vordmeister - 10:17 pm on Aug 7, 2008 (gmt 0)

That does make sense. I certainly don't like to panic, though I think for me maybe sometimes they turn the control panel on just a little early after the maintenance and maybe miss some of the data.

You suggest the update is in the processing (algorithm stuff) so they store the data elsewhere so they can take the processing side of things off line for a software update? Wouldn't a slow propogation of a software update through the various datacentres (one at a time) just mean that some of the datacentres have the new and improved way of doing things delayed by half an hour? Program has been running for years so that would that delay be significant? Or do you reckon things would be broken if old data was fed to new datacentres? This really is a serious question based on me not knowing anything rather than some kind of crazy internet sarcasm.

Sticking with my database theory - Given the database has to be shared with the Adwords people I'd wager they might be adding columns on the 8th August maintenance event this weekend: [webmasterworld.com...]