Google June 2003 : Update Esmeralda

Confirmed

[Brett_Tabke]

We are seeing significant changes in Serps, back link numbers, fresh dates, and indexes at a couple of data centers.

This might mean a possible update.

WebmasterWorld Google Update Changes:

The problem: Chit chat noise in update threads.

Last month we hand several thousand messages posted about the update. The volume level was intense and people couldn't find the info that was appropriate. Many senior members complained about the "me too" chit chat messages being left.

We are not going to do that this month. If you don't have anything new to add to a thread thing please kick back and read. Additionally, we are going to be proactive in keeping those threads clean. Again, the volume is so high this time of month that informing everyone of any thread tidying is near impossible.

We would appreciate your continued latitude, cooperation (thanks), and patience as we head into this months update.

Thanks.
For the Team,
Brett Tabke

Google Update FAQ:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Messages in this thread do not count towards user message totals.

Understanding Dominic: (the previous update):
[webmasterworld.com...]

[GoogleGuy]

Dolemite, we wouldn't do that to confuse webmasters. Think of it like this: if you start out with a new bot, it's pretty natural to give it a new IP range. When you do nice things that upgrade the bot to a Turbo Bot Platinum 2003 Deluxe with new capabilities, you might not assign it a new IP range.

[edited by: GoogleGuy at 10:01 pm (utc) on June 15, 2003]

[JoeHouse]

Hi everyone

I am very excited. I have a new site waiting to get index. Can someone please tell me how do I check to see if my backlinks got in? And also where am I ranked? Thanks!

[Dayo_UK]

Hi Joehouse

www-fi.google.com :)

[EquityMind]

My take on this is that with a deepfreshbot and Google continuing to improve their ability to spider dynamic sites, it will negate a reason to do paid inclusion. One of the primary reasons to do paid inclusion was to get exposure for internal pages on a constant refresh. I'd rather stick with Google than have to pay 20-25 cents per click through XML feeds. I hope this happens in the future so I can eliminate that part of my budget to LookSmart, Ink and AJ.

EquityMind

[Dolemite]

Dolemite, we wouldn't do that to confuse webmasters. Think of it like this: if you start out with a new bot, it's pretty natural to give it a new IP range. When you do nice things that upgrade the bot to a Turbo Bot Platinum 2003 Deluxe with new capabilities, you might not assign it a new IP range.

That's good to hear...clarifies a lot of things for me.

That begs the question, does an upgraded freshbot that crawls deeper and does the work of deepbot correspond to a change in the updating cycle? Perhaps more frequent updates?

[GoogleGuy]

EquityMind, I think we ought to be able to find every page on the web--that's a goal we're always working toward, and I think it's important to have a bot that can find pages without too much extra help. :)

[stavs]

Hi GoogleGuy - our site has been 'in and out' over the last 10 days (not sure why). In the fi index its not in the top 100 for its keyphrase (previously for 6 months it was #1). Yet the number of backlinks showing in fi have increased significantly.

My question: is it safe to assume that the increase of backlinks means that the site HAS been successfully crawled this month and therefore 'should' show in the new index - perhaps it just hasn't settled down yet, or does that not neccessarily follow?

[Laurel]

*runs up and high fives google guy*

I am very pleased you have done me very well!

Are the pages I see on -fi going to stay there?

I remember it used to be if it were a deepbot page we were married til death due us part and a fresh page was just like a short date.

If these are all fresh pages are they just going to be here a short time?

does this make any sense at all?

[davewray]

GG..A question for you if you don't mind. When my site was first indexed in April Google cataloged 79 of my site's pages. During Dominic Google only showed my main index page and now in -fi it shows only 13 of my site's pages. Is this a result of the update just starting? Or would there be some other reason as to why Googlebot isn't finding all of my pages when it did back in April? TIA.

[Dayo_UK]

OK - I have got a link that was added 7th June and that is showing as a backward link... (OK about my site - I know Mods :) )

However, what this does gives us is a date that the deepcrawl must have taken place around.

So, we are talking about one week (probably less than a week) from the end of deepcrawl by freshbot until live in the index - pretty good going :)

[Chris_D]

It looks like (certainly on -fi) that the march/April version of DMOZ is still being used (based on site descriptions); and that some of the newer filters and spam reports haven't yet been applied (javascript/ hidden text)

Is that your understanding GG? Or are these all in already?

I'll send a spam report later today

Chris_D

[dan_popescu]

I was complaining a few posts ago about a site not being included in the new index. I tried a search for www.url.com (not just url.com - this works most of the time) and the site is there. However, it's vanished from the SERPS.

