Google is sensitive to query strings - all the stuff to the right of the question mark. It assumes (correctly) that query string denotes a dynamic page. Excessive crawling of dynamic pages can lead to high server load and angry server admins. Also, some dynamic pages basically do the same thing with different query strings, so indexing them doesn't always make sense.

Spider-friendly mode eliminates the query string by taking advantage of a feature of the CGI specifiction that allows a script to act as a virtual directory - the server resolves /ubb/ultimate.php/forum/1.html as the ultimate.php script, then calls it up and sets a variable containing the "/forum/1.html" bit, which the script can use. Most spiders ignore the fact that there's a .php or .cgi in the file path.

Unfortunately, your web hosting proivder hasn't configured their server so that PHP scripts can be called in this way. The main UBB scripts can do it, however. For example: http://www.foodforyourblood.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi/forum/1.html

In compat mode, we insert a query string with the path instead of using the path directly. For some search engines, they see the different form of query string (/this/that instead of this=that) and think that they can spider the pages properly. Googlebot doesn't do this all the time.

So, as I said above - you should speak to your host about the PHP issue. You could also consider turning off the Accelerator, though this may lead to performance issues.

*edit* Ask your host this. Feel free to copy and paste:

I'm trying to use a PHP script that needs to accept a PATH_INFO environmental variable. It works OK for CGI scripts:

http://www.foodforyourblood.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi/forum/1.html

... but it fails for PHP scripts:

http://www.foodforyourblood.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/forum/1.html

The script vendor tells me that this is a configuration problem with your server. Can you look into this problem for me?

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