walkman - 7:14 am on Jun 13, 2005 (gmt 0)

GoogleGuy,
how about making the 404 pages disappear a little faster? They seem to linger for ages. Right now I'm seeing Dec 2004 cache for deleted pages that show indented to the new ones (different URL path, case letter and can't 301 all of them).

The problem is that people click on the second result too and get a 404 error. Websites lose sales, clicks etc. because visitors might give up and go somewhere else, and Google loses too when the user doesn't find what he was looking for right away. Every visitor counts. I know they're labeled "supplemental", but I doubt most users know what it means, they think all listings are the same. Let's be realistic.

I suggest that if Gbot gets a 404 error during two consecutive crawls, let the page expire. If it was a server or programming mistake (unlikely), it will be picked on the third visit. If the webmaster didn't catch the error for 2-3 weeks, he deserves to wait a week or two to be indexed again ;)