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."
Interesting Google phenomena (Score:5, Interesting)
No idea why this happened, but it is entertaining to see it vary.
why is that so interesting... (Score:2)
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
heres why it jumps (Score:5, Interesting)
chances are your site was freshbotted, dropped, and re-catalogged. it could also be a result of the 'dance' at the end of each month when google is updating its search results. rankings fluctuate alot at that time.
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:3)
Just last week I had a conference to go to and wanted directions. The sad thing was that when I put in my search, something like "williamsburg woodland center directions", my own website was the 1st link which was announcing the conference. BTW, it didn't have the directions on the page
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:2)
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Interesting Google phenomena (Score:5, Informative)
Google Dance [internet-a...manual.com]
-dk
Re:i'm not so lucky like you (Score:3, Informative)
Amazing! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Amazing! (Score:4, Funny)
The way Slashdot editors keep reposting stories? Indefinitely!
dupes via datacenter? (Score:5, Funny)
See judge he needed killing. He was stuck. It was a mercy killing...
Re:Amazing! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:2)
I'd mod this up too if I could!
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe you should Ask Slashdot?
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: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: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]
number oddities (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:number oddities (Score:4, Informative)
Re:number oddities (Score:5, Informative)
Re:number oddities (Score:5, Informative)
Re:number oddities (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, I'm surprised no one else mentioned that searching for "pictures of mountains" (quotes included) yields 1320 hits, which are likely to be much more useful than the other 998,690 or so. Though in this case I really would have searched for "pictures of mountains" OR "mountain pictures" (or done two searches).
If you're not going to use the quotes, there's precious little point including the word "of" in the query.
There are other useful tricks for the google search field listed on the help page, but double quotes is by far the most useful overall.
(another handy trick if you're using Mac IE is to hack the app's resource fork so the '?' address bar shortcut goes to google instead of MSN - a trick expanded on in iCab's built in URL expansion)
Re:number oddities (Score:2)
googledance (Score:5, Interesting)
this [google-dance.com] and this [webrankinfo.com]
Re:googledance (Score:2)
Re:googledance (Score:3, Informative)
This site checks every 5 minutes for the google dance and has a alert mailing list for subscribers to get notified as soon as the google dance starts.
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.
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2)
not censorship (Score:2)
You probably just don't have the correct Asian fonts installed for your web browser.
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2, Redundant)
1) pr0n variation a
...
2) pr0n variation b
3) pr0n variation c
and so on until you get down to about 7). Not sure where goatse.cx falls in the list.
blog-O-rama [annmariabell.com]
Graph of searches for "pictures of mountains" (Score:2)
Speaking about the Zeitgeist, I imagine they'll have a graph showing the spike in searches for "pictures of mountains [google.com]" and how it relates to when this article was posted... :-)
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2, Informative)
Try the Google Viewer [google.com] maybe?
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:3, Informative)
And what you're thinking of is Metaspy [metaspy.com] - it still has that uncensored option.
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:3, Informative)
No, but you can have Google scroll the results of your search!! Try this, and other "Google Experiments" at http://labs.google.com [google.com]
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2)
There were some pretty scary searches, things involving goats and sisters and !lumberjacks!
Re:Its too bad.. (Score:2)
http://www.ask.com/docs/peek/ [ask.com]
According to the page it's updated every 30 seconds.
wow, could we all have missed this? (Score:5, Informative)
Eureka! (Score:5, Funny)
Humor aside, this is pretty interesting. Alot like when you vote in a poll, go back to the main
Re:Eureka! (Score:3, Funny)
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
Removed the word "of"... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Removed the word "of"... (Score:2, Interesting)
Guido, my good man, I do believe you have witnessed first hand the not-so-elusive google-dance.
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.
Re:Pictures of Mountains? No wonder (Score:5, Funny)
This [heatherfirth.com] is for those of you who think he's kidding... ;)
*grin* (Score:5, Funny)
Didn't need you to tell me that... (Score:2)
This is a coverup (Score:5, Funny)
Some different results (Score:5, Interesting)
"pictures of mountains" 986,000
"pictures of of mountains" 1,010,000
"pictures of of of mountains" 1,020,000
Two of these pages had a different top-ranked link.
Funny thing, all three times Google told me "of is a very common word and was not included in my search", but it made a difference!
Regardless of these results, Google is the best search engine. Period.
Re:Some different results (Score:4, Interesting)
w/english only
1,010,000
w/all languages
1,040,000
w/strict filter and all languages
903,000
w/strict filter and english only
881,000
Re:Some different results (Score:3, Interesting)
all things are not always are not always you need to know you learned from Dr Richard s Wallace.: 2,240
all things are not always are not always are not always me need to know me learned from Dr Richard s Wallace: 3,900,000
But all things are not always are not always are not always are not always you need to know you learned from Dr Richard s Wallace: 5,490,000
But all things are not always are not always are not always are not always are not always me need to know me learned from Dr Richard s Wallace: 5,490,000
etc.
