General Database Refresh

[backus]

Heard a rumour from a mate of mine in Sun MS to say there will be a full datebase refresh of AV in 3 days time. Anyone else heard anything? It has something to do with putting their new spider to full use. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting scared! :-(

[PageCount]

I certainly hope there is a big reshuffle in AV's index.

Contrary to what most seem to be finding, I've found myself dropping out of the rankings altogether with the exception of three top-ten keywords and phrases on my primary site.

This has - I think - a lot to do with the optimization of my sites (3) in December as well as AV's fast-rotating results (results reflect changes last made in October / November 2000!). I've submitted twice since year-end but have not kept track of spidering (so I'm in the dark as to what has been spidered and what has not). Every other engine, with the exception of AV, appears to have picked up on major revisions that have taken seven keywords and phrases to high rankings. With AV's subsequent expansion and incorporation of new formats, the results will certainly be interesting.

That said, with AV lagging so badly in the quest to revamp its database(s), it's hardly surprising that Google has scorched past it in terms of popularity. Nonetheless, it's somewhat sad to see one of the old stalwarts sink so low.

Roll on Friday - the results may be better than anticipated (they usually are) :-).

[backus]

Same problem mate. Except my results are changing daily!

[Rumbas]

I'll jump on the "daily changes" bandwaggon. Phew! It's like a rollercoaster.

[backus]

What I don't understand is, people using website promotion agencies are the ones who are serious about doing business on the internet. But the search engines are now doing what they want. Bring back the days of Infoseek, when results meant something!

[FreeBee]

AV UK seems to have updated in last few days with improved relevance.

Will be interesting to see what a full refresh does on sub-db's.

[PageCount]

Backus, I agree wholeheartedly. If AV wants to be taken seriously by end users it’s got a long way to go. Not only do we have the problem of unstable results – it seems that the results themselves have a relevancy similar to the meaningless drivel spewed out by Northern Light, now no longer taken seriously by anyone in their right mind.

For starters, AV has to start dumping spammers. On a keyword of vital importance to me (a niche word in vogue with educators), I find a supposedly reputable company’s content cropping up virtually unaltered at least 23 times in the first 200 results (11 times in the top 50, i.e. it hogs 22% of the immediately available listings and more than 10% of the total).

The spammer is being allowed in on different domain names – there’s obviously no check on identical content in place and I’m certainly not going to do AV’s job for them by shopping a competing site.

If this is the sort of stuff AV is going to put out as competition to the likes of Google, we might as well kiss an old friend goodbye. It’s obviously gone to the dogs and is fast disappearing down the plughole.

I’ll be watching the NetRatings closely over the next few months. On current performance as suppliers of relevant results to end users, several engines that have survived the carnage just don’t deserve to be there. AV included.

Then again, there’s always the re-index to look forward to and, if WebCrawler can be resuscitated, why not AV?