diberry - 6:29 pm on May 31, 2012 (gmt 0)

I can think of one way to test that theory. Backdraft7 gets foreign traffic during the zombie periods. If Google's just sharing the love amongst 20 equally great sites, then that foreign traffic should be just what's left over once the US traffic is cut off for a period. In that case, Backdraft7 should see no overall increase in foreign traffic during the zombie periods - just a decrease in US traffic, with the foreign traffic as leftovers.