Odd Datacenter operation

single keyword exclusion, filter or penalty?

[microlinx]

I have been looking through the data center info posted my several users and I have a seemingly unique situation that I would like to share.

After ranking #1 on a specific niche keyword for 3+ years, I suddenly found my index page removed for just that keyword. Traffic seems to be the same, if not more, but here's the odd thing. In checking the c-block datacenters (group A & B), I am still listed in the #1 spot. Using any Google dance tool shows the same, #1 for that keyword.
Doing a site:mydomain.com reports the index page at the top.

I used Firefox with show IP installed and it reports google at 64.233.161.104 +2, not sure about the plus 2 part. Doing a search in that DC shows me gone, however...

If I type that IP into my browser, there I am! at #1 again.

The only dc I show reporting me as "not there" is gfe-dc.google.com.

So, it seems out of many google DC's reporting my site in #1 for a specific keyword, it is using datafrom only 1 DC.

I am simply asking to possibly shed some light on the why things happen the way they do on Google Datacenters. I suppose that's like asking why we exist. ;^D

[tedster]

So your report is that the actual google.com results are filtering out your url from the final results, but none of the IP addresses are. Sort of a "last minute filter" of some kind, correct?

not sure about the plus 2 part

That means that some of the information that you are seeing] is coming from two other IP addresses. Right click on the ShowIP report block and you'll see the other IPs.

[g1smd]

I saw a report at WebmasterWorld that gfe-dc was doing something different to the rest just in the last few days. I can't remember the context, and the report may have quoted the IP number rather than the GFE name. I do remember trying some tests there myself at the time too.

As for "ShowIP [jandittmer.de]", (*) it lists all the IPs that the domain can resolve to, and your results probably came from one of them. If it tries to access one and it isn't available at the time, then it will fail-over to one of the others in the list. (*) See my question dated 2006-07-03

When you visit by GFE name [webmasterworld.com], you will only ever see one IP address. When you use google.com you will see anything up to four IP addresses depending on which datacentre it is.

[microlinx]

Over the past few days the G-dance & mcdar tools show the keyword in question ranking the site at #1. This morning mcdar shows all c-block at 100. Yikes. Many other data centers are still showing #1.
G-dance still showing #1 across the board.

Insterestingly...when I contact friends around the country, they are reporting the #1 listing for the keyword, whereas from my locale it is no existent.

G1SMD: I checked many of those new datacenter IP's and if it shows the word "english". That's where the #1 rank resides. No english shown, keyword position is non-existent.

One would think all datacenters would server up the same results.
Any ideas on why this may be?

I guess this is a wait and see thing, but what really makes me wonder is why only my "veteran" old timer site seems to be singled out for these "tests". The rest of the results seem to be static.

On the bright side, daily traffic has not been negatively affected.
I'm not complaining, but this sure is strange.

As I always say "Enjoy it while it lasts, cause it never lasts"

Just a footnote, I am also showing variation in PR across many DC's.
Some kind of update appears to be in progress...at least on my domain.

[g1smd]

Google servers do not all serve the same results.

They usually have at least two different versions of their index in play at any one time, as well as several datacentres that are trying new things out.

They also serve different results based on the searchers location.

Direct IP access always gives the "Google English" search screen. Using the associated GFE server name for access does not.