They're at it again with the -sj server

different serps and backlinks

[waynet]

Looks like they are testing the www-sj.google.com server again. I see 384k backlinks for yahoo and the serps are different.

[trillianjedi]

I have no clue. :)

I know the feeling!

This one is unprecendented I think, which is why it's impossible to say whether or not it's a dance.

But the safe money has to be on "not a dance, and not the new index" because the probability of google doing a deep crawl and then not using the data, but going to some form of hybrid 2 month old index/freshbot results must be pretty low and certainly not worth updating the datacentres with.

The current index, if you ignore the freshbot additions on SJ, is more up to date.

TJ

[edited by: trillianjedi at 5:43 pm (utc) on May 2, 2003]

[denisl]

Are GoogleGuy and Brett having a siesta? They would normally be sorting us out by now

[born2drv]

I have to admit this sj thing looks pretty bad if it is the update.

Several never-seen-before sites somehow rose up to the top with virtually 100% guestbook backlinks. If that's what google's looking to reward that is not going to reflect well on them.

This must be some sort of testing datacenter, if it was actually live like some people speculated, they probably realized it was garbage and pulled it back to work on it more.

The fact GoogleGuy has not even responded in this thread further emphasises that it's not the update since he's usually so active, so I'm not worried at all :)

[rcjordan]

>normally be sorting us out by now

Oh really? I've missed that somehow, heh, heh, heh.

BTW, the sj results I've spot-checked range from slightly better to MUCH better.

[mfishy]

A lot of previously banned pages showing tops in the sj.

[skipfactor]

new PR showing when you put the data centers IP in your hosts file for toolbarqueries.com

I'm actually showing my old PR using "216.239.35.100 toolbarqueries.google.com" instead of "216.239.33.100 toolbarqueries.google.com".

I hope it's my old PR...

[johnser]

I think this is mainly old data & backlinks with some deep & fresh content mixed in.

Could it be the same (but slightly modified) update we saw last Sept & that we all liked so much.... Comments?

PR6 site now
113 www backlinks until Xmas
400 www backlinks currently

www rank is top 5 now
www-sj rank is 158 now

DMOZ description modified January
First update new description appeared was April

www-sj showing old DMOZ
www-sj showing backlink numbers from before Xmas

No tricks used on site
Decent content
Well optimised (Well, if sj stays just sj)

Would anyone like to speculate on my theory about this being related to last September's algo which got Google a lot of bad press?

Could they be using that algo but trying to do it a lot more slowly & including recent fresh & deep content?

Not a happy bunny here :(

[markusf]

well my pages indexed on SJ jumped from 329 to 394. But the really weird thing is results 180 - 394 are just pages and pages of links. There is no descriptions for the serps. So i don't see how this could be a real update.

[carlr]

I have a penalized website, and the results I see in SJ are the ones that I should get without penality.

Maybe it shows the index without any filters applied?

[born2drv]

Maybe they lifted penalties and opened the gates of hell for all previously banished sites so they are free to pillage the SERPs again :)

[monsterisp]

How do I check the "new" PR, I forgot which file to add the new -sj IP to.

Thanks ;)

[DavidT]

My penalised site of two months is back in, recent updates to internal pages are reflected in sj serps but the index page description is from pre-penalty times (2 months ago), am showing backlinks for the first time ever and my newly spidered incoming links are in. The two pages which I owned up to having tricky stuff on in my 'Reinclusion Request' are listed with only url, there but not really there.

[Pebbles]

C'mon...GoogleGuy & Brett....take 30 seconds of your time to give us some verbal Xanax.

[flashmastermak]

If I'm not mistaken Brett is in a boston pub

[monsterisp]

I'm actually showing my old PR using "216.239.35.100 toolbarqueries.google.com" instead of "216.239.33.100 toolbarqueries.google.com".

So which IP is the acutal one to worry/cheer about? (I guess the answer to that is being debated right now...

[Stefan]

My site is only about 80 pages now, up from about 50 pages 2 months ago. It looks to me like sj is showing the serps from the update before last, for my site. It sure isn't a new update. It's a snapshot of my serps from a couple of months ago.

[johnser]

Most GoogleGuy posts I've seen tend to happen about 3.30am so maybe he checks WW after work on the west coast?

[renee]

you can see GG's reply to the sj issue => [webmasterworld.com...]

What a mean sense of humor?!

[trillianjedi]

SJ seems back to normal to me now.

TJ

[Shoestring]

After checking the SJ server earlier, we were showing on average 2-3 positions higher on every key checked verses the current "live" Google... We were not in these positions months ago, plus some of the descriptions reflected recent updates to our pages, so it isn't old data.

By the same token, checking our backlinks showed a mere fraction of that found with the last update. Much lower total results for all the keys I checked, too.

I'd suspect they are tinkering, for whatever it is worth... Considering our positions in the serps, however, I would not mind seeing it stick!

[djgreg]

I think what carlr said could be true somehow.
This could be an index with all filters disabled.
I also have one site that is penalised by Google since 3 years and now it is showing in sj on Top Positions.
Maybe the penalty was removed (would make me very happy) or we see a non-filtered index on www-sj

[Jammy_James]

Maybe you guys are just looking at your own search terms, look at the broader picture and check other subjects. To joe searcher the results on SJ will look fine and in my particualr catagory have only seen the demise of sites using rather suspicious backlinks anyway, perhaps this is a test but a test having taken our certain algorithams re dubious backlinks

[panos]

google.it is showing serps from the sj datacenter right now...

its full of spam
i believe people are loosing money everytime G switches to sj
if this is going to fight spam its ok for me but right now
users ARE CLICKING ON SPAM

cheers

[renee]

my new sites that appeared in sj are showing no pagerank! This means the results are from the freshbot, not the deep crawl!

[soapystar]

on -sj im #40, on .it im #5!

[dmedia]

Is it just me .. or does the main G now appear to be delivering the type of results that we've been pondering on the sj-G?

Better question .. did what I just type make ANY sense?

[mrguy]

For my site, it wiped out half the backlinks. Not one of those links was dubious, they were all themed, and not from link farms.

I've also, noticed a few sites that had say 700 or so links now suddently have over 100K back links. The funny thing is those links have nothing to do with linking to the site, they just happen to have the word in it.

Just an observation that I feel while this may some test, it does not reflect the true back links so any results your seeing will greatly change once the true links are factored in.

[twilight47]

Longest thread...everrrr.

[GoogleGuy]

Hey, I'll be happy to ask around here about SJ.

[needinfo]

GG
Trying not to read too much into those few words... but I personally presume from what you just said that the sj results are NOT the start of the dance.