[edited by: dan_popescu at 10:25 pm (utc) on June 15, 2003]

[Stefan]

GG, thanks for being so forthcoming and here at the moment.

I see a page I changed June 13 in -fi with a June 15 tag and new cache. If fresh is now taking care of the crawl, is freshbot flux a thing of the past? How sticky is that June 15 serp on -fi?

[GoogleGuy]

Hey stavs, ranking questions like that are hard--it can be tough to say where a site should show up. If we're showing many more backlinks, that's often a good sign, because we found people that linked to your site. But I can't really guess where your site should ultimately show up.

[markus007]

I went through most of my pages now listed in this index..

About 1500 of 4000 pages in the index list only URL's. Of those 1500 pages about 800 seem to be just randomized URL's that i am 100% sure don't exist on my site, and never have. Its almost like googlebot is confusing my site with another site.

Markus

[Brett_Tabke]

Well, all I can say is - ouch.

Appears in site links or number of pages indexed on some sites dropped drastically. Didn't affect us last month, but appears to have done so this month.

Seems to me with all the pages dropped the last two updates, that G has lost total pages indexed - not gained.

[EarWig]

GG

From the new results showing in the last 2/3 weeks from freshbot it "appears" (I use the word cautiously:-)) that we may get a freshbot update about once a week at weekends.

Is this something Google hope to continue on a regular basis?
Cheers
EW

[WebWalla]

Seeing backlink shortage for my profile site. Hope this is temporary.

[GoogleGuy]

Let's see, I'll try to field a question about stickiness. Laurel, thanks for the high-five. :) If a site is in there, it would probably stay. Some sites that may be appearing from our very-fresh crawl might not stick, but that bodes well for the next big crawl if our very-fresh crawl found you. I think that handles Stefan's question too: things may get more sticky over time, but some things from the very-fresh crawl can still drop out. Usually that means that we'll find them later though.

[Polarisman]

So, is it safe to assume that if a site appears in the -fi index currently it will be in this month's update?

[Dayo_UK]

If we are talking about weekly fresh/deep crawls it would not suprise me if we had one this weekend - freshbot has been out in force.

[Laurel]

Well, all I can say is - ouch

eww sorry to hear that! of all people I would hope you to come out the best.

right now I am thinking of driving the hour and a half to mountain view to stalk google_guy and buy him a beer!

I went from 114 pages 2 or so months ago to 2 pages last month to 110 QUALITY pages this month.

If 1/2 these pages stick I'll be 1 happy cat!

cheers to google guy!

[GoogleGuy]

Hey, WebWalla, you might want to read my response to reneewood. Looks like ~1800 pages from the site in your profile got indexed, so we're definitely seeing and handling links to your site correctly.

[IITian]

I am very happy with my rankings for my new sites. However, one thing is bothering me. When I check the backlinks, it shows backlinks from message boards (2 out of 4 links) but not from the sites I am linked to in a 'permanent' basis. These links were added more than a month ago and are from PR5 and PR6 pages with very few outward links. It also does not show the link from DMOZ which is probably understandable because it was added only a couple of days ago.

Message board links count but regular ones (and DMOZ) don't? I am somewhat confused.

[nutsandbolts]

Why is it that Google sometimes has problems picking up the associated Dmoz link with sites with updates? One month they are there, the next month the Dmoz description is dropped...then back again the following month. Not new Dmoz listings either....

Very exciting to see the index almost back to full strength flavour.

[GoogleGuy]

You should be in good shape, Laurel (and Polarisman and zafile). I would expect those to stick. Don't bother to come stalk though--I'm mostly typing from home today. :)

Which reminds me, I need to go call my Dad. Anyone else need to do that too? :)

[edited by: GoogleGuy at 10:41 pm (utc) on June 15, 2003]

[zeus]

I just saw a single results on Google.fr (France) from the new update, but only a short time.

zeus

[stavs]

GG - thanks for your response - though i think you may have read my question wrong.

If a site is showing increased backlinks in fi, does that indicate that the site has been successfully crawled?

[GoogleGuy]

stavs, I believe that's correct.

[needinfo]

two of my sites went from approx 140 pre Dominic to 82 whilst Dominic was running. Now on fi index one site has got 99 backlinks and shows nowhere in the SERPs and the other has 6 backlinks and ranks #1 for 3 major search terms.
Also my other sites which just started to show well in the SERPs before Dominic and went up and down during Dominic are now GONE from the fi index.

Is there any chance you could shed any light on this type of thing GG.