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Intervals between updates are becoming bigger; besides, last update, the complete migration from www2 and www3 to www took almost five full days.
Can that be an indicator that google is in need of more resources? Maybe more hardware, more connectivity, more human resources? Is there any way to tell I am right or wrong?
but I get the impression they're at least making the effort, which is all we can really ask :)
Geez Google, get on it or get out.
Chill out!
I really don't want an update that Google has had to rush out the door. When you consider that a possible cause for a delay is a failure in QA that might adversly affect YOUR site, you might want to cut them a little slack.
It might drive SEOs and webmasters nuts having to wait a couple of extra days, but I would bet that >99% of searchers would not notice the difference if Google cut their updates back to every 3-6 months.
Instead of getting wound up, consider it to be bonus time to work on your site before the next crawl.
but I would bet that >99% of searchers would not notice the difference if Google cut their updates back to every 3-6 months.
I totally disagree. When people are searching to research or purchase newly released products. If AltaVista has more information about the new '04 Corvette vs Google. The average user will think that AltaVista is a better search engine.
If Google wants to keep or increase its Search Engine market dominance. It needs to seriously consider this senario and address it properly, and the freshbot isnt doing it.
Chill out!
The vast majority of searching is informational, and most commercial searches aren't for the latest new product. I doubt a material number of public users would know or care if Google updated every 6 weeks. Now, if Google ever got to level of staleness Wisenut used to be, that would be a major issue.
People will most certainly notice if the new "anything" is listed at Alta Vista and not on Google! Freshness is a major, major, major ingredient in search technology.
[edited by: Liane at 3:41 am (utc) on April 8, 2003]
Don't get me wrong, fresher is better. But there are very few people that search for 2004 Corvette. People generally will be looking for information that is very recent that might not be covered even with the 1-2 month age of the current index, or stuff that is not time sensitive.
With freshbot active, searchers will not notice the difference of days or even months between updates. Look at the number of results you get for "severe acute respiratory syndrome". All of those results are fresh pages, even those without dates. If there was no update since the end of December, all those pages would still be there.
I don't believe that information would be accurate. According to a Google engineer that we (I and two others) interviewed earlier this year, Google has about 10,000 servers.
I don't believe that information would be accurate. According to a Google engineer that we (I and two others) interviewed earlier this year, Google has about 10,000 servers.
This would have been about October and I was doing a walk-through in the facility with my representative. He pointed to a huge area they had cleared out and were setting up cages for saying that Google was bringing in 33k servers to put there in the next month or so. I never saw the servers as they hadn't been placed there yet, but I see no reason for the guy to lie :) Maybe they had intended on doing it, but backed out? No idea. Either way, I'm perfectly happy with how Google works, and a 5 day turn around time to update my PR doesn't bother me in the least. I'm not sure what people want from a free search engine that literally provides most of our income. If people want to complain about lack of service I suggest they go to the PPC boards :)
With freshbot active, searchers will not notice the difference of days or even months between updates. Look at the number of results you get for "severe acute respiratory syndrome". All of those results are fresh pages, even those without dates. If there was no update since the end of December, all those pages would still be there.
Hmm, he said, >> If AltaVista has more information about the new '04 Corvette vs Google. The average user will think that AltaVista is a better search engine.
What are you reading into his statement that he didn't say? It's still about information and commercial information counts. You need to nuke the concept that people looking for information about Formula 44D make up the entire search market.
After all, this whole forum is dedicated to News and discussion for the advanced web professional. You could actually surmise from that professional bit that most people here are interested in making a buck on their sites and therefore aren't real concerned with the people that aren't buying goods or services.
By most accounts, Google owns 70-80% of the search referrals on the web today. Many of us feel they actually hold a significantly higher portion of referrals when you only considere the free listings. I feel they generate 90-95% of the free search engine referrals on the web today (when you include their affiliates such as Yahoo and AOL).
It seems to be working. The system is built and in place. The challenge isn't technical at this point (they win that contest 90% of the time), it's continuing with business expansion.
