I've been getting referrals from www-sj

[jesserud]

I've been seeing a lot of hits from [www-sj.google.com...] in the last few days (only the last few days, and only the sj datacenter). Most of the searches are for "www-sj.google.com" or variations on that, but at least one search was not seo-related. Why are so many people suddenly searching from [www-sj.google.com...] Has Google been sending some people there when they load [google.com...]

[curlykarl]

I had one yesterday, and it wasn't me either :)

I assumed it was a competitor poking about.

The only other referals from sj were from me checking, when we used to dance that is.

Karl

[ruserious]

I have had several referrals like that, too. And it was for searchterms where IMHO you wouldn't really optimise for (plus we were rather at the bottom of the first page).

Don't know what to make of it.

[percentages]

I've noticed the number of referrals from subdomain specific Google data centers increasing recently.

I've also noticed the number of people viewing the cache is increasing. I figured it is just a sign of the times and the competetion getting more competitive. Maybe we need to think about blocking specific IP's?

[Tropical Island]

I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not as I would assume that the refferals in your logs would reflect www however when I want to see the USA results I use a proxy and the results mirror those on sj & zu.

These two servers have had their own independent reults since the change in the monthly updates. It is possible that they have a more English language slant rather than the multi-language set-up of the rest of the data centres.

[cabbie]

I also have up to 40 referrals from -sj on each of my sites.
I assumed that they must be using that datacenter sometimes to give their SERPS to the surfer.

[zeus]

Yep the same here, for a week or two also with search terms.

zeus

[bether2]

Yes, I've been getting hits from [www-sj.google.com...] also - over the past week or so. And they're not search terms that a competitor would use.

Beth

[Yidaki]

hehehe, this is funny ... when i saw this thread this morning i had a laugh and thought the phenomenon is just related to seo type searches / sites / buzz. However, out of couriosity i just did a quick check of the logs of one of my sites. The site is 100% unrelated to seo and guess what - i found one referer from sj. :) The search is neither directly targeted by me, nor by many people else, nor very popular, nor of any big commercial value, nor seo'd anywhere ...

However, my site that recorded the referer is a specialized directory and the searched word is found within the title/description of one of the listed sites in one of the categories. So i can imagine that one of these submission and seo service pages for newbie webmasters prob has a search box or something to check positions / rankings on the different data centers!? Maybe one of the webmasters checked his/her rankings and found his site through a listing at my site!? What's suspicous is that the user just did one additional click - he clicked the listed site and left.

gonna check my other sites - that is fun. (:

[plasma]

We have hits from sj since 11/Sep/2003
All of them are ordinary searches, nothing to worry about.

But it's strange, that the only "http://www-" referer is www-sj.

[ALbino]

I'm getting www-sj hits as well. 112 yesterday in fact, all of which look like legitimate surfers and not competitors.

[anallawalla]

www-sj is also known as the machine to use if you want to check the Adwords served to a US audience. I sometimes use it instead of my US proxy site.