I have to wonder... (Score:4, Interesting)
It is kind of aggrevating to be expecting 7 pages, and get only 6, I always think that the mystical disappearing page contains my wanted result though.
Re:I have to wonder... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Google Results (Score:3, Interesting)
1) through no proxy (resulting in forward to google.ca as I live in Canada): 996,000
2) through guardster.com (resulting in google.com): 1,040,000
What is it you American's are getting that we in Canada are not?
Re: Google Results (Score:2, Funny)
Re: Google Results (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
1,320 (Score:2)
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!
There is only one way to solve this... (Score:2, Interesting)
It's the answer to every problem.
Ugly Hullabaloo (Score:3, Interesting)
Another quirk.. (Score:2)
However, if I enter cache:URL_HERE, it says it cannot find it. This feature works for other webpages, so I know it's not my syntax.
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]
Thank god for google chache (Score:2)
Google Dance (Score:5, Informative)
Google has 7 data centers each with a copy of it's index and these are "usually" mapped to www.google.com [google.com]. But google also has versions located at www2.google.com [google.com] and www3.google.com [google.com].
During the monthly update there can be different version of the index on each of the 3 versions. A website www.google-dance-tool.1hut.com [1hut.com] provides results for a search done on all 3 of googles index.
To check to see if the google dance is happening the most common technique is to check the "back links" for mayor sites like Yahoo by typing "link:www.yahoo.com" into the search box. this will list all the sites with links to "www.yahoo.com".
The Google Dance Tool site mentioned checks google every 5 minutes to see if the dance is on. Once it is started it sends out an automated email to subscribers (like me) so I can visit the site and see what the search positions for the next month on google will be using their google dance tool search.
Re:Google Dance (Score:2)
Re:Google Dance (Score:4, Informative)
www.archive.org. It is pretty amazing but they do have pages that i remember from like 7 yrs ago.
as soon (Score:2)
Google cheats (Score:2, Interesting)
Why doesn't the submitter (Score:2)
Official Response (Score:2, Funny)
Here are some... (Score:2)
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...
Try reading: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertex (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www7.scu.edu.au/programme/fullpapers/1921/c om1921.htm [scu.edu.au]
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:3, Funny)
--naked [slashdot.org]
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:2, Informative)
I think people tend to do more complex searches.
Re:uh... (sex) (Score:3, Interesting)
are they coming to you for just that word?
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:uh... (sex) (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, page hits?! Err, nevermind.
Re:uh... (Score:5, Funny)
Steven? Is that you? [msnbc.com] Dude - you're smoking too much pot!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:uh... (Score:4, Funny)
Google does reverse-routing (Score:5, Informative)
A google search for my site [google.com] returns our old site that has had dead dns records for nearly a month above my new site [frob.us]. Sometimes my new site pulls into the lead, sometimes it isn't there, and at least one cache has the announcement that the old name was lost and a domain was purchased.
Intrestinly, I've the 10th page on "autopr0n" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Also cookies too (Score:3, Informative)
When a search engine finds those relating to their advertisers or 'favored sites' those are 'extended' into a higher level.
Some results may be discarded if certain advertisers don't like you to see those competing sites.
Uhhh, no. A domain can only see their OWN cookies.
Re:Also cookies too (Score:2)
And you believe this why?
Re:Also cookies too (Score:2)
Re:Also cookies too (Score:2)
Re:Also cookies too (Score:2)
Google Images filters (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever tried to turn off Google Images' "You-really-don't-want-to-see-this" filter?
I mean.. You were searching for "pictures" of "mountains"... Big breasts, that is? ;-) Nah.
It's "&safe=off", and people outside the US might want to change the language to English before trying to use it (hint).
Funny thing here in Germany is: The filter is ALWAYS ON, and in the German preferences, there's no option to turn it off. After you change your language to English (URL), though, there suddenly appears an option for disabling the filter... Try talking about censorship (there are not even clear rules about what exactly they are filtering, and there's no explanation why you can't turn it off over here; even worse: They don't even tell you that there IS a filter and that it's always active).
I asked Google about this, but never got a response.
Re:Google Images filters (Score:2)
I googled and found a few reports of the issue, including this one [bbc.co.uk]. It seems that Google reserves the right to remove links they think will land themselves in legal hotwater depending on various local laws (ie France and Germany).
Why do they vary? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:To find out for sure - the hypothesis is testab (Score:2)
There are hardware load-balancers that allow the machine to keep the same front end ip address, and dynamically pass the tcp connection to the back end server farm.
cisco used to have one called the localdirector
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/c
There are others...