valeyard - 1:43 pm on Sep 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

Hmm. Call me Mister Suspicious but I don't buy this.

I thought Google's goal was to index the entire web. If they do that then any query can be answered, there's no need for a "supplemental" index or some strange idea of an "obscure" query.

If I search for "snark jubjub -boojum" and there's only one match, so be it. As long as the page is indexed then I don't care if it Google thinks it "obscure".

With my user hat on I can't think of any good reason for differentiating between the main and supplemental index. The Google algo is designed to put "most relevant" answers at the top regardless.

So if it's not for the users' benefit it must be for Google's own benefit.

Sounds like an excuse for hiving off a chunk of the main index. Is this another pointer to capacity problems and people trying to invent ways round them?