSS\">#<span>RSS</span></a> <a href=\"https://caneandable.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "If you liked The 'Paperwork Flood': How I Drowned a Bureaucrat before dinner., my feed URL is https://sightlessscribbles.com/feed.xml #RSS #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-02T20:22:01+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49751288",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T20:22:01.000Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:toeprth46la3hvcfuaamzz7c/post/3mww76mqqmeg2",
    "content": {
        "text": "If you liked The 'Paperwork Flood': How I Drowned a Bureaucrat before dinner., my feed URL is https://sightlessscribbles.com/feed.xml #RSS #IndieWeb"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "weirdwriter.caneandable.social.ap.brid.gy",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/weirdwriter.caneandable.social.ap.brid.gy",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49751258",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://bark.wolp.chat/fediverse/post/01a0fe26-7f3c-7048-84b7-f0021ed5b011",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>what should i do as a cute interactive homepage instead? i am organizing my website by years, so i want to have links to each year's index, and then also links to each of the <a href=\"https://slashpages.net\">slash pages</a>.</p>\n<p>also sorry if i'm using #IndieWeb incorrectly?</p><br /><a href=\"https://bark.wolp.chat/dashboard/search/Furry\">#Furry</a> <a href=\"https://bark.wolp.chat/dashboard/search/IndieWeb\">#IndieWeb</a> <a href=\"https://bark.wolp.chat/dashboard/search/IndieWeb\">#IndieWeb</a>",
        "text": "what should i do as a cute interactive homepage instead? i am organizing my website by years, so i want to have links to each year's index, and then also links to each of the slash pages.\nalso sorry if i'm using #IndieWeb incorrectly?\n#Furry #IndieWeb #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2026-10-02T19:45:30+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49751079",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T19:31:53.032Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ofwzo2gyeln4p2pz4zuo6yno/post/3mww4eu3hes2h",
    "content": {
        "text": "New post: Canonical Links in Google Products\ngregorlove.com/2026/10/cano...\n\n#dev #Google #indieweb"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gregorlove.com",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/gregorlove.com",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49750940",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

Canonical Links in Google Products

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02 11:23-0700",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2026/10/canonical-links-in-google-products/",
    "category": [
        "dev",
        "Google",
        "indieweb"
    ],
    "name": "Canonical Links in Google Products",
    "content": {
        "text": "Short version: Adding the rel=canonical URL in your web pages is important for more than just search results. It can also impact link previews in other Google products like Docs.\n\nI recently ran into a weird edge case with link previews in Google Docs. A work client has an online directory and each profile has a unique permalink. Someone pasted their link in a Google Doc and clicked on it, which brought up a card preview showing the title. The title was showing the name of someone else\u2019s profile, though!\n\nMy first thought was something with Google\u2019s cache of the link preview, although the other person\u2019s name had never appeared at that link, so that didn\u2019t make much sense. I tried adding the link with a query string at the end: ?v=2026-10-02. With caching, that usually is seen as a unique URL and can avoid the cached response. Docs showed no preview initially, but after a couple minutes, it showed the same (incorrect) title.\n\nMy next thought was that these permalinks did not include a rel=canonical tag. The contents of the profile pages are largely similar except for the person\u2019s name and list of credentials. I didn\u2019t think that should be an issue, though, because the permalinks all contain a unique, 32-character identifier and no query strings. The links are very distinct and it did not make sense how Google would be picking another, seemingly random profile.\n\nI was pretty stumped at that point but decided to check Google Search Console. It reported \u201cPage is not indexed. Duplicate without user-selected canonical.\u201d It explained that since we had not specified the canonical URL, they had selected another permalink as the canonical. Sure enough, the one they had chosen was the name that was showing up in the link preview.\n\nThat de-duplication process makes sense when it comes to search results, but I didn\u2019t expect Docs to also be relying on that. I expected when you paste a URL, it should always show a link preview for that URL. It appears what they actually do is check the search index and use the canonical for the link preview only. They don\u2019t change the URL itself, so you can still click through and get to the intended location.\n\nThis definitely seems like a bug and is not in any Google documentation I could find, which is partly why I am writing this up. A StackOverflow answer also hypothesizes this behavior.",
