Is Datacenter watching even more pointless now?

DC tool shows no variation on any DC's

[foolsgold]

Back in the old days, 2006 I think, when on a quiet day checking the datacenters using a well known (Scottish!) tool you would often get two or three 'sets' of results. This would give an indication of which way the SERPs were heading.

Now, in 2007, it seems the results are all the same all of the time. So are these DC's now showing the same results from one or a small number of similar DC's? Are other DC's available that may show the furture SERPs? Or are Google keeping things under wraps?

And are there any other tools showing more DC results with a variety of SERPs?

I know DC watching is sad but it was fun!

[M_Bison]

there are plenty of DCs that the Scotsman doesn't show.

In fact, I would now call the site a sample of the DCs, like if you were doing a survey, you might take a sample of 10 out a possible 100 people.

[caryl]

When using that tool, you should select "by C-Blocks" then use the drop down to select which group of C-Blocks you wish to search.

The C-Blocks listed are current and covers the more than 700 known datacenters. WW member g1smd explains it here:

[webmasterworld.com...]

... Matt Cutts confirms that all the data at all of the IP addresses within one Class-C block should usually be the same, as typically they are all the same datacentre.

So, Google probably consists of 44 large banks, or groups, of PCs, but there may be multiple unconnected banks within one building.

I find it enough to check just one IP from a Class-C block, and to check a few different Class-C blocks. There is no need to check all 700+ active IP addresses.

Caryl

[foolsgold]

Thanks very much Caryl. Makes more sense and I am getting some changes there. I do like a good watch of the DC's!