Number of Google Search Results Down?

Is this just my sector or widespread?

[coosblues]

I noticed today that the number of search results for certain phrases in my area of interest have dropped drastically. One 2 word search had for years about 2 million results and I just noticed today that it was down to about 200 thousand. I can't say when the change happened, but was wondering if anyone else is noticing the same in your particular sectors. Could Google really be culling the results across the board, or is this just in certain areas?

[tedster]

I've noticed a few numbers going down for total search results, but nothing as dramatic as the 90% drop you're seeing.

For many technical reasons, those numbers are an estimate (they do say "about") and at times they vary quite a bit. With only 1,000 results ever being displayed, the method Google uses to get those numerical estimates from their widely sharded data is a bit of a mystery. Moving more urls into Supplemental could account for some drop, since supplemental urls are only partially indexed.

Anyone else seeing a drop of this magnitutde?

[PotteryCentre]

It's been a while for the search result to vary in a wide range.
My keywords SERP usually varying between 5M to 20M pages.

For this couple of weeks, as your observation, for me it's true there are lots of decreasing in number of pages for every keywords I monitor.

[ecmedia]

Google index is updating these days in real time. Watching this number is a "waste" of time - focus on on your website is my mantra.

[brettb]

I am seeing the same thing today. I am in California and the results are WAAAYYYYY down. For instance, results that were 50-60 million are now 5 million and results that were 2 million are now down to 232,000. Very strange. Just noticed it today. I am also noticing that my eastern clients are not showing up.

[Robert Charlton]

I've also noticed that the numbers have seemed oddly low on searches I've looked at recently.

Here are some historical figures on a two-word search I've monitored, taken from screen captures I've saved. Numbers and dates rounded off slightly...

01/20/06 - 20-million
06/15/06 - 90-million
09/30/06 - 20-million
06/30/07 - 30-million
06/30/07 - 30-million
08/15/07 - 33-million
10/01/07 - 2.5-million

Today's figure (and I assume other recent numbers) is dramatically lower. Clearly, Google has been poising for a big update. Not clear whether this is the future or an interim figure.

[Robert Charlton]

...
08/15/07 - 33-million
10/01/07 - 2.5-million

Just a note that the 2.5 million figure was apparently a temporary aberration, or else a work in progress. Today, 10/02/07, it's back to about 30-million.

[g1smd]

The 72.14.203.nnn block of IPs has entirely different results to all the other blocks for the last few days.

[Robert Charlton]

[72.14.203.123...] right now is showing 70-million results on my test phrase.

The "default" Google for my region is showing 5-million. Neither is close to the 30-million neighborhood the phrase has generally been showing.

I haven't determined exact IP for this Google page, but, using the sloppy method of hovering over the cache (and, yes, I know that the cache might be coming from a different IP), I'm seeing 72:14:253:104.

[g1smd]

The best way of seeing the IP is to use the Live HTTP Headers extension with Mozilla Seamonkey or with Firefox.

[Robert Charlton]

g1smd - Thanks for the Firefox extension suggestion.

I'm seeing 72:14:253:104

I also used sloppy typing. The above of course should have been 72.14.253.104

[gehrlekrona]

I am also seeing a lot less results returned, especially if you add a location to your search.
Where it used to be millions, it now returns a LOT less. Not sure it has anything to do with what you are searching for though :)

[g1smd]

Some have gone down. Some have gone up.

I'm watching the counts for the various ODP domains after the problems of the last few weeks were fixed - now watching the reindexing going on.

It's odd. One IP had shown the counts at treble the others all of yesterday, but that one has now halved... while the others, which were lower, went up by 30% or more.

Something is on the move, and I doubt much can be read into it for a week or two.

This might be related too: [mattcutts.com...]