Order of URLs in the site: operator results

[dibbern2]

Has anyone determined if there is a system to the order that pages are listed in a site: command? I am excluding the www.site/ or index page at the top of course.

Is it random?

In my own observations, it seems to correlate roughly with the amount of traffic each page receives, but I couldn't guess over what time measurement.

[g1smd]

It's not random.

I notice that if I redirect an already-listed URL, or 404 that URL, then within hours that the URL drops to the end of the list.

There's multiple things that affect the order.