markd - 8:20 am on Oct 5, 2004 (gmt 0)

Rather than look at ourselves, I am wondering if this is a Google-based 'blip'?

I am seeing long out of date pages which we have left on the server in 'limbo'- therefore with no internal or incoming links - showing up!

In other words, is the majority of this SERPS database and 'old', out of date one?

Personally, I am going to inform clients of this but not take any action for the time being. This is such a moving target at the moment that any kind of concerted response would be way off at the moment. Luckily, few of our clients rely on e-commerce, so I fully appreciate that this is a 'luxury' for us.

If this is a drastic algo change on Google's part, I cannot see how this is benefiting them. At the moment they seem to be returning a LOT of PDF's, and results from third parties rather than genuine, relevant pages which meet a search criteria - how can this help the Google brand?