Sphinn - Alert: Google is Shrinking

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Alert: Google is Shrinking

Went Hot: November 8, 2007 - 6:24 pm
Posted By: MattMcGee 605 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.smallbusinesssem.com)
Category: Google

CitySearch used to have 13 million (yes, million) pages indexed. Today, it has less than 800k. Several other sites show similar trends, suggesting Google's index is getting smaller. Question: Are you seeing similar drops on sites you monitor?

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from g1smd 605 days ago #

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I have seen this effect many times over the last few years.

In the past, Google mainly got the page-count estimates wrong for a few days to weeks. If you directly check some other Class-C IP blocks, you might still be able to see some counts that are very different.

On other occasions it was suspected that old data was deleted and then new data piped in over the following days, as the correct counts returned again.

On a few occasions, the original counts were obvious very wildly wrong estimates that returned numbers that were way in excess of reality.

from g1smd 604 days ago #

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Someone else got there first: http://sphinn.com/story/13041

I see the numbers reported for a generic keyword search that I did a few days ago have now dropped by 70% when I tried it again tonight.

I suspect a short-term reporting glitch that will last a week or so.

from MattMcGee 604 days ago #

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Thanks, g1smd. The story you link to above from Barry is more about how many results get returned on a query search. My article is about how many pages various sites have indexed. I think they could be related, but certainly not the same point being made. :-)

from g1smd 604 days ago #

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I sphinned yours hours ago. Yes, you're not making the same points.

I see some crazy reductions in numbers for some searches. I feel that the numbers aren't real, or they are simply a temporary count while data is being shuffled around.

I wonder if any major changes are going on with the Supplemental Index?

from JakePM 604 days ago # - show/hide this comment

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"obvious question: why?"

Data and Bandwidth! It's a BIG JOB "organizing all the worlds information".

Don't you agree?

from wowdirectory 604 days ago #

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I have been watching this on one of my sites. It was 552 thousand cached pages and has gone down to 11 thousand. I have seen this many times and it always turns around in a few months.