searching list archive via Google gone wrong

Sivakatirswami katir at hindu.org
Sat Oct 21 05:58:48 EDT 2006


This is a bit OT, (pushed one of my buttons...) Is it just me that 
senses this?:  that as Google is getting bigger and bigger I'm seeing 
it's indexing of any given asset on the net is getting spottier and 
spottier. There is one group of minds that is so entralled with this 
behmoth they believe it must know every page of every site it crawls, I 
can assure this was once the case, but is no longer. In the case of our 
sites, three years ago, a search  term found *every* instance on our 
www.hinduismtoday.com site... but not today... though the archives have 
not changed.

Meanwhile some web teams are breaking their heads asking "why is Google 
not delivering hits for X number of pages on our site for a given search 
term, when it appears that it is crawling our site from top to bottom?" 
  They take it on themselves, since "Google can do no wrong,"  so it 
must be something that "we have to fix on our site."...   Web admins are 
now Google serfs. Again -- as with cross platform browser coding, -- 
putting manhours into feeding yet another glittering web techno beast 
instead of building meaningful content... Meanwhile my gut feeling is: 
Google clearly will always keep the carrot just a bit ahead of the 
donkey--no matter what you do, their index of your site will not be 100% 
complete-perfect.

Can anyone confirm this perception?  I would love to be proved wrong: it 
goes  to strategy, a) depend on a Google search link on your site, for 
your  own site, b) set up you own search engine (HT DIG). c) pay Google 
the big  bucks to index your site completely.

OK this is now *way* OT... if you have thoughts or hard information on 
this area... email me off list.

Sivakatirswami


Bernard Devlin wrote:
> Mostly, I don't ask for help on this list because I have found that 
> searching the archive via Google usually brings an answer (that and the 
> great documentation esp. in earlier versions of Rev - trust me, after 
> struggling with Applescript last week, I really, really appreciate both 
> xTalk and the Rev docs more).
> 
> Anyway, I've noticed recently that a) Google searches of the list seem 
> to be bringing up useful results less and less often.  Maybe my needs 
> are changing, but in any case there is definitely something wrong with 
> the Google results.  Clicking on a returned result takes one to an entry 
> in the list, but it is the wrong entry.  Clicking on Google's cached 
> copy of that page takes one to the right page.
> 
> I don't know if the problem is Google's or Runrev's.  But I just thought 
> I'd bring it up, in case anyone else has noticed anything strange.
> 
> Bernard Devlin
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