Why Do Google Hit Numbers Vary? 378
Craig writes: "Thanks for the great question. We get this from time to time and hopefully I can clear up some of the confusion. The number of estimated pages listed to the top right of a Google search results page is indeed, an estimate. It's a good estimate but still, an estimate.
There are many reasons why one might see a difference in the estimated number of pages returned for the same query. It's most likely the queries made by your co-workers were sent to different Google datacenters in what appears to have been a round-robin fashion. The index at any given Google datacenter can change slightly over the course of a day (each index is refreshed completely every three to four weeks). Depending on which datacenter finishes a query, the estimated number of results may vary.
Without having direct access to your environment it is hard for me to tell for sure, however, I believe this is the case."
IN SOVIET RUSSIA (Score:-1, Funny)
Question Aswered (Score:0, Funny)
Umm, why was this story posted?
ooh ooh! (Score:1, Funny)
I'm better than you!
nah nah poo poo
Its too bad.. (Score:5, Funny)
I think some engine had that (metacrawler)? back in the day, was fun to watch, and I believe they didnt censor it.
Eureka! (Score:5, Funny)
Humor aside, this is pretty interesting. Alot like when you vote in a poll, go back to the main
First Google Haiku Post (Score:5, Funny)
google queries melt upon
different servers
like the wild flowers
each view of the database
unique, yet alike
and...
its that time of month
google dances, results wiggle
w00t first haiku post
Pictures of Mountains? No wonder (Score:5, Funny)
It's simple, really... mountains are the new thing in pornography. People are snapping and posting so many pictures of naughty, erotically shaped rock formations that the number of mountain pics available worldwide on the net is rising by about 10,000 every 10 minutes.
Soon, the number of phallic granite pics worldwide will even exceed the number of Jenna Jameson facials. Quite the phenomenon, really.
*grin* (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:4, Funny)
The way Slashdot editors keep reposting stories? Indefinitely!
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:3, Funny)
--naked [slashdot.org]
This is a coverup (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
A Convenient Explanation... Too Convenient! (Score:5, Funny)
Craig "Silverstein", if that's his real name, is one of the very few CIA and FBI double operatives working at the agencies' Virgina TIA global computer network monitoring laboratories, and Google is one of their most brilliant covers, providing not only a convenient alibi for gathering psychological desire/search profiles on people all over the world, but the mechanism for doing so as well. The estimate numbers are simply the individual lookup tracking identifiers. That's why they're different for every individual that performs a search!
Craig "Silverstein" was also one of the guests invited to the dinner party between the Reagan / Bush Jrs. the night after the attempted assassina... one sec, a van just pulled up outsi
end user's perspectives on the matter... (Score:3, Funny)
*smack*
butt_head: They are slashdot. They make such references to screw up the google database, thus completly validating their newstories. Inevitable reposts will bump the number even higher!
bevis: like a conspiracy. huh-huh
butt_head: conspiracies are cool!
Re:uh... (Score:5, Funny)
Steven? Is that you? [msnbc.com] Dude - you're smoking too much pot!
Re:uh... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe you should Ask Slashdot?
Re: Google Results (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Pictures of Mountains? No wonder (Score:5, Funny)
This [heatherfirth.com] is for those of you who think he's kidding... ;)
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
A search for 'ask slashdot correct answer' [google.com]
returns 10,400 hits.
A search for 'ask slashdot' [google.com]
returns 104,000 hits.
Therefore, I would conclude that Slashdot going directly to the source immediately is very rare.
Obviously YMMV [google.com].
Re:It raises another question. . . (Score:1, Funny)
I have no idea... (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps we should Ask Jeeves.
Hmmmmmm?
Google Rankings (Score:3, Funny)
My site, which is admittedly somewhat unique, has been listed in the top 5 for over 18 months now if the appropriate keywords are used.
Of course, it also helps that those keywords are snarklbort, giffleblag and byzgetford.
