Is there an updated definition on how the google datacenters interact?

Empirically what's happening doesn't seem to match the WebmasterWorld FAQ.

[crowthercm]

Q: [Updates] What is www2.google.com or www3.google.com?
A: Google has several data centers around the world composed of atleast 10,000 individual personal computers. When Google updates it's index (copies the index throughout the system), there is a "staging area" for the new index on www2.google.com and www3.google.com. You can watch the new index migrate from www2 or www3 to the standard www.google.com.
This process of migration, usually takes 2-4 days and will appear to fluctuate between the three wwwX.google.coms.

Hello, I've recently become interested in comparing the various data centers. On one particular query, I've been doing quite well on www2 and www3. This has been going on for about 3-4 weeks now with no changes in the listings (i.e. www3 and www3 remain the same) and the changes have yet to hit www.

Did the way datacenters work and interact change at all after teh dance died? Can someone point me towards some useful resources or threads as well please?

Thanks,
Chris

[crowthercm]

Can www2 and www3 be used at all anymore to infer meaning? I am seeing quite a bit of discussion about this type of thing but I'm not sure what it means.

query format: "link:example.com"

ex: 90
sj: n/a
va: 90
dc: 90
ab: 38
in: 38
zu: 38
cw: 90
fi: 90
gv: 90
alltheweb.com: 311

What was the name of the new (11th) datacenter again?

Are these the new datacenters or just another way of refering to the same ones (1-11)? Can I use them to get a "sneak peak" of what's coming for the SERPS like www2 and www3 used to allow? I'm seeing great SERPS results for my site in www2 and www3 but they haven't migrated to www in close to a month now...

[lazerzubb]

[kaled]

There are at least two more data centers being KR and MC.

I just did a couple of very quick visual tests on www2 and www3 and both appeared to be returning the same results as www.

Kaled.

[crowthercm]

Hm, yes looking at the results I'm using for the www, www2, and www3, they are all nearly identical. With the exception that my site's page is missing from the results on www. This has been going on for almost 1 month now, in fact the page in question started at #14 and has slowly been climbing. It is now at position #9 but as far as I can tell it's never migrated to www. In fact, the page isn't on www at all yet, it's completely absent. Is this good news?

[AthlonInside]

Hehe, that was the OLD days when we talked about www2 and www3! :)

Traditional dance usually takes a few days to complete and it begins with www2 and www3.

Today, there are no more significant dance. What our eyes can see is a change of backlinks (a bit of SERPs) which occured somehow, hmmm, within a day in all datacenters!

SERPs seems to change more on an ongoing basis - the continuos update.

AND ... the FAQ is written long long time ago. :) Everything that applies 4 months ago might not be useful today. The FAQ should be older than 4 months I think.