        "html": "<p><b>Short version:</b> Adding the <code><a href=\"https://indieweb.org/rel-canonical\">rel=canonical</a></code> URL in your web pages is important for more than just search results. It can also impact link previews in other Google products like Docs.</p>\n\n<p>I recently ran into a weird edge case with link previews in Google Docs. A work client has an online directory and each profile has a unique permalink. Someone pasted their link in a Google Doc and clicked on it, which brought up a card preview showing the title. The title was showing the name of someone else\u2019s profile, though!</p>\n\n<p>My first thought was something with Google\u2019s cache of the link preview, although the other person\u2019s name had <em>never</em> appeared at that link, so that didn\u2019t make much sense. I tried adding the link with a query string at the end: <code>?v=2026-10-02</code>. With caching, that usually is seen as a unique URL and can avoid the cached response. Docs showed no preview initially, but after a couple minutes, it showed the same (incorrect) title.</p>\n\n<p>My next thought was that these permalinks did not include a <code><a href=\"https://indieweb.org/rel-canonical\">rel=canonical</a></code> tag. The contents of the profile pages are largely similar except for the person\u2019s name and list of credentials. I didn\u2019t think that should be an issue, though, because the permalinks all contain a unique, 32-character identifier and no query strings. The links are very distinct and it did not make sense how Google would be picking another, seemingly random profile.</p>\n\n<p>I was pretty stumped at that point but decided to check <a href=\"https://search.google.com/search-console\">Google Search Console</a>. It reported \u201cPage is not indexed. Duplicate without user-selected canonical.\u201d It explained that since we had not specified the canonical URL, they had selected another permalink as the canonical. Sure enough, the one they had chosen was the name that was showing up in the link preview.</p>\n\n<p>That de-duplication process makes sense when it comes to search results, but I didn\u2019t expect Docs to also be relying on that. I expected when you paste a URL, it should <em>always</em> show a link preview for that URL. It appears what they actually do is check the search index and use the canonical for the link preview only. They don\u2019t change the URL itself, so you can still click through and get to the intended location.</p>\n\n<p>This definitely seems like a bug and is not in any Google documentation I could find, which is partly why I am writing this up. A <a href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/a/65394303\">StackOverflow answer</a> also hypothesizes this behavior.</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/6268/profile-2021-square.300x0.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "49750859",
    "_source": "95",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T07:43:01.614Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xovawoez4ljbddzuytbwxqfy/post/3mwuurcxmhk2p",
    "content": {
        "text": "It's weird that, despite all of the progress in SEO and AI, it's still possible to write a little blog article comparing email clients that is apparently important enough that startups will keep emailing to beg to be included on your list. #indieweb"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "matthewpennell.com",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/matthewpennell.com",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49749806",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T07:28:27.046Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:kn4dz4f67maytvsbcnbry36k/post/3mwutxavz3c2p",
    "content": {
        "text": "At indieweb.org we have lots of resources to help you build your own independent web site. Talk to us at chat.indieweb.org \nWe have a github project to fork for a personal site at github.com/indieweb/bla... \nThere's discussion of other options on the wiki."
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "kevinmarks.com",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/kevinmarks.com",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49749807",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2026-10-02T06:58:50.988Z",
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:wgs7q4u4cifplpfpefir6nay/post/3mwuscd4vjs2e",
    "content": {
        "text": "I used #TikTok last year to post that video, I also put it up on my own site in #indieweb fashion! artlung.com/videos/reels... Long Live #WeirdWebOctober (2025 in this case)"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "artlung.com",
        "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/artlung.com",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "49749808",
    "_source": "9305",
    "_is_read": false
}