Brett_Tabke - 5:26 pm on Aug 12, 2004 (gmt 0)

Google gets the updated zone files plus updates more than once a day. Most of the search engines have agreements with the big registrars to get the zone files. This is no fuss for them - easy peasy and often free.

This is the way some se's

>So what is the benefit to Google to index
> (and spider?) URLs that have no web site content now,

To get the fresh stuff and to track updates to the domain.

That is especially true of Google who knows when an expired domain has changed hands.