The Winner Is.... (Score:4, Funny)
on this one? [google-fight.com]
Re:Pictures of Mountains? No wonder (Score:1, Funny)
Why do they vary? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Google Results (Score:5, Funny)
Official Response (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:3, Funny)
returns 10,400 hits.
It's more rare than this first indicates.
'ask slashdot not correct answer [google.com]'
returns 10,300 hits.
So only 100 are actually correct, the rest are complaining about it not being correct.
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:3, Funny)
And as I was explaining to a friend last week, the photo of her at my wedding attracts desperate surfers looking for a similarly named Malaysian porn star.
Re:Amazing! - Ask GoogleFight (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot is right vs. Slashdot is wrong: [googlefight.com]
slashdot sucks vs. slashdot rules: [googlefight.com]
slashdot correct vs. slashdot incorrect: [googlefight.com]
Cmdrtaco vs. cowboyneal [googlefight.com]
News for nerds vs. Stuff that Matters [googlefight.com]
dupes via datacenter? (Score:5, Funny)
See judge he needed killing. He was stuck. It was a mercy killing...
google (mis)uses (Score:4, Funny)
Spell Check:
Type in candidate spellings of a word, and assume the spelling with the most search results is the right one:
'amatuer' -> 3.9e6 hits, 'amateur' -> 35e6 hits. Amateur it is.
'modelling' -> 2.6e6 hits, 'modeling' -> 5.7e6 hits. Close call, perhaps both are acceptable?
Ego Boost:
Everyone knows about this one: see what comes up under your own name (put it in quotes if necessary)- Hopefully if you run a small website or comment with your real name frequently in a google searchable place that'll come up first. But you'll have to work hard to beat out all those genealogy sites that just list thousands of names, graveyard roll-calls and whatnot. Oh, and there's some court case from five years ago where you're name is featured prominently. My namesake is shared with one of the first shaken babies to die and become a major local (wherever it happened) newstory- not much of a boost after all.
Stalking:
I'd imagine this pretty similar to the previous, but with names of other people you know or used to know: your old college sweetheart died in 1892! Wait...
Trademark pre-research .com,.org,or .net site with the same name resolves, just in case.
You need a product name- something fresh and original, and easily googleable? Start with a few ideas, and use a thesaurus (and don't forget cool foreign language words/roots) to refine the name until google hits are down to a zero. Run words together or otherwise potential customers will end up at sites that just randomly use those words at different points of the text- assume the customer is too dumb or lazy to use quotes.
'NodeZero' is my new badass something-or-other- wait there's 1K hits, how about 'NodeNull'? Only 8 now, that's good, but better yet try 'NodeNothing'- zero results.
After the google test see if the
I'm sure there's many more...
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, page hits?! Err, nevermind.
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, I must really be tired...the first thing I thought of when I read this was a hampsterdance.com-esque site complete with dancing "Google"s and background music.
Re:Eureka! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:3, Funny)
I work at Google... (Score:2, Funny)
I work at Google. This is a new feature that we added about four months ago, it's called the Friend Result Growth: For searches that return a huge result, the engine approximates the returned number as 1,000,000 + Friend*10,000.
-Fatty
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:2, Funny)
Take a look at this:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/comments/2003/1/27
Be afraid... be very afraid...
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:2, Funny)
It's official! (Score:2, Funny)
"pictures of mountains"
Liar! (Score:2, Funny)
No pages were found containing "snarklbort".
Suggestions:
- Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
- Try different keywords.
- Try more general keywords.
- Try fewer keywords.
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:0, Funny)
Really?? Intriguing. This demands a test.
The weather is quite nice in Calgary right now. (Offtopic)
Bill Gates is a visionary, and Microsoft Windows is far superior to Linux or Mac. Simpsons sucks. (Flamebait)
F1rst p0zt! This article is stupid! Hemos and CmdrTaco are nazis! Free pR0n [goatse.cx]! (Troll)
Hey, Google has varying results because they have multiple datacentres, btw. (Redundant)
And this post will start at 2, which is definitely Overrated. That's every possible negative mod. This reply can't POSSIBLY gain karma.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)