"Results 1 to 35 of about 4" - one scenario that might trigger that effect

[g1smd]

Two days ago a new CMS went live that replaces an old one that had loads of canonical problems. Some content pages had upwards of 4 or 8 different URLs indexed, and some content pages could be returned for a near infinite number of different URLs.

The old CMS used horrible dynamic parameter-driven URLs and the new one uses short folder-like URL formats, and *all* canonicalisation factors have been taken into account.

There are a lots of sites to be moved over to the new CMS, but we started with the smallest -- so small that it doesn't really need a CMS (except that using the CMS has made it very easy for the owner to keep it updated).

The site was already fully indexed, and some content pages show under multiple URLs, because basic non-www to www canonicalisation and so on was only added a few months ago. Many of the really old non-canonical URLs are also still listed.

Now that the new CMS has been installed, and the old content reinstated, most of the old URLs in the SERPs (actually all except domain root) are now 301 redirects (from long and horrible dynamic, to short folder-lookalike URLs).

Last night Google reported "1 to 35 of about 8" for a site:domain.com search.

Today it shows "1 to 35 of 4". None of the new URLs are showing up yet (I expect they will in the next 24 to 36 hours).

So, their internal system "knows" that most of the URLs they already had are now redirects, and it seems that those URLs aren't now included as a part of the "site count" (the "of nnn" number).

I would guess that the URLs that now redirect are already moved over to Supplemental.

Hence...
"1 to 35" - what we are showing you
"of 4" - how many URLs that we think are "real" (200 OK).

Now I understand a bit more, I think.

I would expect the new URLs for content to start appearing tomorrow, or soon after.

[tedster]

One clear learning here is that the two numbers are pulled from different parts of the Google File System [labs.google.com]. Anyone curious for more information should read that page and the linked PDF there.

The GFS infrastructure has most probably been updated since that paper was written, but even a casual read will illustrate the complexity of pulling report information. The GFS is optimized for speed in generating search results - but secondary information such as pure "report" numbers seem to suffer quite often.

[g1smd]

Today, the behaviour is mixed.

Sometimes I get "1 to 35 of 35" and other times the lower number.

All listed URLs are the old type dynamic system.

[g1smd]

Even better, for site:domain.com I just got "1 to 25 of about 0 results" but with 25 entries actually listed.

For site:www.domian.com I get "1 to 33 of 33" and several of the new format URLs are listed at the top (after the root entry).

[youfoundjake]

g1smd, Can this be an out of sync experience from a search term result being pulled from 4 different DC's? (I say 4 because of the Firefox plugin that shows the IPs during a google search, mine are currently
74.125.19.99,74.125.19.103,74.125.19.104,74.125.19.147)

[g1smd]

According to MattCutts when I asked a couple of years ago, IPs all on the same Class-C are typically all the same datacentre and should usually all return the same results. In this case ShowIP is telling you the Class-C that you are connected to, and that there are four IP options. You are only talking to one of them; the other three are there for failover. ShowIP always shows between two and four IPs whenever you access Google. There's a list in the Google forum, updated back in June sometime.

[tedster]

The IP list is available in the Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page.

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